Quote

When Shakespeare copied chroniclers verbatim, it was because he knew they were good enough for his audiences. In a more polished age he who could so move our passions, could surely have performed the easier task of satisfying our taste.

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
Age
Task
Copied
Moving
Tasks
Polished
Enough
Taste
Performed
Good
Easier
Audiences
Move
Shakespeare
Knew
Passions
Passion
Satisfying
Audience
Surely
Verbatim

More quotes by Horace Walpole

Image
A man of sense, though born without wit, often lives to have wit. His memory treasures up ideas and reflections he compares themwith new occurrences, and strikes out new lights from the collision. The consequence is sometimes bons mots, and sometimes apothegms.
Horace Walpole
Image
My aversion to them...springs from the perniciousness of that sect to society-I hate Papists, as a man, not as a Protestant. If Papists were only enemies to the religion of other men, I should overlook their errors. As they are foes to liberty, I cannot forgive them.
Horace Walpole
Image
It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it.
Horace Walpole
Image
The best philosophy is to do one's duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one's lot bless the goodness that has given us so much happiness with it.
Horace Walpole
Image
Exercise is the worst thing in the world and as bad an invention as gunpowder.
Horace Walpole
Image
[The] taste [of the French] is too timid to be true taste--or is but half taste.
Horace Walpole
Image
Two clergymen disputing whether ordination would be valid without the imposition of both hands, the more formal one said, Do you think the Holy Dove could fly down with only one wing?
Horace Walpole
Image
Dr. Calder [a Unitarian minister] said of Dr. [Samuel] Johnson on the publications of Boswell and Mrs. Piozzi, that he was like Actaeon, torn to pieces by his own pack.
Horace Walpole
Image
Life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.
Horace Walpole
Image
Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.
Horace Walpole
Image
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
Image
I am persuaded that foolish writers and foolish readers are created for each other and that fortune provides readers as she does mates for ugly women.
Horace Walpole
Image
Without grace no book can live, and with it the poorest may have its life prolonged.
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
Had I children, my utmost endeavors would be to make them musicians.
Horace Walpole
Image
Who has begun has half done. Have the courage to be wise. Begin!
Horace Walpole
Image
The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.
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
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