Piet Hein Quotes

PRESCRIPTION

A bit
of virtue
will never
hurt you.

THE FINAL TOUCH
Portrait of nobody in particular

Idiots are really
one hundred per cent
when they are also
intelligent.

ON PROBLEMS

Our choicest plans
have fallen through,
our airiest castles
tumbled over,
because of lines
we neatly drew
and later neatly
stumbled over.

SMALL THINGS
& GREAT

He that lets
the small things bind him
leaves the great
undone behind him.

ABREAST

He who aims
to keep abreast
is for ever
second best.

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.

Mankind

Men, said the Devil,
are good to their brothers:
they don’t want to mend
their own ways, but each other's.

Living is
a thing you do
now or never — which do you?

DREAM INTERPRETATION Simplified.

Everything's either
concave or -vex,
so whatever you dream
will be something with sex.

REFLECTION ON SIZE

Small people often overrate
the charm of being tall;
which is, that you appreciate
the charm of being small.

BRAVE

To be brave is to behave
bravely when your heart is faint.
So you can be really brave
only when you really ain't.

VITA BREVIS

A lifetime
is more
than
sufficiently long
for people to get what there is of it
wrong.

Hvis man regner med belønning for sin godhed, er det ikke godhed, men beregning.

THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF GASTRONOMY

There's a rule for proper doses
in the dinner-eaters lore:
one should stop the filling process
while one still has room for more.

And if someone at the table
had reminded me before -
Hallelujah! I'd be able
to absorb a little more.

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.