“To talk of the weather was once a matter of ridicule. But that soon went out; for the weather is, in fact, so important in this changeable climate, that our health and bread depend on it.”

— Horace Walpole, Walpoliana (1799; 1825 printing), 'Weather', p. 164

About Horace Walpole

1717 – 1797

English writer and politician, author of "The Castle of Otranto" and a prolific correspondent.

“The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel.”

“It always amazes me, when I reflect on the women, who are the first to propagate scandal of one another.”

“It appears to me as odd to write to you of St. Peter's, as it would do to you to write of Westminster-abbey.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”