Piet Hein Quotes

36 Sourced Quotes

Wisdom is
the booby prize
given when you've been
unwise.

Piet Hein
Shun advice
at any price -
that's what I call
good advice.

Piet Hein
A bit beyond perception's reach
I sometimes believe I see
that Life is two locked boxes, each
containing the other's key.

Piet Hein
The way to grow grand
is not: to demand.
In life's every field
you are what you yield.

Piet Hein
Those who always
know what's best
are
a universal pest.

Piet Hein
Put up in a place
where it's easy to see
the cryptic admonishment T. T. T. When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time.

Piet Hein
As eternity
is reckoned
there's a lifetime
in a second.

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

Piet Hein
If you posses
more than just eight things
then y o u
are possessed by t h e m

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

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

Piet Hein
Foes
of what's cooking
see no worth behind it.
Those
that are looking
for nothing — will find it.

Piet Hein
Naive you are
if you believe
life favours those
who aren't naive.

Piet Hein
Somebody said
that Reason was dead.
Reason said: No,
I think not so.

Piet Hein
Love while you've got
love to give.
Live while you've got
life to live.

Piet Hein
The noble art of losing face
may some day save the human race
and turn into eternal merit
what weaker minds would call disgrace.

Piet Hein
Nature, it seems is the popular name for milliards and milliards and milliards of particles playing their infinite game of billiards and billiards and billiards.

Piet Hein
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.

Piet Hein
They're busy making bigger roads,
and better roads and more,
so that people can discover
even faster than before
that everything is everywhere alike.

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 affair
while 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
The universe may
be as great as they say.
But it wouldn't be missed
if it didn't exist.

Piet Hein
Problems worthy
of attack
prove their worth
by hitting back.

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
Love is like
a pineapple,
sweet and
undefinable.

Piet Hein
There is
one art,
no more,
no less:
to do
all things
with art-
lessness.

Piet Hein
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.

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

Piet Hein
Experts have
their expert fun
ex cathedra
telling one
just how nothing
can be done.

Piet Hein
After all, what is art? drawing something an coloring 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