Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotations

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

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

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

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

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

You know it is not my interest to pay the principal, or my principal to pay the interest.

Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

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

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

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

That old man dies prematurely whose memory records no benefits conferred. They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.

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

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

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.

Those that vow the most are the least sincere.

He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.

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

A bumper of good liquor will end a contest quicker than justice, judge, or vicar.

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

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

Pity those who nature abuses; never those who abuse nature.

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.

You know it is not in my interest to pay the principal; nor is it my principal to pay the interest.

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

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

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 surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.

Never say more than is necessary.

Prudence, like experience, must be paid for.

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!

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

A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside.

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

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

Good reading makes for damn hard writing.

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

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.

An oyster may be crossed in love.

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

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

Our memories are independent of our wills.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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...

There 's nothing like being used to a thing.

An apothecary should never be out of spirits.

I leave my character behind me.

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

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.

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.

No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?

There is nothing on earth so easy as to forget, if a person chooses to set about it. I'm sure I have as much forgot your poor, dear uncle, as if he had never existed; and I thought it my duty to do so.

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

Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge; it blossoms through the year. And depend on it that they who are so fond of handling the leaves, will long for the fruit at last.

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!

An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance!

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

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

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

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

He is the very pineapple of politeness.

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

Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.

I was struck all on a heap.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

An aspersion upon my parts of speech!

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.

Be just before you are generous.

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

Self confidence is the ground stone of success

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 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.

The throne we honour is the people's choice.

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

Wit loses its point when dipped in malice.

Happiness is an exotic of celestial birth.

Fame, the sovereign deity of proud ambition.

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

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

Humanity always becomes a conqueror.

I would by no means wish a daughter of mine to be a progeny of learning.

Soft pity never leaves the gentle breast where love has been received a welcome guest.

Whena scandalousstory isbelieved againstone, thereis certainly no comfort like the conscience of having deserved it.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.