Horace Walpole (1717 – 1797)
More commonly known as Horace Walpole, was a British politician and writer, noted for his collected letters and for having written the first Gothic horror novel, The Castle of Otranto (1764).
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The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.
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.
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.
The way to ensure summer in England is to have it framed and glazed in a comfortable room.
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.
Prognostics do not always prove prophecies, — at least the wisest prophets make sure of the event first.
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.
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.
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.
The whole nation hitherto has been void of wit and humour, and even incapable of relishing it.
Our supreme governors, the mob.
It is the story of a mountebank and his zany.
Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.
A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does not misbecome a monarch.
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.
Harry Vane, Pulteney's toad-eater.
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.
The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.
A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.
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