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
beautiful art way
Poetry is a beautiful way of spoiling prose, and the laborious art of exchanging plain sense for harmony.
religious kings husband
King René of Anjou [(1409-80)]was a strange compound of amiable, great and trifling qualities. He was so excellent a sovereign as to acquire the surnom of the Good. He was brave in war, delighted in tournaments and wrote on them, instituted festivals and processions, partly religious and partly burlesque, was a fond husband, a romantic lover, a good painter for that age, and a true philosopher.
kings son news
[King René of Anjou (1409-80)] would not listen to the news of his son having lost the Kingdom of Naples, because he would not bedisturbed when painting a picture of a partridge.
majesty doe royalty
How much on outward show does all depend, If virtues from within no lustre lend! Strip off th'externals M and Y, the rest Proves Majesty itself is but a Jest.
brother kings plymouth
When the Prince of Wales [later King George IV] and the Duke of York went to visit their brother Prince William [later William IV]at Plymouth, and all three being very loose in their manners, and coarse in their language, Prince William said to his ship's crew, "now I hope you see that I am not the greatest blackguard of my family.
memories reflection men
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.
coal fuel sun
The best sun we have is made of Newcastle coal, and I am determined never to reckon upon any other.
age might purity
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.
ambition feet necks
Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.
future greatness men
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.
taken soul melancholy
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.
funny-friend people want
Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.
taste half being-true
[The] taste [of the French] is too timid to be true taste--or is but half taste.
thinking tragedy world
I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel – a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.