Horace Walpole quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Horace Walpole on Wise Famous Quotes.

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

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

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

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

It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it.

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

The gentle maid, whose hapless tale,
these melancholy pages speak;
say, gracious lady, shall she fail
To draw the tear a down from thy cheek?

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

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

Heaven mocks the short-sighted views of man.

The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon.

Mystery is the wisdom of blockheads.

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

Virtue knows to a farthing what it has lost by not having been vice.

In science, mistakes always precede the truth.

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

Alexander at the head of the world never tasted the true pleasure that boys of his own age have enjoyed at the head of a school.

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.

To act with common sense according to the moment, is the best wisdom I know.

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

My veracity is dearer to me than my life," said the peasant; "nor would I purchase the one by forfeiting the other.

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

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.

Every drop of ink in my pen ran cold.

This world is a comedy, not Life.

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

Our supreme governors, the mob.

Oh, we are ridiculous animals; and if the angels have any fun in them, how we must divert them!

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.

[The] taste [of the French] is too timid to be true taste
or is but half taste.

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

I can forgive injuries, but never benefits.

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

Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.

Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!

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

Lawyers and rogues are vermin not easily rooted out of a rich soil.

I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighboring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded air of superiority.

I never found even in my juvenile hours that it was necessary to go a thousand miles in search of themes for moralizing.

Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.

Our [British] summers are often, though beautiful for verdure, so cold, that they are rather cold winters.

It is difficult to divest one's self of vanity; because impossible to divest one's self of self-love.

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

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.

Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.

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

There is nothing I hold so cheap as a learned man , except an unlearned one .

Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories

My soul abhors a falsehood

I have known men of valor cowards to their wives.

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.

Had I children, my utmost endeavors would be to make them musicians.

Foolish writers and readers are created for each other.

We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.

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

History is a romance that is believed; romance, a history that is not believed.

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

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

How well Shakespeare knew how to improve and exalt little circumstances, when he borrowed them from circumstantial or vulgar historians.

I sit with my toes in a brook, And if any one axes forwhy? I hits them a rap with my crook, For 'tis sentiment does it, says I.

It is charming to totter into vogue.

The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.

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

It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.

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

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

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

This life is but a pilgrimage.

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

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

This is a bad world; nor have I had cause to leave it with regret.

Fashion is fortunately no law but to its devotees.

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

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