The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Letter to Mason, 12 June 1775, in ‘Letters’.
This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.
Letter to the Countess of Upper Ossory, 16 August 1776, in ‘Letters’
Tell me, ye divines, which is the most virtuous man, he who begets twenty bastards, or he who
sacrifices an hundred thousand lives?
Letter to Mann, 7 July 1778, in ‘Letters’
When will the world know that peace and propagation are the two most delightful things in it?
Letter to Mann, 7 July 1778, in ‘Letters’
The life of any man written under the direction of his family, did nobody honour.
Letter to Cole, 1 September 1778, in ‘Letters’
When men write for profit, they are not very delicate.
Letter to Cole, 1 September 1778, in ‘Letters’
Easy I am so far, that the ill success of the American war has saved us from slavery—in truth, I
am content that liberty will exist anywhere, and amongst Englishmen, even cross the Atlantic.
Letter to Mann, 25 February 1779, in ‘Letters’
When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun with nettles.
Letter to Lady Ailesbury, 10 July 1779, in ‘Letters’
Prognostics do not always prove prophecies,—at least the wisest prophets make sure of the
event first.
Letter to Thos. Walpole, 19 February 1785, in ‘Letters’
It is the story of a mountebank and his zany.
Referring to Boswell’s ‘Tour to the Hebrides’ in a letter to Conway, 6 October 1785, in ‘Letters’
All his [Sir Joshua Reynolds’s] own geese are swans, as the swans of others are geese.
Letter to the Countess of Upper Ossory, 1 December 1786, in ‘Letters’
I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighbouring nations, but for
their insolent and unfounded airs of superiority.
Letter to Hannah More, 14 October 1787, in ‘Letters’
Virtue knows to a farthing what it has lost by not having been vice.
In L. Kronenberger ‘The extraordinary Mr Wilkes’ (1974) pt. 3, ch. 2 ‘The Ruling Class’
11.13 Sir Hugh Walpole 1884-1941
’Tisn’t life that matters! ’Tis the courage you bring to it.
‘Fortitude’ (1913) bk.1, ch. 1
11.14 Sir Robert Walpole, First Earl Of Orford 1676-1745
The balance of power.
House of Commons, 13 February 1741
They now ring the bells, but they will soon wring their hands.
On the declaration of war with Spain, 1739, in W. Coxe ‘Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole’ (1798) vol. 1, p. 618
Madam, there are fifty thousand men slain this year in Europe, and not one Englishman.