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.

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

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

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.

I own the soft impeachment.

Satires and lampoons on particular people circulate more by giving copies in confidence to the friends of the parties, than by printing them.

There are a set of malicious, prating, prudent gossips, both male and female, who murder characters to kill time; and will rob a young fellow of his good name before he has years to know the value of it.

A tale of scandal is as fatal to the credit of a prudent lady as a fever is generally to those of the strongest constitutions. But there is a sort of puny, sickly reputation, that is always ailing, yet will wither the robuster characters of a hundred prudes.

Believe that story false that ought not to be true.

Though I never scruple a lie to serve my Master, it hurts one's conscience to be found out!

I'll make my old clothes know who's master. I shall straightaway cashier the hunting-frock, and render my leather breeches incapable. My hair has been in training some time.

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

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.

Wine does but draw forth a man's natural qualities.

There is no trusting appearances.

Easy writings curse is hard reading.

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.

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

I loved him for himself alone.

A progeny of learning.

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

Easy writing's curst hard reading.

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

There never was a scandalous tale without some foundation.

I ne'er could any luster seeIn eyes that would not look on me.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Humanity always becomes a conqueror.

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

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

Fame, the sovereign deity of proud ambition.

Happiness is an exotic of celestial birth.

Wit loses its point when dipped in malice.

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

The throne we honour is the people's choice.

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.

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.

Self confidence is the ground stone of success

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

Be just before you are generous.

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.

An aspersion upon my parts of speech!

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was struck all on a heap.

Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.

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

He is the very pineapple of politeness.

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

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

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

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

An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance!

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!

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.

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

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.

No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?

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.