Hein Quotes & Sayings

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 Pieterszoon Hein

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

Larry Hein, who wrote the blessing: May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God who is Father, Son, and Spirit — Brennan Manning

I could stare at the books ... until my were as dry & fuzzy as the text, but I still didn't know what to do with my feelings. — Elizabeth Hein

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. — Piet Hein

You should not try to live without thinking and feeling, for then you are only a piece of machinery, not a human being. Even if it hurts. Even if the thing you have to think of are sad, think them through; live them through and write or tell me. Only when we completely work through our thinking and feeling do we live a full life. ~From a letter to Diet Eman from Hein Sietsma — Diet Eman

The universe may be as great as they say. But it wouldn't be missed if it didn't exist. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

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

Taking fun as simply fun and earnestness in earnest shows how thoroughly thou none of the two discernest. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

The road to publication can be rough, take snacks and a friend. — Elizabeth Hein

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. — Piet Hein

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. — Piet Hein

German navy had its own tradition of assigning nicknames. One very tall commander was nicknamed Seestiefel, or sea boot. Another had a reputation for smelling bad and thus was nicknamed Hein Schniefelig, or stinky person. A third was said to be "very childish and good-natured" and was commonly called Das Kind, the child. — Erik Larson

We shall have to evolve problem-solvers galore since each problem they solve creates ten problems more. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

MAKING AN EFFORT
Our so-called limitations, I believe,
apply to faculties we don't apply.
We don't discover what we can't achieve
until we make an effort not to try. — Piet Hein

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

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. — Piet Hein

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

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

Life is like a film screen: pictures come, make an impression, go, and then make a place for new pictures with new impressions which obscure the previous ones. Some of those old pictures fade, but the impressions they leave will never pass away. Such an impression is the image of Hein Sietsma
a joyful Christian who loved life so much but was still willing to give it to the great, good, and holy cause. — Diet Eman

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

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. — Piet Hein

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

PRESCRIPTION

A bit
of virtue
will never
hurt you. — Piet Hein

Knowing what / Thou knowest not / Is in a sense / Omniscience. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist (1905-1996) — Piet Hein

If no thought your mind does visit, make your speech not too explicit. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

Myth is mecessary because reality is so much larger than rationality. — Rolland Hein

THE CURE FOR EXHAUSTION
Sometimes, exhausted
with toil and endeavour,
I wish I could sleep
for ever and ever;
but then this reflection
my longing allays:
I shall be doing it
one of these days. — Piet Hein

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

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

As Eternity has reckoned There's a lifetime in a second — Piet Hein

I am a humble artist moulding my earthly clod, adding my labour to nature's, simply assisting God. Not that my labour is needed, yet somehow I understand, my Maker has deemed it that I too should have Unmoulded clay in my hand. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

Lovers meander in prose and rhyme,
trying to say-
for the thousandth time-
what's easier done than said. — Piet Hein

ASTRO-GYMNASTICS
Go on a starlit night,
stand on your head,
leave your feet dangling
outwards into space,
and let the starry
firmament you tread
be, 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 planet
balanced upon
your strangely solid head. — Piet Hein

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. — Piet Hein

Professor Einstein says that time differs from place to place. Can you imagine? If time is not true, what purpose have watchmakers, hein? — Alan Moore

THE FINAL TOUCH
Portrait of nobody in particular
Idiots are really
one hundred per cent
when they are also
intelligent. — Piet Hein

SMALL THINGS
& GREAT
He that lets
the small things bind him
leaves the great
undone behind him. — Piet Hein

Luther labeled as theologies of glory all distortions of the Gospel that would promise the Christian elements of glory in this life if he will perfect or offer spiritual things that deserve God's favor. — Steven A. Hein

To be and not to be, that is the answer. — Piet Pieterszoon 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

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. — Piet Hein

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

Wisdom is the booby prize given when you've been unwise. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

This sacrifice of a pawn nowadays is only played for drawing purposes. Especially against the very strongest masters it has proved to be quite useful to this end. — Jan Hein Donner

Here is a fact
that should help you fight
a bit stronger
Things that don't
actually kill you outright
make you stronger.
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.
Problems worthy
of attack
prove their worth
by hitting back! — Piet Hein

There is one art, no more, no less; to do all things with artlessness. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

Co-existence or no existence. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

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. — Piet Hein

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

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. — Piet Hein

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

Love is like a pineapple, sweet and undefinable. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

DREAM INTERPRETATION Simplified.
Everything's either
concave or -vex,
so whatever you dream
will be something with sex. — Piet Hein

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

Hint And Suggestion : Admonitory grook addressed to youth
The human spirit sublimates
the impulses it thwarts;
a healthy sex life mitigates
the lust for other sports. — Piet Hein

Chess is and will always be a game of chance. — Jan Hein Donner

Life is like Tetris; if it doesn't fit, just flip it over — Sabine Hein

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

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

It's a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on ... it's all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it 'Jumping the Shark.' From that moment on, the program will simply never be the same. — Jon Hein

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. — Piet Hein

REFLECTION ON SIZE
Small people often overrate
the charm of being tall;
which is, that you appreciate
the charm of being small. — Piet Hein

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

VITA BREVIS
A lifetime
is more
than
sufficiently long
for people to get what there is of it
wrong. — Piet Hein

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

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. — Piet Hein

A bit beyond perceptions reach I sometimes believe I see that life is two locked boxes each containing the other's key — Piet Hein

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 — 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

We ought to live each day as though it were our last day here below. But if I did, alas, I know it would have killed me long ago. — Piet Hein

Art is always of fixed, determined solutions - not things that might as well be different. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

When you feel how depressingly slowly you climb, it's well to remember that Things Take Time. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

It isn't enough to exasperate others. You have to remember to gladden yourself! — Piet Hein

THE WISDOM OF THE SPHERES
How instructive
is a star!
It can teach us
from afar
just how small
each other are. — Piet Hein

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

Wherever there is a single solution, that solution must always achieve some kind of maximum. — Piet Pieterszoon Hein

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