My favorite Grooks by Piet Hein

ARS BREVIS

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



PROBLEMS

Problems worthy
  of attack
prove their worth
  by hitting back.


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.


THE ETERNAL TWINS

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


AN ODE TO MODESTY

Talking of successful rackets
modesty deserves a mention.
Exclamation marks in brackets
never fail to draw attention.

OMNISCIENCE

Knowing what
thou knowest not
is in a sense
omniscience.


NAIVE --

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


ON PROBLEMS

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


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.


A MAXIM FOR VIKINGS

Here is a fact
   that should help you fight
      a bit longer:
Things that don't act-
   ually kill you outright
      make you stronger.



I'D LIKE --

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


MISSING LINK

Man's a kind
of Missing Link,
fondly thinking
he can think.


CONSOLATION GROOK

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.


GROOK ON LONG-WINDED AUTHORS

Long-winded writers I abhor,
    and glib, prolific chatters;
give me the ones who tear and gnaw
    their hair and pens to tatters:
who find their writing such a chore
    they only write what matters.


A MOMENT'S THOUGHT

As eternity
is reckoned
there's a lifetime
in a second.


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.


THAT IS THE QUESTION
Hamlet Anno Domini.

Co-existence
or no existence.



LIVING IS --

Living is
   a thing you do
now or never --
   which do you?



MEMENTO VIVERE

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



ABREAST

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



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.


LOSING FACE

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


A PSYCHOLOGICAL TIP

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.


LAST THINGS FIRST 

Solutions to problems
 are easy to find:
the problem's a great
 contribution.
What's truly an art
 is to wring from your mind
a problem to fit
 a solution.



ON BEING ONESELF
Good resolution grook

If virtue
can't be mine alone
at least my faults
can be my own.


THE CASE FOR OBSCURITY
On Thoughts and Words I.

If no thought
your mind does visit,
make your speech
not too explicit.


VITA BREVIS 

A lifetime
is more
than
sufficiently long
for people to get what there is of it
wrong.


ORIGINALITY 

Original thought
 is a straightforward process.
It's easy enough
 when you know what to do.
You simply combine
 in appropriate doses
the blatantly false
 and the patently true.


NOTHING IS INDESPENSABLE
Grook to warn the universe against megalomania

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


INVESTMENT POLICY

Anxieties yield
at a negative rate,
increasing in smallness
the longer they wait.


SMALL THINGS AND GREAT

He that lets
the small things bind him
leaves the great
undone behind him.


MAKING AN EFFORT

Our so-called limitations, 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.


WIDE ROAD

To make a name for learning 
when other roads are barred,
take something very easy
and make it very hard.