Piet Hein

Question 1

I see
 and I hear
   and I speak no evil;
I carry
 no malice
   within my breast;
yet quite without
 wishing
   a man to the Devil
...

Answer 1

one may be
permitted
to hope for the best.

Question 2

One paramount truth
our society smothers
in petty concern
with position and pelf:
It isn't enough
to exasperate others;
you've got to remember
...

Answer 2

to gladden yourself.

Question 3

Some people cower
and wince and shrink,
owing to the fear of
what people may think.
There is one answer
to worries like these:
...

Answer 3

people may think

what the devil they please.

Question 4

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
…

Answer 4

Things Take Time.

Question 5

You’ll probably find
that it suits your book
to be a bit cleverer
than you look.

Observe that the easiest
method by far
…

Answer 5

is to look a bit stupider

than you are.

Question 6

The heavens are draining,
it's raining and raining,
and everything couldn't be wetter,
and things are so bad
that we ought to be glad:
...

Answer 6

because now they can only get better.

Question 7

We ought to live
each day as though
it were our last day
here below.

But if I did, alas,
I know
…

Answer 7

it would have killed me

long ago.

Question 8

Our so-called limitations, believe,
apply to faculties we don’t apply.
We don’t discover what we can’t achieve
…

Answer 8

until we make an effort not to try.

Question 9

Philosophers
must ultimately find
their true perfection

in knowing all
the follies of mankind
…

Answer 9

-by introspection.

Question 10

To be brave is to behave
bravely when your heart is faint.
So you can be really brave
…

Answer 10

only when you really ain’t.

Question 11

To make a name for learning
when other roads are barred,
take something very easy
…

Answer 11

and make it very hard.

Question 12

Love while you’ve got
love to give.
Live while you’ve got
…

Answer 12

life to live.

Question 13

No cow’s like a horse,
and no horse’s like a cow.
…

Answer 13

That’s one similarity, anyhow.

Question 14

Anxieties yield
at a negative rate,
increasing in smallness
…

Answer 14

the longer they wait.

Question 15

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

Answer 15

with art-

lessness

Question 16

Shun advice
at any price -
that’s what I call
…

Answer 16

good advice

Question 17

Problems worthy
of attack
prove their worth
…

Answer 17

by hitting back

Question 18

If virtue
can’t be mine alone
at least my faults
…

Answer 18

can be my own.

Question 19

He who aims
to keep abreast
..

Answer 19

is for ever

second best.

Question 20

People are self-centered
to a nauseous degree.
…

Answer 20

They will keep on about themselves

while I’m explaining me.

Question 21

On Thoughts and Words I. 
If no thought
your mind does visit,
make your speech
...

Answer 21

not too explicit.

Question 22

We are taught to live,
we are
taught to feel.
We are taught to conform and conceal.

  We are taught so well
  what we
     ought to feel ...

Answer 22

that we cannot feel what we feel.

Question 23

To many people artists seem
 undisciplined and lawless.
Such laziness, with such great gifts,
 seems little short of crime.
One mystery is how they make
 the things they make so flawless;
another, what they're doing with
...

Answer 23

their energy and time.

Question 24

You draw
the near things
 nearer
by making
clear things
 ...

Answer 24

queerer.

Question 25

I concentrate on
 the concentric rings
produced by my pen
 in the ink.
The thing that distinguishes
 thoughts from things
...

Answer 25

is that thoughts are harder

to think.

Question 26

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

Answer 26

a problem to fit

a solution.

Question 27

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

Answer 27

the blatantly false

and the patently true.

Question 28

Wisdom is
the booby prize
given when you’ve been
..

Answer 28

unwise.

Question 29

THE OPPOSITE VIEW 
For many system shoppers it's
 a good-for-nothing system
that classifies as opposites
 stupidity and wisdom. 

because by logic-choppers it’s
accepted with avidity:
…

Answer 29

stupidity’s true opposite’s

the opposite stupidity.

Question 30

Who is Learned?

One who, consuming midnight oil
in studies diligent and slow,
teaches himself, with painful toil,

Answer 30

the things that other people know.