Piet Hein (1905 – 1996)
Danish mathematician, scientist, inventor, and poet.
Problems worthy
of attack
prove their worth
by hitting back.
The universe may
be as great as they say.
But it wouldn't be missed
if it didn't exist.
As eternity
is reckoned
there's a lifetime
in a second.
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 is like
a pineapple,
sweet and
undefinable.
Foes
of what's cooking
see no worth behind it.
Those
that are looking
for nothing — will find it.
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.
We shall have to evolve
problem-solvers galore —
since each problem they solve
creates ten problems more.
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.
A bit beyond perception's reach
I sometimes believe I see
that Life is two locked boxes, each
containing the other's key.
Living is
a thing you do
now or never —
which do you?
There is
one art,
no more,
no less:
to do
all things
with art-
lessness.
The noble art of losing face
may some day save the human race
and turn into eternal merit
what weaker minds would call disgrace.
Naive you are
if you believe
life favours those
who aren't naive.
People are self-centered
to a nauseous degree.
They will keep on about themselves
while I'm explaining me.
To be and not to be, that is the answer.
True wisdom knows
it must comprise
some nonsense
as a compromise,
lest fools should fail
to find it wise.
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.
Somebody said
that Reason was dead.
Reason said: No,
I think not so.
Men, said the Devil,
are good to their brothers:
they don’t want to mend
their own ways, but each other's.