Quotes from Piet Hein

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

The road to wisdom?—Well, it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less.

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

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.

Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by fighting back.

Put up in a place where it is 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.

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

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.

Art is solving problems that cannot be formulated before they have been solved. The shaping of the question is part of the answer.

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.

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.

THE ROAD TO WISDOM The road to wisdom? -- Well, it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less.

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

MEETING THE EYE You'll probably find that it suits your book to be a bit cleverer than you look. Observe that the easiest method by far is to look a bit stupider than you are.

WHAT PEOPLE MAY THINK Some people cower and wince and shrink, owing to fear of what people may think. There is one answer to worries like these: people may think what the devil they please.

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.

I'd like to know what this whole show is all about before it's out.

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.

Knowing what Thou knowest not Is in a sense Omniscience.

Nobody can be lucky all the time, so when your luck deserts you in some fashion don't think you've been abandoned in your prime, but rather that you're saving up your ration.

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

CANDLE WISDOM If you knew what you will know when your candle has burnt low, it would greatly ease your plight while your candle still burns bright.

TIMING TOAST Grook on how to char for yourself There's an art of knowing when. Never try to guess. Toast until it smokes and then twenty seconds less.

What Love Is Like Love is like a pineapple, sweet and undefinable.