Horace Walpole

Men are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

— Horace Walpole

Poetry is a beautiful way of spoiling prose, and the laborious art of exchanging plain sense for harmony.

— Horace Walpole

Harry Vane, Pulteney's toad-eater.

— Horace Walpole

... Why, I'll swear I see no difference between a country gentleman and a sirloin; whenever the first laughs, or the latter is cut, there run out just the same streams of gravy! ... Oh! my dear Sir, don't you find that nine parts in ten of the world are of no use but to make you wish yourself with that tenth part? ...

— Horace Walpole

Our supreme governors, the mob.

— 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

If a passion for freedom is not in vogue, patriots may sound the alarm till they are weary. The Act of Habeas Corpus, by which prisoners may insist on being brought to trial within a limited time, is the corner-stone of our liberty.

— 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

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

The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.

— Horace Walpole

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

— Horace Walpole

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

— Horace Walpole

The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.

— 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 traveller 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

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

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

— Horace Walpole

Prognostics do not always prove prophecies, — at least the wisest prophets make sure of the event first.

— Horace Walpole

It is the story of a mountebank and his zany.

— 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

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.

— Horace Walpole

Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.

— Horace Walpole

Men are often capable of greater things than they perform. They are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.

— Horace Walpole

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.

— Horace Walpole

He was my counsel in affairs, was my oracle in taste, the standard to whom I submitted my trifles, and the genius that presided over poor Strawberry.

— Horace Walpole

Manfred was not one of those savage tyrants who wanton in cruelty unprovoked. The circumstances of his fortune had given an asperity to his temper, which was naturally humane; and his virtues were always ready to operate, when his passions did not obscure his reason.

— Horace Walpole

“Peace, simpleton!” said the Princess. “Though he said he was unhappy, it does not follow that he must be in love.”

— Horace Walpole

Have done with this rhapsody of impertinence.

— Horace Walpole

“Heaven,” replied Manfred, “does not send Heralds to question the title of a lawful Prince. I doubt whether it even notifies its will through Friars—but that is your affair, not mine.

— Horace Walpole

You think me ambitious: ambition, alas! is composed of more rugged materials. If I were ambitious, I should not for so many years have been a prey to all the hell of conscientious scruples.

— Horace Walpole

Thy purpose is as odious as thy resentment is contemptible.

— Horace Walpole

“My councils do not need a Friar’s intervention,” said Manfred; “and of all men living is that hoary traitor the only one whom you delight to confer with?”

— Horace Walpole

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.

— Horace Walpole

I avoid talking before the youth of the age as I would dancing before them: for if one's tongue don't move in the steps of the day, and thinks to please by its old graces, it is only an object of ridicule.

— Horace Walpole

The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.

— Horace Walpole