Horace Walpole

Who was Horace Walpole?

Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford 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, southwest 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 Admiral Lord Nelson.

Famous Quotes:

• I avoid talking before the youth of the age as I would dancing before them: for if one's tongue don't move in the steps of the day, and thinks to please by its old graces, it is only an object of ridicule.
• 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?
• The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveler from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.
• The wisest prophets make sure of the event first.
• Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.
• Life is a comedy for those who think... and a tragedy for those who feel.
• 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.
• Every drop of ink in my pen ran cold.
• Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.
• This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.