Horace Walpole Quotes

62 Sourced Quotes

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

Horace Walpole
Two large prominent eyes that rolled about to no purpose (for he was utterly short-sighted) a wide mouth, thick lips and inflated visage, gave him the air of a blind trumpeter. A deep untuneable voice which, instead of modulating, he enforced with unnecsessary pomp, a total neglect of his person, and ignorance of every civil attention, disgusted all who judge by appearance.

Horace Walpole
I know that I have had friends who would never have vexed or betrayed me, if they had walked on all fours.

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

Horace Walpole
I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel – a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.

Horace Walpole
How should such a fellow as Sheridan, who has no diamonds to bestow, fascinate all the world?—yet witchcraft, no doubt there has been, for when did simple eloquence ever convince a majority?

Horace Walpole
Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.

Horace Walpole
But, thank God! the Thames is between me and the Duchess of Queensberry.

Horace Walpole
Instead of the glorious and ever-memorable year 1759, as the newspapers call it, I call it this ever-warm and victorious year. We have not had more conquest than fine weather: one would think we had plundered East and West Indies of sunshine. Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories. I believe it will require ten votes of the House of Commons before people believe it is the Duke of Devonshire that has done this, and not Mr. Pitt.

Horace Walpole
At last some curious traveller from Lima will visit England, and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul's, like the editions of Baalbec and Palmyra.

Horace Walpole
By the waters of Babylon we sit down and weep, when we think of thee, O America!

Horace Walpole
A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does not misbecome a monarch.

Horace Walpole
He was persuaded he could know no happiness but in the society of one with whom he could for ever indulge the melancholy that had taken possession of his soul.

Horace Walpole
They seem to know no medium between a mitre and a crown of martyrdom. If the clergy are not called to the latter, they never deviate from the pursuit of the former. One would think their motto was, Canterbury or Smithfield.

Horace Walpole
When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.

Horace Walpole
Perhaps those, who, trembling most, maintain a dignity in their fate, are the bravest: resolution on reflection is real courage.

Horace Walpole
I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due.

Horace Walpole
My aversion to them... springs from the perniciousness of that sect to society—I hate Papists, as a man, not as a Protestant. If Papists were only enemies to the religion of other men, I should overlook their errors. As they are foes to liberty, I cannot forgive them.

Horace Walpole
This sublime age reduces everything to its quintessence; all periphrases and expletives are so much in disuse, that I suppose soon the only way to making love will be to say 'Lie down.'

Horace Walpole
It was easier to conquer it [the East] than to know what to do with it.

Horace Walpole
The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveler from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul's, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.

Horace Walpole
A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.

Horace Walpole
The whole nation hitherto has been void of wit and humour, and even incapable of relishing it.

Horace Walpole
Allen of Bath procured them the same honours from thence; and for some weeks it rained gold boxes: Chester, Worcester, Norwich, Bedford, Salisbury, Yarmouth, Tewkesbury, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Stirling, and other populous and chief towns following the example. Exeter, with singular affection, sent boxes of heart of oak.

Horace Walpole
When will the world know that peace and propagation are the two most delightful things in it?

Horace Walpole
Serendipity... you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.... Now do you understand serendipity?

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

Horace Walpole
He lost his dominions in America, his authority over Ireland, and all influence in Europe, by aiming at despotism in England; and exposed himself to more mortifications and humiliations than can happen to a quiet Doge of Venice.
Of King George III

Horace Walpole
To act with common sense, according to the moment, is the best wisdom I know; and the best philosophy, to do one's duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot, bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it, whatever it is, and despise affectation.

Horace Walpole
How posterity will laugh at us, one way or other! If half a dozen break their necks, and balloonism is exploded, we shall be called fools for having imagined it could be brought to use: if it should be turned to account, we shall be ridiculed for having doubted.

Horace Walpole