Walpole Quotes & Sayings
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Top Walpole Quotes
It is difficult to divest one's self of vanity; because impossible to divest one's self of self-love. — 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
But I must think that an address to his majesty to remove one of his servants, without so much as alleging any particular crime against him, is one of the greatest encroachments that was ever made upon the prerogatives of the crown. — Robert Walpole
The queen also toyed with the idea of making the whole of St. James's Park private, and asked her prime minister, Robert Walpole, how much that would cost. "Only a crown, Madam," he replied with a thin smile. — Bill Bryson
The twins were loitering over their cereal, and Mrs. Walpole, with one eye on the clock and the other on the kitchen window past which the school bus would come in a matter of minutes, felt the unreasonable irritation that comes with being late on a school morning, the wading-through-molasses feeling of trying to hurry children. — Shirley Jackson
I never found even in my juvenile hours that it was necessary to go a thousand miles in search of themes for moralizing. — Horace Walpole
Nothing has shown more fully the prodigious ignorance of human ideas and their littleness, than the discovery of [Sir William] Herschell, that what used to be called the Milky Way is a portion of perhaps an infinite multitude of worlds! — Horace Walpole
I have known several persons of great fame for wisdom in public affairs and councils governed by foolish servants. I have known great ministers, distinguished for wit and learning, who preferred none but dunces. I have known men of valor cowards to their wives. I have known men of cunning perpetually cheated. I knew three ministers who would exactly compute and settle the accounts of a kingdom, wholly ignorant of their own economy. — 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 which they were not in quest of. — Horace Walpole
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. — 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
My veracity is dearer to me than my life," said the peasant; "nor would I purchase the one by forfeiting the other. — Horace Walpole
The passions seldom give good advice but to the interested and mercenary. Resentment generally suggests bad measures. Second thoughts and good nature will rarely, very rarely, approve the first hints of anger. — Horace Walpole
And here a most heinous charge is made, that the nation has been burdened with unnecessary expenses for the sole purpose of preventing the discharge of our debts and the abolition of taxes. — Robert Walpole
The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. — Horace Walpole
Perhaps those, who, trembling most, maintain a dignity in their fate, are the bravest: resolution on reflection is real courage. — Horace Walpole
It has from the beginning been carried on with as much vigor and as great care of our trade as was consistent with our safety at home and with the circumstances we were in at the beginning of the war. — Robert Walpole
One's mind suffers only when one is young and while one is ignorant of the world. When one has lived for some time, one learns that the young think too little and the old too much, and one grows careless about both. — Horace Walpole
It is natural for a translator to be prejudiced in favour of his adopted work. More impartial readers may not be so much struck with the beauties of this piece as I was. Yet I am not blind to my author's defects. — Horace Walpole
In the drawing room [of the Queen's palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupid's foot between Venus's thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be. — Horace Walpole
The best philosophy is 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. — Horace Walpole
It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink. — Horace Walpole
We are largely the playthings of our fears. To one, fear of the dark; to another, of physical pain; to a third, of public ridicule; to a fourth, of poverty; to a fifth, of loneliness ... for all of us, our particular creature waits in ambush. — Horace Walpole
Virtue knows to a farthing what it has lost by not having been vice. — Horace Walpole
This life is but a pilgrimage. — Horace Walpole
Let the French but have England, and they won't want to conquer it. — Horace Walpole
This is a bad world; nor have I had cause to leave it with regret. — Horace Walpole
The best sun we have is made of Newcastle coal, and I am determined never to reckon upon any other. — Horace Walpole
Serendipitous discoveries are made by chance, found without looking for them but possible only through a sharp vision and sagacity, ready to see the unexpected and never indulgent with the apparently unexplainable. — Horace Walpole
I almost think there is no wisdom comparable to that of exchanging what is called the realities of life for dreams — Hugh Walpole
There is no bombast, no similes, flowers, digressions, or unnecessary descriptions. Everything tends directly to the catastrophe. — Horace Walpole
Manfred, Prince of Otranto, had one son and one daughter: the latter, a most beautiful virgin, aged eighteen, was called Matilda. Conrad, the son, was three years younger, a homely youth, sickly, and of no promising disposition; yet he was the darling of his father, who never showed any symptoms of affection to Matilda. Manfred had contracted a marriage for his son with the Marquis of Vicenza's daughter, Isabella; and she had already been delivered by her guardians into the hands of Manfred, that he might celebrate the wedding as soon as Conrad's infirm state of health would permit. — Horace Walpole
When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles. — Horace Walpole
There is a class whose value I should designate as Favorites: such as Froissart's Chronicles; Southey's Chronicle of the Cid ; Cervantes ; Sully's Memoirs ; Rabelais ; Montaigne ; Izaak Walton; Evelyn; Sir Thomas Browne; Aubrey ; Sterne ; Horace Walpole ; Lord Clarendon ; Doctor Johnson ; Burke, shedding floods of light on his times ; Lamb; Landor ; and De Quincey ;- a list, of course, that may easily be swelled, as dependent on individual caprice. Many men are as tender and irritable as lovers in reference to these predilections. Indeed, a man's library is a sort of harem, and I observe that tender readers have a great pudency in showing their books to a stranger. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense. — Horace Walpole
It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it. — Horace Walpole
That strange premature genius Chatterton has couched in one line the quintessence of what Voltaire has said in many pages: Reason, a thorn in Revelation's side. — Horace Walpole
This world is a comedy, not Life. — Horace Walpole
Art and life ought to be hurriedly remarried and brought to live together. — Hugh Walpole
All paraphrases and expletives are so much in disuse that soon the only way of making love will be to say, Lie down. — Hugh Walpole
What is called chance is the instrument of Providence and the secret agent that counteracts what men call wisdom, and preserves order and regularity, and continuation in the whole, for ... I firmly believe, notwithstanding all our complaints, that almost every person upon earth tastes upon the totality more happiness than misery; and therefore if we could correct the world to our fancies, and with the best intentions imaginable, probably we should only produce more misery and confusion. — Horace Walpole
The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room. — Horace Walpole
We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second. — Horace Walpole
I can not, therefore, see how this can be imputed as a crime, or how any of the king's ministers can be blamed for his doing what the public has no concern in; for if the public be well and faithfully served it has no business to ask by whom. — Robert Walpole
It is charming to totter into vogue. — Horace Walpole
This person was standing under Lavery's portrait of Lady Walpole-Wilson, painted at the time of her marriage, in a white dress and blue sash, a picture he was examining with the air of one trying to fill in the seconds before introductions begin to take place, rather than on account of a deep interest in art. — Anthony Powell
Don't play for safety — Hugh Walpole
It amazes me when I hear any person prefer blindness to deafness. Such a person must have a terrible dread of being alone. Blindness makes one totally dependent on others, and deprives us of every satisfaction that results from light. — Horace Walpole
The happiest people I have known in this world have been the Saints-and, after these, the men and women who get immediate and conscious enjoyment from little things. — Hugh Walpole
A poet who makes use of a worse word instead of a better, because the former fits the rhyme or the measure, though it weakens the sense, is like a jeweller, who cuts a diamond into a brilliant, and diminishes the weight to make it shine more. — Horace Walpole
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. — Horace Walpole
Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations. — Horace Walpole
Walpole has no intellect. A mere surgeon. A wonderful operator but, after all, what is operating? ... Manual labour. — George Bernard Shaw
Oh, do not read history, for that I know must be false. — Robert Walpole
Gentlemen have talked a great deal of patriotism. A venerable word, when duly practiced. — Robert Walpole
Whatever was the conduct of England, I am equally arraigned. — Robert Walpole
Shakespeare, with an improved education and in a more enlightened age, might easily have attained the purity and correction of Racine; but nothing leads one to suppose that Racine in a barbarous age would have attained the grandeur, force and nature of Shakespeare. — Horace Walpole
Over this country, when the giant Eagle flings the shadow of his wing, the land is darkened. So compact is it that the wing covers all its extent in one pause of the flight. The sea breaks on the pale line of the shore; to the Eagle's proud glance waves run in to the foot of the hills that are like rocks planted in green water. — Hugh Walpole
Persons extremely reserved are like old enamelled watches, which had painted covers, that hindered your seeing what o'clock it was. — Robert Walpole
I shun authors, and would never have been one myself, if it obliged me to keep such bad company. — Horace Walpole
Our supreme governors, the mob. — Horace Walpole
In science, mistakes always precede the truth. — Horace Walpole
Is it no imputation to be arraigned before this House, in which I have sat forty years, and to have my name transmitted to posterity with disgrace and infamy? — Robert Walpole
Poetry is a beautiful way of spoiling prose, and the laborious art of exchanging plain sense for harmony. — Horace Walpole
Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. — Horace Walpole
Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene. — 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
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
I happened to be one of those who thought all these expenses necessary, and I had the good fortune to have the majority of both houses of Parliament on my side. — Robert Walpole
There is nothing I hold so cheap as a learned man , except an unlearned one . — Horace Walpole
The wisest prophets make sure of the event first. — Horace Walpole
No expense has been incurred but what has been approved of and provided for by Parliament. — Robert Walpole
A man of sense, though born without wit, often lives to have wit. His memory treasures up ideas and reflections; he compares themwith new occurrences, and strikes out new lights from the collision. The consequence is sometimes bons mots, and sometimes apothegms. — Horace Walpole
Letters to absence can a voice impart, And lend a tongue when distance gags the heart. — Horace Walpole
I fear no bad angel, and have offended no good one. — Horace Walpole
I look upon paradoxes as the impotent efforts of men who, not having capacity to draw attention and celebrity from good sense, fly to eccentricities to make themselves noted. — Horace Walpole
I have lived long enough in the world, Sir, ... to know that the safety of a minister lies in his having the approbation of this House. Former ministers, Sir, neglected this, and therefore they fell; I have always made it my first study to obtain it ... — Robert Walpole
I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due. — Horace Walpole
IT has been observed by several gentlemen, in vindication of this motion, that if it should be carried, neither my life, liberty, nor estate will be affected. — Robert Walpole
The curse of modern times is, that almost everything does create controversy. — 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
But alas! my Lord, what is blood! what is nobility! We are all reptiles, miserable, sinful creatures. It is piety alone that can distinguish us from the dust whence we sprung, and whither we must return. — Horace Walpole
Foolish writers and readers are created for each other. — Horace Walpole
Pedants make a great rout about criticism, as if it were a science of great depth, and required much pains and knowledge
criticism however is only the result of good sense, taste and judgment
three qualities that indeed seldom are found together, and extremely seldom in a pedant, which most critics are. — Horace Walpole
I believe the root of all happiness on this earth to lie in the realization of a spiritual life with a consciousness of something wider than materialism; in the capacity to live in a world that makes you unselfish because you are not overanxious about your own comic fallibilities; that gives you tranquility without complacency because you believe in something so much larger than yourself. — Hugh Walpole
Exercise is the worst thing in the world and as bad an invention as gunpowder. — Horace Walpole
A bibliomaniac is one to whom books are like bottles of whiskey to the inebriate, to whom anything that is between covers has an intoxicating savor. — Hugh Walpole
Life is a tragedy for those who feel ... but a comedy for those who think — Brenda 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
Our bells are worn threadbare with ringing for victories — Horace Walpole
Have I given any symptoms of an avaricious disposition? Have I obtained any grants from the crown since I have been placed at the head of the treasury? Has my conduct been different from that which others in the same station would have followed? — Robert Walpole
The whole [Scotch] nation hitherto has been void of wit and humour, and even incapable of relishing it. — Horace Walpole