Horace Walpole
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford— also known as Horace Walpole — was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth24 September 1717
father heart boys
Of Ickworth's boys, their father's joys, There is but one a bad one; The tenth is he, the parson's fee, And indeed he is a sad one. No love of fame, no sense of shame, And a bad heart, let me tell ye: Without, all brass; within, all ass, And the puppy's name is Felly.
crowns may retrospect
The prosecution of [Warren] Hastings, though he should escape at last, must have good effect. It will alarm the servants of the Company in India, that they may not always plunder with impunity, but that there may be a retrospect; and it will show them that even bribes of diamonds to the Crown may not secure them from prosecution.
pain criticism quality
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.
kings years curiosity
When the Prince of Piedmont [later Charles Emmanuel IV, King of Sardinia] was seven years old, his preceptor instructing him in mythology told him all the vices were enclosed in Pandora's box. "What! all!" said the Prince. "Yes, all." "No," said the Prince; "curiosity must have been without.
family real castles
An ancient prophecy ... pronounced, That the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it!
cutting shining use
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.
want england conquer
Let the French but have England, and they won't want to conquer it.
mourning farce life-is
Life is a farce, and should not end with a mourning scene.
discovery vision chance
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.
air vulgar nations
I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighboring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded air of superiority.
real fate reflection
Perhaps those, who, trembling most, maintain a dignity in their fate, are the bravest: resolution on reflection is real courage.
genius taste wanted
One of the greatest geniuses that ever existed, Shakespeare, undoubtedly wanted taste.
bad-company obliged ifs
I shun authors, and would never have been one myself, if it obliged me to keep such bad company.
soil rogues lawyer
Lawyers and rogues are vermin not easily rooted out of a rich soil.