Piet Hein Quotes

The road to wisdom? Well it's plain And simple to express: Err And err And err again But less And less And less.
Piet Hein
If no thought your mind does visit make your speech not too explicit.
Piet Hein
The road to wisdom? Well it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again. But less and less and less.
Piet Hein
Nobody can be lucky all the time,so when your luck deserts you in some fashiondon't think you've been abandoned in your prime,but rather that you're saving up your ration.
Piet Hein
As Eternity has reckonedThere's a lifetime in a second
Piet Hein
Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,and you're hampered by not having any,the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find, is simply by spinning a penny.No - not so that chance shall decide the affairwhile you're passively standing there moping; but the moment the penny is up in the air,you suddenly know what you're hoping.
Piet Hein
WHAT PEOPLE MAY THINKSome people cowerand wince and shrink,owing to fear ofwhat people may think.There is one answerto worries like these:people may thinkwhat the devil they please.
Piet Hein
PRESCRIPTION A bitof virtuewill neverhurt you.
Piet Hein
A PSYCHOLOGICAL TIPWhenever you're called on to make up your mind,and you're hampered by not having any,the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,is simply by spinning a penny.No -- not so that chance shall decide the affairwhile you're passively standing there moping;but the moment the penny is up in the air,you suddenly know what you're hoping.
Piet Hein
MankindMen, said the Devil,are good to their brothers:they don’t want to mendtheir own ways, but each other's.
Piet Hein
ON PROBLEMSOur choicest planshave fallen through,our airiest castlestumbled over,because of lineswe neatly drewand later neatlystumbled over.
Piet Hein
Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back.
Piet Hein
BRAVETo be brave is to behavebravely when your heart is faint.So you can be really brave only when you really ain't.
Piet Hein
VITA BREVIS A lifetimeis morethansufficiently longfor people to get what there is of itwrong.
Piet Hein
THE CURE FOR EXHAUSTIONSometimes, exhaustedwith toil and endeavour,I wish I could sleepfor ever and ever;but then this reflectionmy longing allays:I shall be doing itone of these days.
Piet Hein
ASTRO-GYMNASTICSGo on a starlit night, stand on your head,leave your feet dangling outwards into space,and let the starry firmament you treadbe, for the moment, your elected base.Feel Earth's colossal weight of ice and granite,of molten magma, water, iron, and lead;and briefly hold this strangely solid planetbalanced upon your strangely solid head.
Piet Hein
CANDLE WISDOM If you knewwhat you will knowwhen your candlehas burnt low,it would greatlyease your plightwhile your candlestill burns bright.
Piet Hein
THE WISDOM OF THE SPHERESHow instructiveis a star!It can teach usfrom afarjust how smalleach other are.
Piet Hein
THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF GASTRONOMY There's a rule for proper dosesin the dinner-eaters lore:one should stop the filling processwhile one still has room for more. And if someone at the tablehad reminded me before -Hallelujah! I'd be ableto absorb a little more.
Piet Hein
Losing one glove is certainly painful,but nothing compared to the pain,of losing one, throwing away the other,and finding the first one again.
Piet Hein
WHO IS LEARNED? A definition One who, consuming midnight oilin studies diligent and slow,teaches himself, with painful toil,the things that other people know.
Piet Hein
PRAYER to the sun above the clouds.Sun that givest all things birth,shine on everything on earth!If that's too much to demand,shine at least on this our land.If even that's too much for thee,shine at any rate on me.
Piet Hein
Living isa thing you donow or never --which do you?
Piet Hein
DREAM INTERPRETATION Simplified.Everything's eitherconcave or -vex,so whatever you dreamwill be something with sex.
Piet Hein
Art is solving problems that cannot be formulated before they have been solved. The shaping of the question is part of the answer.
Piet Hein
After all, what is art? Art is the creative process and it goes through all fields. Einstein’s theory of relativity – now that is a work of art! Einstein was more of an artist in physics than on his violin.Art is this: art is the solution of a problem which cannot be expressed explicitly until it is solved.
Piet Hein
Put up in a placewhere it is easy to seethe cryptic admonishmentT.T.TWhen you feel how depressinglyslowly you climbit's well to remember thatThings Take Time.
Piet Hein
Lovers meander in prose and rhyme,trying to say-for the thousandth time-what's easier done than said.
Piet Hein
A WORD TO THE WISELet the world pass in its time-ridden race; never get caught in its snare.Remember, the only acceptable casefor being in any particular place is having no business there.
Piet Hein
Nature, it seems, is the popular namefor milliards and milliards and milliardsof particles playing their infinite gameof billiards and billiards and billiards.
Piet Hein