By deafness one gains in one respect more than one loses; one misses more nonsense than sense.
Horace WalpoleI 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.
Horace WalpoleI know that I have had friends who would never have vexed or betrayed me, if they had walked on all fours.
Horace WalpoleIn the drawing room [of the Queen's palace] hung a Venus and Cupid by Michaelangelo, in which, instead of a bit of drapery, the painter has placed Cupid's foot between Venus's thighs. Queen Caroline asked General Guise, an old connoisseur, if it was not a very fine piece? He replied "Madam, the painter was a fool, for he has placed the foot where the hand should be.
Horace Walpole