Horace Walpole Quotes

Lord Bath used to say of women, who are apt to say that they will follow their own judgment, that they could not follow a worse guide.

Dr. Calder [a Unitarian minister] said of Dr. [Samuel] Johnson on the publications of Boswell and Mrs. Piozzi, that he was like Actaeon, torn to pieces by his own pack.

[French] authors are more afraid of offending delicacy and rules, than ambitious of sublimity.

[Corneille] was inspired by Roman authors and Roman spirit, Racine with delicacy by the polished court of Louis XIV.

We must cultivate our garden. Furia to God one day in seven allots; The other six to scandal she devotes. Satan, by false devotion never flammed, Bets six to one, that Furia will be damned.

One of the greatest geniuses that ever existed, Shakespeare, undoubtedly wanted taste.

Art is the filigrain of a little mind, and is twisted and involved and curled, but would reach farther if laid out in a straight line.

[King René of Anjou (1409-80)] would not listen to the news of his son having lost the Kingdom of Naples, because he would not bedisturbed when painting a picture of a partridge.

Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.

The whole [Scotch] nation hitherto has been void of wit and humour, and even incapable of relishing it.

Ponder, your comedies are woeful chaff: Write tragedies, when you would make us laugh.

The best sun we have is made of Newcastle coal, and I am determined never to reckon upon any other.

Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories

Letters to absence can a voice impart, And lend a tongue when distance gags the heart.

Fashion is fortunately no law but to its devotees.

I firmly believe, notwithstanding all our complaints, that almost every person upon earth tastes upon the totality more happiness than misery.

Exercise is the worst thing in the world and as bad an invention as gunpowder.

Fashion is always silly, for, before it can spread far, it must be calculated for silly people; as examples of sense, wit, or ingenuity could be imitated only by a few.

I am persuaded that foolish writers and foolish readers are created for each other; and that fortune provides readers as she does mates for ugly women.

The contempt of money is no more a virtue than to wash one's hand is one; but one does not willingly shake hands with a man that never washes his.

I shun authors, and would never have been one myself, if it obliged me to keep such bad company.

I can forgive injuries, but never benefits.

I have known men of valor cowards to their wives.

Let the French but have England, and they won't want to conquer it.

Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.

In science, mistakes always precede the truth

Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.

Our supreme governors, the mob.

The curse of modern times is, that almost everything does create controversy.

Without grace no book can live, and with it the poorest may have its life prolonged.

That strange premature genius Chatterton has couched in one line the quintessence of what Voltaire has said in many pages: "Reason, a thorn in Revelation's side.

In science, mistakes always precede the truth.

Heaven mocks the short-sighted views of man.

I fear no bad angel, and have offended no good one.

Old friends are the great blessing of one's later years. ... They have a memory of the same events and have the same mode of thinking.

The best philosophy is to do one's duties to take the world as it comes submit respectfully to one's lot and bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it whatever it is.

I am in a moment of pretty wellness.

The world is a comedy to those who think a tragedy to those who feel.

This world is a comedy to those who think a tragedy to those who feel.

There is no bombast, no similes, flowers, digressions, or unnecessary descriptions. Everything tends directly to the catastrophe.

By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses one misses more nonsense than sense.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn't. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.

The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.