Poetry is a beautiful way of spoiling prose, and the laborious art of exchanging plain sense for harmony. – 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
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
I do not admire politicians; but when they are excellent in their way, one cannot help allowing them their due. – Horace Walpole
How well Shakespeare knew how to improve and exalt little circumstances, when he borrowed them from circumstantial or vulgar historians. – Horace Walpole
Men are sent into the world with bills of credit, and seldom draw to their full extent. – Horace Walpole
Justice is rather the activity of truth, than a virtue in itself. Truth tells us what is due to others, and justice renders that due. Injustice is acting a lie. – Horace Walpole
Alexander at the head of the world never tasted the true pleasure that boys of his own age have enjoyed at the head of a school. – Horace Walpole
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. – 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. – Horace Walpole
Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn’t. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is. – Horace Walpole
By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense. – Horace Walpole
Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I’d place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs. – 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
Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth. – Horace Walpole
The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. – Horace Walpole
