Piet Hein

Man is the animal that draws lines which he himself then stumbles over.

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

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

• 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

• 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.
  • 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.

External links

• Piet Hein's Homepage
• The man who wrote 10000 Grooks
• Hex: The Inventors (see also: John Forbes Nash)