Horace Walpole Quotes
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, more commonly known as Horace Walpole, was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and politician.
(1717 - 1797)
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A careless song, with a little nonsense in it, now and then, does not misbecome a monarch.
[Nonsense]
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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.
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By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense.
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How well Shakespeare knew how to improve and exalt little circumstances, when he borrowed them from circumstantial or vulgar historians.
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I am in a moment of pretty wellness.
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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.
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I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due.
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I never found even in my juvenile hours that it was necessary to go a thousand miles in search of themes for moralizing.
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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.
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In all science error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last.
[Error]
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In my youth I thought of writing a satire on mankind, but now in my age I think I should write an apology for them.
[Charity]
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It is a special trick of low cunning to squeeze out knowledge from a modest man who is eminent in any science, and then to use it as legally acquired, and pass the source in total silence.
[Plagiarism]
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It is difficult to divest one's self of vanity; because impossible to divest one's self of self-love.
[Vanity]
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It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it.
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It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.
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Justice is rather the activity of truth, than a virtue in itself. Truth tells us what is due to others, and justice renders that due. Injustice is acting a lie.
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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.
[Ability]
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Men are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent.
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Much of reputation depends on the period in which it rises. - In dark periods, when talents appear, they shine like the sun through a small hole in the window-shutter, and the strong beam dazzles amid the surrounding gloom. - open the shutter, and the general diffusion of light attracts no notice.
[Fame]
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Mystery is the wisdom of blockheads.
[Mystery]
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