Ogden Nash: Doing

Ogden Nash was American poet. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Ogden Nash: 250 quotes17 likes

“I dont' mind their having a lot of money, and I don't care how they employ it,
But I do think that they damn well ought to admit they enjoy it.”

Ogden Nash

"The Terrible People"
Many Long Years Ago (1945)
Context: People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it,
And I wish I could afford to gather all such people into a gloomy castle on the Danube and hire half a dozen capable Draculas to haunt it.
I dont' mind their having a lot of money, and I don't care how they employ it,
But I do think that they damn well ought to admit they enjoy it.

“People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.”

Ogden Nash

"Old Men"
Many Long Years Ago (1945)
Context: People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when...
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.

“Oh, what a tangled web do parents weave
When they think that their children are naive.”

Ogden Nash

"Baby, What Makes the Sky Blue?"

“The sky is now indelible ink,
The branches reft asunder;
But you and I we do not shrink;
We love the lovely thunder.”

Ogden Nash

Many Long Years Ago (1945), A Watched Example Never Boils

“Oh, sometimes I sit around and think, what would you do if you were up a dark alley and there was Caesar Borgia,
And he was coming torgia…”

Ogden Nash

"How Now, Sirrah? Oh, Anyhow"
I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1938)

“First
Let the rockets flash and the cannon thunder,
This child is a marvel, a matchless wonder.
A staggering child, a child astounding,
Dazzling, diaperless, dumfounding,
Stupendous, miraculous, unsurpassed,
A child to stagger and flabbergast,
Bright as a button, sharp as a thorn,
And the only perfect one ever born.
Second
Arrived this evening at half-past nine.
Everybody is doing fine.
Is it a boy, or quite the reverse?
You can call in the morning and ask the nurse.”

Ogden Nash

"First Child . . . Second Child"
Versus (1949)

“How easy for those who do not bulge
To not overindulge!”

Ogden Nash

"A Necessary Dirge"
I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1938)

“I can't say that I feel particularly one way or the other towards bell-boy,
But I do admit that I haven't much use for the it's-just-as-well boys,
The cheery souls who drop around after every catastrophe and think they are taking the curse off
By telling you about somebody who is even worse off.
No matter how deep and dark your pit, how dank your shroud,
Their heads are heroically unbloody and unbowed.”

Ogden Nash

"Look for the Silver Lining"
Happy Days (1933)

“The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I'll eat you!
Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry.
Isabel didn't scream or scurry.”

Ogden Nash

"Adventures of Isabel" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/adventures-of-isabel/

“When people reject a truth or an untruth it is not because it is a truth or an untruth that they reject it.
No, if it isn't in accord with their beliefs in the first place they simply say, "Nothing doing," and refuse to inspect it.”

Ogden Nash

Good Intentions (1942), Seeing Eye to Eye is Believing

“I think that comparisons are truly odious, I do not approve of this constant proud or envious to-do;
And furthermore, dear friends, I think that you and yours are delightful and I also think that me and mine are delightful too.”

Ogden Nash

Versus (1949), Possessions are Nine Points of Conversation

“And I also say Pooh for sweetness and light,
And if you want to get the most out of life, why the thing to do is to be a gossiper by day and gossipee by night.”

Ogden Nash

I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1938), I Have It On Good Authority

“It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even every Bachelor of Arts,
That all sin is divided into two parts.
One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important
And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you oughtn't…”

Ogden Nash

"Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man" in The Family Album of Favorite Poems (1959) edited by P. Edward Ernest

“The moral is that it is probably better not to sin at all, but if
some kind of sin you must be pursuing,
Well, remember to do it by doing rather than by not doing.”

Ogden Nash

"Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man" (1959)