“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.”
"Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man" (1959)
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Ogden Nash 125
American poet 1902–1971Related quotes
"Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man" in The Family Album of Favorite Poems (1959) edited by P. Edward Ernest
Source: The Enemy Stars (1959), Chapter 8 (pp. 62-63)
The immediate future: Lectures delivered in Queen's Hall, London, 1911 http://books.google.co.in/books?id=VGNbAAAAMAAJ, p. 32
Source: The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir (2008), p. 192.
Context: I built not by parental edict, not under threat, but because of my own native yearning. This was a giant step toward seeing more. Across the country our elders were battling the shades that shrank our minds and abbreviated our world. We thought the corner was cool, but more than that we deeply believed that we could do no better, that this tiny parcel was all we deserved in this world of sin.
“It is a sin not to do what one is capable of doing.”
Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)
Context: To busy oneself with what is futile when one can do something useful, to attend to what is simple when one has the mettle to attempt what is difficult, is to strip talent of its dignity. It is a sin not to do what one is capable of doing.
“Your unforgivable sins do not allow you to see my splendor.”
"The masked dyer Hakim of Merv" [El tintorero enmascarado Hakim de Merv] Universal History of Infamy (1935); also translated as "Hakim, Masked Dyer of Merv" ( review of "Hakim, Masked Dyer of Merv" http://www.elimae.com/reviews/borges/merv.html)