Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotes

Where they do agree on the stage, their unanimity is wonderful.

Modesty is a quality in a lover more praised by the women than liked.

I open with a clock striking, to beget an awful attention in the audience - it also marks the time, which is four o clock in the morning, and saves a description of the rising sun, and a great deal about gilding the eastern hemisphere.

Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers.

No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?

A progeny of learning.

Good reading makes for damn hard writing.

I ne'er could any lustre see In eyes that would not look on me; I ne'er saw nectar on a lip But where my own did hope to sip.

Mr. Speaker. I said the honorable member was a liar it is true and I am sorry for it. The honorable member may place the punctuation where he pleases.

Fertilizer does no good in a heap, but a little spread around works miracles all over.

I had rather follow you to your grave than see you owe your life to any but a regular-bred physician.

To smile at the jest which plants a thorn in another's breast is to become a principal in the mischief.

There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy.

As there are three of us come on purpose for the game, you won't be so cantankerous as to spoil the party by sitting out.

Humanity always becomes a conqueror.

When delicate and feeling souls are separated, there is not a feature in the sky, not a movement of the elements, not an aspiration of the breeze, but hints some cause for a lover's apprehension.

When of a gossiping circle it was asked, "What are they doing?" The answer was, "Swapping lies.

Here, my dear Lucy, hide these books. Quick, quick! Fling "Peregrine Pickle" under the toilette -throw "Roderick Random" into the closet -put "The Innocent Adultery" into "The Whole Duty of Man"; thrust "Lord Aimworth" under the sofa! cram "Ovid" behind the bolster; there -put "The Man of Feeling" into your pocket. Now for them.

O Lord, Sir - when a heroine goes mad she always goes into white satin.

For in religion as in friendship, they who profess most are ever the least sincere.

I'm called away by particular business - but I leave my character behind me

An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance!

An aspersion upon my parts of speech!

Men seldom think deeply on subjects in which they have no choice of opinion: they are fearful of encountering obstacles to their faith--as in religion--and so are content with the surface.

Many a wretch has rid on a hurdle who has done less mischief than utterers of forged tales, coiners of scandal, and clippers of reputation.

The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villainous - licentious -abominable - infernal - Not that I ever read them - No - I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper.

Sheer necessity,-the proper parent of an art so nearly allied to invention.

A practitioner in panegyric, or, to speak more plainly, a professor of the art of puffing.

You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.

Our memories are independent of our wills.

Never say more than is necessary.

Prudence, like experience, must be paid for.

Nay, but Jack, such eyes! such eyes! so innocently wild! so bashfully irresolute! Not a glance but speaks and kindles some thought of love! Then, Jack, her cheeks! her cheeks, Jack! so deeply blushing at the insinuations of her tell-tale eyes! Then, Jack, her lips! O, Jack, lips smiling at their own discretion! and, if not smiling, more sweetly pouting - more lovely in sullenness! Then, Jack, her neck! O, Jack, Jack!

I was struck all on a heap.

Those that vow the most are the least sincere.

Had I a heart for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure you.

A bumper of good liquor Will end a contest quicker Than justice, judge or vicar.

A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.

I leave my character behind me.

The silver ore of pure charity is an expensive article in the catalogue of a man's good qualities.

Easy writing's curst hard reading.

It is not my interest to pay the principal, nor my principle to pay the interest.

Easy writings curse is hard reading.

Women govern us; let us render them perfect: the more they are enlightened, so much the more shall we be. On the cultivation of the mind of women depends the wisdom of men. It is by women that nature writes on the hearts of men.

The most threatened group in human societies as in animal societies is the unmated male: the unmated male is more likely to wind up in prison or in an asylum or dead than his mated counterpart. He is less likely to be promoted at work and he is considered a poor credit risk.

Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

Be just before you are generous.

She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.