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Horace Walpole

51 quotes

• “Harry Vane, Pulteney's toad-eater.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1742 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Sir Horace Mann (1742)

• “It always amazes me, when I reflect on the women, who are the first to propagate scandal of one another. If they would but agree not to censure what they all agree to do, there would be no more loss of characters among them than amongst men. A woman cannot have an affair, but instantly all her sex travel about to publish it and leave her off: now, if a man cheats another of his estate at play, forges a will, or marries his ward to his own son, nobody thinks of leaving him off for such trifles!”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1742 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 25 Sept. 1742, pp. 202–203, The Letters of Horace Walpole, ed. P. Cunningham, vol. 1

• “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 (1717–1797) first seen 1743 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to John Chute, from Houghton, 20 Aug. 1743, p. 265, The Letter of Horace Walpole, ed. P. Cunnighham, vol. 1

• “Our supreme governors, the mob.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1743 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Sir Horace Mann (7 September 1743)

• “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 (1717–1797) first seen 1746 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Memoirs from the Declaration of the War with Spain (1746)

• “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 (1717–1797) first seen 1758 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Notes of 1758, published in Memoires of the Last Ten Years of the Reign of George the Second (1822), p. 226; also published as "Memoirs of the Year 1758" in Memoirs of King George II, Vol. III (1985), p. 10

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

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1777 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter 123 To Robert Jephson (13 July 1777)

• “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 (1717–1797) first seen 1759 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to George Montagu (21 October 1759)

• “The 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 (1717–1797) first seen 1776 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Lady Anne, Countess of Ossory, (15 August 1776)

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

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1772 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Sir Horace Mann (27 March 1772)

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

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1774 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Sir Horace Mann (1774); this is derived from an proverb of unknown authorship: "A little nonsense now and then / Is relished by the wisest men".

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

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1774 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Willam Cole (28 May 1774)

• “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 (1717–1797) first seen 1774 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Sir Horace Mann (24 November 1774)

• “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 (1717–1797) first seen 1776 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Sir Horace Mann (27 May 1776)

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

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1778 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On Scotland, in a etter to Sir Horace Mann (1778); comparable to "It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding", by Sydney Smith, Lady Holland's Memoir, vol. i. p. 15.

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

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Thomas Walpole (19 February 1785)

• “It is the story of a mountebank and his zany.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Statement about Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, as described in Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D., in a letter to Hon. Henry Conway (6 October 1785)

• “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 (1717–1797) first seen 1757 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The sending of boxes to William Pitt in 1757" in Memoirs of the Reign of King George II (London, 1846–47), Vol. II, p. 202

• “Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in "The Works of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford" in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 27 (1798) edited by Ralph Griffiths, p. 187

• “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 (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in "The Works of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford" in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 27 (1798) edited by Ralph Griffiths, p. 187

• “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 (1717–1797) first seen 1776 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On the death of his friend John Chute (1776)

• “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 (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Have done with this rhapsody of impertinence.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “And is anybody unhappy about another, unless they are in love with them?”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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 (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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 (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Thy purpose is as odious as thy resentment is contemptible.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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 (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Americans are mostly engaged in trade and plantations. Their chief object is to make money. And, in truth, money is freedom.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Lord Bolingbroke discovered a foible of the great duke of Marlborough, that he delighted in tying Miss Jenning's garters. When he repeated the story, he used to add, "What is known to women is known to the world.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Lord Bute was my schoolfellow. He was a man of taste and science, and I do believe his intentions were good. He wished to blend and unite all parties. The Tories were willing to come in for a share of power, after having been so long excluded—but the Whigs were not willing to grant that share. Power is an intoxicating draught; the more a man has, the more he desires.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Sir Robert Walpole used to say, that it was fortunate so few men could be prime ministers, as it was best that few should thoroughly know the shocking wickedness of mankind. I never heard him say, that all men have their prices; and I believe no such expression ever came from his mouth.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “William, Duke of Cumberland, gave promises of talents that were never accomplished. One day he had given some offence to his royal mother, and was remanded to the confinement of his chamber. After what the queen thought a sufficient duration of his punishment, she sent for him. He returned in a very sullen humour. "What have you been doing?" said the queen.—"Reading."—"What book?"—"The New Testament."—"Very well. What part?"—"Where it is said, Woman, why troublest thou me?”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A fig for our democrats! [1792]. Barking dogs never bite. The danger in France arose from silent and instantaneous action. They said nothing, and did every thing—ours say every thing, and will do nothing.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I visit Paris often, and have considerably studied the French character. In individuals it is often excellent; but taken in general it disgusts by its petulance and vanity. The French have always been dissolute in their amours; and are thus led to assail the chastity of foreign women, the most unpardonable of all affronts to fathers, brothers, husbands, and lovers. This, and their petulant overbearing conduct, prevent their conquests from being lasting. Yes, I swear to you by the Sicilian vespers, they can never be of much duration.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Mr. Hollis is always publishing republican books, and yet professes great veneration for our constitution. I cannot reconcile this; our constitution being, in its leading part, an oligarchy, the form, perhaps, of all others, the most opposite to a republic.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I have sometimes thought that a squire and a vestry were a king and republic in miniature. The vestry is as tyrannic, in its way, as the squire in his. Any power necessarily leads to abuses of that power. It is difficult to stop any impetus of nature.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “We must speak to the eyes, if we wish to affect the mind.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If Milton had written in Italian, he would have been, in my opinion, the most perfect poet in modern languages; for his own strength of thought would have condensed and hardened that speech to a proper degree.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Though I admire republican principles in theory, yet I am afraid the practice may be too perfect for human nature. We tried a republic last century, and it failed. Let our enemies try next. I hate political experiments.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Good men are never concerned in revolutions, because they will not go the lengths. Sunderland caused the revolution of 1688, while Devonshire stood aloof—the latter was the angel, the former the storm. Bad men and poisonous plants are sometimes of superlative use in skilful hands.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Rousseau's ideas of savage life are puerile. He is equally absurd in supposing that no people can be free, if they entrust their freedom to representatives. What is every body's business is nobody's business. The people would soon be sick of such freedom; they must attend to their own private business, else they could not live. The people of France are easily electrified. We are too solid for such dreams. Amber may draw straws: we do not gravitate so easily.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The critics generally consider a tragedy as the next effort of the mind to an epic poem. For my part, I estimate the difficulty of writing a good comedy to be greater than that of composing a good tragedy. Not only equal genius is required, but a comedy demands a more uncommon assemblage of qualities—knowledge of the world, wit, good sense, &c; and these qualities superadded to those requisite for tragical composition.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “King William asked Mr. Locke how long he thought the revolution principles might last in England. The philosopher answered, "Till this generation shall have passed away, and our universities shall have had time to breed a new one." Many things I disapprove in our universities, where the country gentlemen are educated in Toryism by Tory clergy.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When I first came abroad, every thing struck me, and I wrote its history; but now I am grown so used to be surprised, that I don't perceive any flutter in myself when I meet with any novelties; curiosity and astonishment wear off, and the next thing is, to fancy that other people know as much of places as one's self; or, at least, one does not remember that they do not. It appears to me as odd to write to you of St. Peter's, as it would do to you to write of Westminster-abbey. Besides, as one looks at churches, &c. with a book of travels in one's hand, and sees every thing particularised there, it would appear transcribing, to write upon the same subjects.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) first seen 1740 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter to Richard West, from Rome, 16 April 1740, p. 42, The Letters of Horace Walpole, ed. P. Cunningham, vol. 1

• “These horrible affairs in France are the offspring of fanaticism. Yes, sir; if the reformation had taken place there, as well as here, religion and the clergy would have been respected, as they are here. Fanatics make atheists. If I cannot believe in God without believing that a wafer is God, my reason abjures the deity. I wish religion to exist: it is of infinite use to society, and I therefore wish it to be as rational as possible. A synod of the English church might order several objectionable tenets and expressions of our worship to be altered. I love those reformations that prevent revolutions, by keeping pace with the gradual progress of reason and knowledge.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To talk of the weather was once a matter of ridicule. But that soon went out; for the weather is, in fact, so important in this changeable climate, that our health and bread depend on it. There are also numerous classes in this island, farmers, seamen, &c. &c. whose very existence depends on the weather. It is idle to deny that the state of our spirits depends on the weather: the stoutest man cannot take exercise on a rainy day, and must feel ennui, because he cannot divide his time as usual. For my part, I care as little for the weather as any; and I sometimes say, that all I want is cold winters, and hot summers.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “We must thank the Whigs for all the prosperity of our country. The Tories have only thrown us into disagreeable crises. It is risible to hear the latter boast of the public happiness, which is wholly the work of their antagonists. They are so absurd as to regret the national freedom, the sole source of the wealth on which they fatten. Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes! Had the Tories succeeded at the revolution, or accession, this fair country would have been another Spain; the desolate abode of nobles and priests. What has rendered it the wonder and envy of Europe? Freedom. One would wonder that any man would conspire against the general felicity—but this infatuation arises from the esprit du corps, which can even produce mental blindness—can instigate its unhappy devotee to destroy the hen that lays the golden eggs.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel.”

  Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

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