155 Quotes by Horace Walpole

The farther I travel, the less I wonder at anything: a few days reconcile one to a new spot, or an unseen custom; and men are so much the same everywhere, that one scare perceives a change in situation.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn't. A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.

Heaven mocks the short-sighted views of man.

I hold visions to be wisdom, and would deny them only to ambition, which exists only by the destruction of visions of everybody else

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

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

It is natural for a translator to be prejudiced in favour of his adopted work. More impartial readers may not be so much struck with the beauties of this piece as I was. Yet I am not blind to my author's defects.

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.

The contempt of money is no more a virtue than to wash one's hand is one; but one does not willingly shake hands with a man that never washes his.