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Earl Horace Walpole
(24 Sep 1717 - 2 Mar 1797)
English politician and writer.
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Science Quotes by Earl Horace Walpole (5 quotes)
Common sense is a fool when it expects fools to act with common sense.
— Earl Horace Walpole
In Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, to Sir Horace Mann (31 Jul 1767), Vol. 1, 356.
In all science error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last.
— Earl Horace Walpole
In H. Southgate (ed.), Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1862), 195. Widely repeated, but with a primary source—can you help? [Since this publication predates the birth of novelist Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole on 13 Mar 1884, any attribution to Hugh Walpole cannot be correct. That includes seeing it on the cover of Hugh Walpole’s, The Wooden Horse (republished by Horse’s Mouth, 2016) —Webmaster]
Oh! But I have better news for you, Madam, if you have any patriotism as citizen of this world and wish its longevity. Mr. Herschel has found out that our globe is a comely middle-aged personage, and has not so many wrinkles as seven stars, who are evidently our seniors. Nay, he has discovered that the Milky Way is not only a mob of stars, but that there is another dairy of them still farther off, whence, I conclude, comets are nothing but pails returning from milking, instead of balloons filled with inflammable air.
— Earl Horace Walpole
Letter to the Countess of Upper Ossory (4 Jul 1785) in W. S. Lewis (ed.), Horace Walpole's Correspondence with the Countess of Upper Ossory (1965), Vol. 33, 474.
This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call serendipity, a very expressive word, which as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavour to explain to you: you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right—now do you understand serendipity?
— Earl Horace Walpole
Letter to Sir Horace Mann (28 Jan 1754), in W. S. Lewis, Warren Hunting Smith and George L. Lam (eds.), Horace Walpole's Correspondence with Sir Horace Mann (1960), Vol. 20, 407-408.
To act with common sense according to the moment, is the best wisdom I know; and the best philosophy, to do one’s duties, take the world as it comes, submit respectfully to one’s lot, bless the Goodness that has given so much happiness with it, whatever it is, and despise affectation.
— Earl Horace Walpole
From Letter (27 May 1776) to Horace Mann, collected in Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, to Sir Horace Mann (1843), Vol. 2, 378.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
