Quote

I look upon paradoxes as the impotent efforts of men who, not having capacity to draw attention and celebrity from good sense, fly to eccentricities to make themselves noted.

Horace Walpole

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Horace Walpole
Age: 79 †
Born: 1717
Born: September 24
Died: 1797
Died: March 2
Autobiographer
Novelist
Politician
Writer
London
England
Sir Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole
1st Baron Walpole
Horace Walpole
Earl of Orford
Onuphrio Muralto
Horatio Walpole
4th Earl of Orford
Horatio Walpole
Looks
Draws
Paradoxes
Make
Capacity
Impotent
Good
Style
Eccentricity
Men
Effort
Noted
Attention
Celebrity
Upon
Paradox
Sense
Efforts
Look
Draw
Eccentricities

More quotes by Horace Walpole

Image
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
Horace Walpole
Image
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
Image
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
Image
If a passion for freedom is not in vogue, patriots may sound the alarm till they are weary. The Act of Habeas Corpus, by which prisoners may insist on being brought to trial within a limited time, is the corner stone of our liberty.
Horace Walpole
Image
I have known men of valor cowards to their wives.
Horace Walpole
Image
We are largely the playthings of our fears. To one, fear of the dark to another, of physical pain to a third, of public ridicule to a fourth, of poverty to a fifth, of loneliness ... for all of us, our particular creature waits in ambush.
Horace Walpole
Image
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
Image
It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.
Horace Walpole
Image
It is difficult to divest one's self of vanity because impossible to divest one's self of self-love.
Horace Walpole
Image
Ponder, your comedies are woeful chaff: Write tragedies, when you would make us laugh.
Horace Walpole
Image
I know that I have had friends who would never have vexed or betrayed me, if they had walked on all fours.
Horace Walpole
Image
At last some curious traveller from Lima will visit England, and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul's, like the editions of Baalbec and Palmyra.
Horace Walpole
Image
Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!
Horace Walpole
Image
Old friends are the great blessings of one's later years. Half a word conveys one's meaning. They have a memory of the same events, have the same mode of thinking. I have young relations that may grow upon me, for my nature is affectionate, but can they grow To Be old friends?
Horace Walpole
Image
Had I children, my utmost endeavors would be to make them musicians.
Horace Walpole
Image
The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.
Horace Walpole
Image
Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.
Horace Walpole
Image
Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.
Horace Walpole
Image
The Methodists love your big sinners, as proper subjects to work upon.
Horace Walpole
Image
[King René of Anjou (1409-80)] would not listen to the news of his son having lost the Kingdom of Naples, because he would not bedisturbed when painting a picture of a partridge.
Horace Walpole