Top 15 Horace Walpole Quotes

English writer and politician (1717–1797)

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Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), more commonly known as Horace Walpole, was a British politician and writer, noted for his collected letters and for having written the first Gothic horror novel, The Castle of Otranto (1764).

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Pen Names: Onuphrio Muralto

Alternative Names: Sir Horace Walpole • Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole • Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford • Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford • Horatio Walpole

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The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.

When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not. A sense of humour was provided to console him for what he is.

He was persuaded he could know no happiness but in the society of one with whom he could for ever indulge the melancholy that had taken possession of his soul.

But alas! my Lord, what is blood! what is nobility! We are all reptiles, miserable, sinful creatures. It is piety alone that can distinguish us from the dust whence we sprung, and whither we must return.

I can forget injuries, but never benefits.

Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.

I have often said, and oftener think, that this world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel – a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.

In science, mistakes always precede the truth.

A bystander often sees more of the game than those that play

Foolish writers and readers are created for each other.

There is no bombast, no similes, flowers, digressions, or unnecessary descriptions. Everything tends directly to the catastrophe.

I fear no bad angel, and have offended no good one.

This is a bad world; nor have I had cause to leave it with regret.