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.

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:

    “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.’”
    —Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

    “The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel.”
    —Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

    “I have sometimes seen women, who would have been sensible enough, if they would have been content not to be called women of sense—but by aiming at what they had not, they only proved absurd—for sense cannot be counterfeited.”
    —Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

    “[Corneille] was inspired by Roman authors and Roman spirit, Racine with delicacy by the polished court of Louis XIV.”
    —Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

    “When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, ‘Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can’ —and walked out of the room.”
    —Horace Walpole (1717–1797)