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:
“It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her i’s, to save ink.”
—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)
“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)
“When Sir Robert Walpole was dying, he told Ranby his surgeon that he desired his body might be opened. Ranby acting great horror cried, ‘Good God, my Lord, don’t talk of that!’ ‘Nay,’ said Sir Robert, ‘it will not be till I am dead, and that I shall not feel it—nor you neither.’”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)