Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotes

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

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

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

I was struck all on a heap.

I am compliance itself - when I am not thwarted; - no one more easily led - when I have my own way.

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

An oyster may be crossed in love.

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

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

There never was a scandalous tale without some foundation.

For if there is anything to one's praise, it is foolish vanity to be gratified at it, and if it is abuse - why one is always sure to hear of it from one damned good-natured friend or another!

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

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 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.

An apothecary should never be out of spirits.

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

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.

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

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

Alas! the devil's sooner raised than laid.

SNEER. But, what the deuce, is the confidante to be mad too?
PUFF. To be sure she is. The confidante is always to do whatever her mistress does- weep when she weeps, smile when she smiles, go mad when she goes mad.-Now, Madam Confidante! But keep your madness in the background, if you please.

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

Self confidence is the ground stone of success

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

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.

Fame, the sovereign deity of proud ambition.

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

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

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

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

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

Wit loses its point when dipped in malice.

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

Never say more than is necessary.

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

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

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 ...

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.

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 to raise malicious smiles at the infirmities or misfortunes of those who have never injured us be the province of wit or humour, Heaven grant me a double portion of dullness.

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

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Had I a thousand daughters, by Heaven! I'd as soon have them taught the black art as their alphabet!

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

I own the soft impeachment.

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

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

There is no trusting appearances.

He is the very pineapple of politeness!

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.

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

My hair has been in training some time.

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.

Prudence, like experience, must be paid for.

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.

Believe that story false that ought not to be true.

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!

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

An aspersion upon my parts of speech!

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

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

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

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

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

Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

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