Piet Hein Quotes

A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Stomach-ache can be a curse;
heart-ache may be even worse;
so thank Heaven on your knees
if you've got but one of these.

Problems worthy of attack
prove their worth by fighting back.

Love is like a pineapple, sweet and undefinable.

People are self-centered to a nauseous degree. They will keep on about themselves while I'm explaining me.

It ought to be plain how little you gain
by getting excited and vexed.
You'll always be late for the previous train,
and always on time for the next.

A WORD TO THE WISE

Let the world pass in its time-ridden race;
never get caught in its snare.
Remember, the only acceptable case
for being in any particular place
is having no business there.

Co-existence or no existence.

Freedom means you're free to do just whatever pleases you; — if, of course that is to say, what you please is what you may.

As Eternity has reckoned
There's a lifetime in a second

Man is the animal that draws lines which he himself then stumbles over. In the whole pattern of civilization there have been two tendencies, one toward straight lines and rectangular patterns and one toward circular lines. There are reasons, mechanical and psychological, for both tendencies. Things made with straight lines fit well together and save space. And we can move easily — physically or mentally — around things made with round lines. But we are in a straitjacket, having to accept one or the other, when often some intermediate form would be better.

WHO IS LEARNED? A definition

One who, consuming midnight oil
in studies diligent and slow,
teaches himself, with painful toil,
the things that other people know.

En blomst ved min elskedes seng har jeg sat, // en rose, der rødmende stod der i nat. // Først faldt der er et blad og så to os og fler, // nu tror den vist ikke på knopskydning mer.

True wisdom knows it must comprise some nonsense as a compromise, lest fools should fail to find it wise.

Knowing what
Thou knowest not
Is in a sense
Omniscience.

PRESCRIPTION

A bit
of virtue
will never
hurt you.