The Grook Thread - A Tribute to Piet Hein

[leo-rcc]

Piet Hein (nov. 25. 1577 - jun. 17. 1629) was a Dutch seafarer and commander of the Dutch West Indies Company. He is most famous for capturing the Spanish silver fleet in 1628, capturing a cargo of precious metals, pigments and spices worth approx. 11,000,000 gilders, the equivalent of about 500,000,000 euros today.

Yes, he was our best pirate ever.

[Beelzebub2]

MAJORITY RULE

His party was the Brotherhood of Brothers,
and there were more of them than of the others.
That is, they constituted that minority
which formed the greater part of the majority.
Within the party, he was of the faction
that was supported by the greater fraction.
And in each group, within each group, he sought
the group that could command the most support.
The final group had finally elected
a triumvirate whom they all respected.
Now, of these three, two had final word,
because the two could overrule the third.
One of these two was relatively weak,
so one alone stood at the final peak.
He was: THE GREATER NUMBER of the pair
which formed the most part of the three that were
elected by the most of those whose boast
it was to represent the most of the most
of most of most of the entire state --
or of the most of it at any rate.
He never gave himself a moment's slumber
but sought the welfare of the greater number.
And all people, everywhere they went,
knew to their cost exactly what it meant
to be dictated to by the majority.
But that meant nothing, -- they were the minority.

[Beelzebub2]

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.

[Beelzebub2]

CANDLE WISDOM

If you knew
what you will know
when your candle
has burnt low,
it would greatly
ease your plight
while your candle
still burns bright.

[Beelzebub2]

THOUGHTS ON A STATION PLATFORM

It ought to be plain
how little you gain
by getting excited
and vexed.
You'll always be late
for the previous train,
and always in time
for the next.

[Beelzebub2]

WIDE ROAD

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

[Beelzebub2]

REFLECTION ON SIZE

Small people often overrate
the charm of being tall;
which is, that you appreciate
the charm of being small.

[Beelzebub2]

THE TYRANNY OF THINGS

I am trying to rule
over ten thousand things
which I thought
belonged to me.
All of a sudden
a doubt take wings:
Do they...
or could it be..?

A hard-handed hunch
in my mind's ear rings
from whence
such suspicions may stem:
that if you posses
more than just eight things
then y o u
are possessed by t h e m

[Beelzebub2]

LOOK AND THOU SHALL FIND

Foes
of what's cooking
see no worth behind it.
Those
that are looking
for nothing - will find it.