← Familiar Quotations / A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to / Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature

Horace Walpole. 1717-1797

MRS. GREVILLE.[389:1] Circa 1793.

Nor peace nor ease the heart can know

Which, like the needle true,

Turns at the touch of joy or woe,

But turning, trembles too.

A Prayer for Indifference.

Harry Vane, Pulteney's toad-eater,

Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1742.

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

Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1770.

A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does not misbecome a monarch.[389:2]

Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1774.

The whole [Scotch] nation hitherto has been void of wit and humour, and even incapable of relishing it.[389:3]

Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 1778.