Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotes

Richard Brinsley Sheridan serves sharp, witty commentary on love and society that entertains the clever.

67 quotes

1. An apothecary should never be out of spirits.

2. Death's a debt; his mandamus binds all alike-no bail, no demurrer.

3. A life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line,-by deeds, not years.

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

5. An oyster may be crossed in love.

6. The right honorable gentlemen is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.

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

8. A progeny of learning.

9. Never say more than is necessary.

10. I know you are laughing in your sleeve.

11. He is the very pineapple of politeness!

12. If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!

13. As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.

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

15. No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a young woman.

16. You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you?

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

18. My valor is certainly going!-it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands!

19. I own the soft impeachment.

20. Through all the drama-whether damned or not- Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot.

21. I ne'er could any luster see In eyes that would not look on me.

22. I loved him for himself alone.

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

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

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

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

27. You had no taste when you married me.

28. Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen; Here's to the widow of fifty; Here's to the flaunting, extravegant quean, 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.

29. An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance.

30. Be just before you're generous.

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

32. 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.

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

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

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

36. Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

37. I wish, sir, you would practice this without me. I can't stay dying here all night.

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

39. I hate to see prudence clinging to the green suckers of youth; 'tis like ivy round a sapling, and spoils the growth of the tree.

40. Easy writing's curst hard reading.

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

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

43. Remember that when you meet your antagonist, to do everything in a mild agreeable manner. Let your courage be keen, but, at the same time, as polished as your sword.

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

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

46. Those that vow the most are the least sincere.

47. There is no trusting appearances.

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

49. Prudence, like experience, must be paid for.

50. Believe not each accusing tongue, As most weak persons do; But still believe that story wrong, Which ought not to be true!

51. 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!

52. The throne we honour is the people's choice.

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

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

55. Easy writings curse is hard reading.

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

57. There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature.

58. There needs no small degree of address to gain the reputation of benevolence without incurring the expense.

59. 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.

60. There never was a scandalous tale without some foundation.

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

62. No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?

63. They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.

64. 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.

65. 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.

66. Fame, the sovereign deity of proud ambition.

67. 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.