Piet Hein

Piet Hein (16 December 1905 – 18 April 1996) was a Danish mathematician, scientist, inventor, and poet. He often wrote using the pseudonym Kumbel (Old Norse for "tombstone").

Quotes



 * 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.
 * As quoted in Man Creates Art Creates Man (1973) by Duane Preble, p. 14
 * Variant translation: Art is solving problems that cannot be formulated before they have been solved. The shaping of the question is part of the answer.
 * As quoted in Architecture: form, space, and order (2007) by Francis D.K. Ching, p. ix


 * 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.
 * As quoted in Scandinavian Review (2003), by the American-Scandinavian Foundation, p. 18

Grooks

 * "Grooks" was the name Hein devised for his short pithy poems, which he published in over 20 volumes. Hein's mother tongue was Danish, but he translated his poems to English, German, Spanish and a number of other languages. Some grooks online

is certainly painful, but nothing compared to the pain, of losing one, throwing away the other, and finding the first one again.
 * Losing one glove
 * Consolation Grook, his first grook, published in Politiken (April 1940) as translated in Grooks (1966)


 * There is one art, no more, no less: to do all things with art- lessness.
 * Ars Brevis


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


 * As eternity is reckoned there's a lifetime in a second.
 * A Moment's Thought


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


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


 * Somebody said that Reason was dead. Reason said: No, I think not so.
 * Dead Reasonable


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


 * Problems worthy of attack prove their worth by hitting back.
 * Problems


 * 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.
 * T.T.T. (Acronym in Danish: Ting Tager Tid)


 * 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 Road to Wisdom?


 * The way to grow grand is not: to demand. In life's every field you are what you yield.
 * What Are You?


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


 * 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.
 * Freedom


 * The universe may be as great as they say. But it wouldn't be missed if it didn't exist.
 * Nothing Is Indespensable : Grook to warn the universe against megalomania


 * 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.
 * Simply Assisting God


 * 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
 * A Psychological Tip


 * Co-existence or no existence.
 * That Is The Question : Hamlet Anno Domini


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


 * Those who always know what’s best are a universal pest.
 * Those Who Know


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


 * Foes of what's cooking see no worth behind it. Those that are looking for nothing — will find it.
 * Look And Thou Shalt Find


 * if you possess more than just eight things then y o u are possessed by t h e m
 * The Tyranny Of Things


 * Giving in is no defeat. Passing on is no retreat. Selves are made to rise above. You shall live in what you love.
 * The Me Above The Me


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


 * We shall have to evolve problem-solvers galore — since each problem they solve creates ten problems more.
 * The Only Solution


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


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


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


 * Shun advice at any price - that's what I call good advice.
 * Good Advice


 * True wisdom knows it must comprise some nonsense as a compromise, lest fools should fail to find it wise.
 * Lest Fools Should Fail


 * Idiots are really one hundred per cent when they are also intelligent.
 * The Final Touch : Portrait of nobody in particular

Misattributed

 * To be and not to be, that is the answer.
 * This witticism derived from William Shakespeare's line "To be or not to be; that is the question" in Hamlet, has sometimes been attributed to Hein, but also to many others. The earliest occurrence so far located in research for Wikiquote was published in A Calendar of Doubts and Faiths (1930) by William Marias Malisoff.