Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole

Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797) was an English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician. He is now largely remembered for Strawberry Hill, the home he built in Twickenham, south-west London where he revived the Gothic style some decades before his Victorian successors, and for his Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. Along with the book, his literary reputation rests on his Letters, which are of significant social and political interest. He was the son of Sir Robert Walpole, and cousin of the 1st Viscount Nelson.

Famous quotes by horace walpole:

“Dear Brand: You love laughing; there is a king dead; can you help coming to town?”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

“When Lady Mary Tufton married Dr. Duncan, an elderly physician, Mr. George Selwyn said, ‘How often will she say with Macbeth ‘Wake, Duncan, with thy knocking—would thou couldst!’’”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

“The sure way of judging whether our first thoughts are judicious, is to sleep on them. If they appear of the same force the next morning as they did over night, and if good nature ratifies what good sense approves, we may be pretty sure we are in the right.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

“Love sits enthroned in Clara’s eyes,
The Graces play her lips around,
And in her cheeks the tendrest dyes
Of lilly mixed with rose are found.
Where charms so irresistless throng
What mortal heart can try resistance?
But ah! her nose is two feet long,
And bids our passions keep their distance.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

“Cunning is neither the consequence of sense, nor does it give sense. A proof that it is not sense, is that cunning people never imagine that others can see through them. It is the consequence of weakness.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)