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Good men are never concerned in revolutions, because they will not go the lengths. Sunderland caused the revolution of 1688, while Devonshire stood aloof—the latter was the angel, the former the storm. Bad men and poisonous plants are sometimes of superlative use in skilful hands.

— 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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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.