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.
Read more about Horace Walpole: Early Life: 1717–1739, Grand Tour: 1739–1741, Early Parliamentary Career: 1741–1754, Strawberry Hill, Later Parliamentary Career: 1754–1768, Later Life: 1768–1788, Last Years: 1788–1797, Writings, Formal Styles From Birth To Death
Famous quotes by horace walpole:
“The passions seldom give good advice but to the interested and mercenary. Resentment generally suggests bad measures. Second thoughts and good nature will rarely, very rarely, approve the first hints of anger.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Shakespeare had no tutors but nature and genius. He caught his faults from the bad taste of his contemporaries. In an age still less civilized Shakespeare might have been wilder, but would not have been vulgar.”
—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)
“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)