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Though I admire republican principles in theory, yet I am afraid the practice may be too perfect for human nature. We tried a republic last century, and it failed. Let our enemies try next. I hate political experiments.

— Horace Walpole

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More quotes by Horace Walpole

Prognostics do not always prove prophecies, — at least the wisest prophets make sure of the event first.

A tragedy can never suffer by delay: a comedy may, because the allusions or the manners represented in it maybe temporary.

The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel– a solution of why Democritus laughed and Heraclitus wept.

Power is an intoxicating draught; the more a man has, the more he desires.

A careless song, with a little nonsense in it now and then, does not misbecome a monarch.

Letter to Sir Horace Mann (1774)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Horace Walpole (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.