Horace Walpole quotes - page 2

Virtue knows to a farthing what it has lost by not having been vice. (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. View quote
Horace Walpole
I never found even in my juvenile hours that it was necessary to go a thousand miles in search of themes for moralizing. View quote
Horace Walpole
Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs. View quote
Horace Walpole
By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense. View quote
Horace Walpole
How well Shakespeare knew how to improve and exalt little circumstances, when he borrowed them from circumstantial or vulgar historians. View quote
Horace Walpole
The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon. View quote
Horace Walpole
Poetry is a beautiful way of spoiling prose, and the laborious art of exchanging plain sense for harmony. View quote
Horace Walpole
It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink. View quote
Horace Walpole
I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due. View quote
Horace Walpole
Life is a tragedy for those who feel, but a comedy to those who think. (Horace Walpole)
... 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! View quote
Horace Walpole
Thy purpose is as odious as thy resentment is contemptible. View quote
Horace Walpole
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. View quote
Horace Walpole
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. View quote
Horace Walpole
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. View quote
Horace Walpole
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? View quote
Horace Walpole
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. View quote
Horace Walpole
Harry Vane, Pulteney's toad-eater. View quote
Horace Walpole
Prognostics do not always prove prophecies, - at least the wisest prophets make sure of the event first. View quote
Horace Walpole
"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)
It is the story of a mountebank and his zany. View quote
Horace Walpole
Have done with this rhapsody of impertinence. View quote
Horace Walpole
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. View quote
Horace Walpole
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. View quote
Horace Walpole