Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotes

If the thought is slow to come, a glass of good wine encourages it; and when it does come, a glass of good wine rewards it.

Here is the whole set! a character dead at every word.

Justice-august and pure, the abstract idea of all that would be perfect in the spirits and the inspirations of men!-where the mind rises; where the heart expands; where the countenance is ever placid and benign; where her favorite attitude is to stoop to the unfortunate; to hear their cry and to help them; to rescue and relieve; to succor and save; majestic, from its mercy; venerable, from its Lutility; uplifted, without pride; firm without obduracy; beneficent in each preference; lovely, though in her frown!

Fame, the sovereign deity of proud ambition.

I loved him for himself alone.

The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands - we should only spoil it by trying to explain it.

An oyster may be crossed in love.

The Right Honourable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.

A wise woman will always let her husband have her way.

He is the very pineapple of politeness.

Date not the life which thou hast run by the mean of reckoning of the hours and days, which though hast breathed: a life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line, - by deeds, not years.

The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.

The number of those who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed.

Here 's to the maiden of bashful fifteen; Here 's to the widow of fifty; Here 's to the flaunting, extravagant queen, And here 's to the housewife that 's thrifty! Let the toast pass; Drink to the lass; I 'll warrant she 'll prove an excuse for the glass.

Self confidence is the ground stone of success

We will not anticipate the past; so mind, young people,-our retrospection will be all to the future.

A fluent tongue is the only thing a mother don't like her daughter to resemble her in.

The throne we honour is the people's choice.

Pity those whom nature abuses, never those who abuse nature.

Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.

Ay, ay, the best terms will grow obsolete: damns have had their day.

Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you.

A man may think an untruth as well as speak one.

There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature - the malice of a good thing is the barb that makes it stick.

There never was a scandalous tale without some foundation.

Humanity is composed but of two categories, the invalids and the nurses

'Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion.

A readiness to resent injuries is a virtue only in those who are slow to injure.

Steal! to be sure they may; and, egad, serve your best thoughts as gypsies do stolen children,-disfigure them to make 'em pass for their own.

You write with ease, to show your breeding, But easy writing's vile hard reading.

If Parliament were to consider the sporting with reputation of as much importance as sporting on manors, and pass an act for the preservation of fame as well as game, there are many who would thank them for the bill.

An apothecary should never be out of spirits.

Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.

Wit loses its point when dipped in malice.

My valour is certainly going! - it is sneaking off! - I feel it oozing out as it were at the palms of my hands!

Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with.

There 's nothing like being used to a thing.

There's only one truth about war: people die.

If it is abuse, - why one is always sure to hear of it from one damned goodnatured friend or another!

It is by women that nature writes on the hearts of men.

Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of the two!

Do thou snatch treasures from my lips, and I'll take kingdoms back from thine.

In all cases of slander currency, whenever the forger of the lie is not to be found, the injured parties should have a right to come on any of the indorsers.

Happiness is an exotic of celestial birth.

There is no trusting appearances.

Nothing keeps me in such awe as perfect beauty; now, there is something consoling and encouraging in ugliness.

Give them a corrupt House of Lords, give them a venal House of Commons, give they a tyrannical Prince, give them a truckling court, and let me have but an unfettered press. I will defy them to encroach a hair's breadth upon the liberties of England.

The heart that is conscious of its own integrity is ever slow to credit another´s treachery.