OGDEN NASH

"The Terrible People"

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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 don't' 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.

But no, they insist on being stealthy

About the pleasures of being wealthy,

And the possession of a handsome annuity

Makes them think that to say how hard it is to make both ends meet is their bounden duty.

You cannot conceive of an occasion

Which will find them without some suitable evasion.

Yes indeed, with arguments they are very fecund;

Their first point is that money isn't everything, and that they have no money anyhow is their second.

Some people's money is merited,

And other people's is inherited,

But wherever it comes from,

They talk about it as if it were something you got pink gums from.

Perhaps indeed the possession of wealth is constantly distressing,

But I should be quite willing to assume every curse of wealth if I could at the same time assume every blessing.

The only incurable troubles of the rich are the troubles that money can't cure,

Which is a kind of trouble that is even more troublesome if you are poor.

Certainly there are lots of things in life that money won't buy, but it's very funny -

Have you ever tried to buy them without money?