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Richard Brinsley Sheridan
88 quotes
“An apothecary should never be out of spirits.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: St. Patrick's Day (1775), Act I, sc. i
“Death's a debt; his mandamus binds all alike — no bail, no demurrer.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: St. Patrick's Day (1775), Act II, sc. iv
“He was of opinion that the Press should be unfettered; that its freedom should be, as indeed it was, commensurate with the freedom of the People, and the well-being of a virtuous State: on that account, he thought that even one hundred libels had better be ushered into the world, than one prosecution be instituted which might endanger the liberty of the press of this country.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1798 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (4 April 1798), quoted in The Parliamentary Register; Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Lords and House of Commons, Vol. V (1798), p. 584
“While his off-heel, insidiously aside, Provokes the caper which he seems to chide.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1799 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pizarro (first acted 24 May 1799), Prologue
“Such protection as vultures give to lambs.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1799 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pizarro (first acted 24 May 1799), Act ii, scene 2
“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...”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1799 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pizarro (first acted 24 May 1799), Act iv, Scene 1. Compare: "Who well lives, long lives; for this age of ours / Should not be numbered by years, daies, and hours", Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, Second Week, Fourth D…
“My visits to you may possibly be misunderstood by my friends; but I hope you know, Mr. Addington, that I have an unpurchasable mind.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1802 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to the Prime Minister, Henry Addington (c. 1802), quoted in George Pellow, The Life and Correspondence of The Right Hon. Henry Addington, First Viscount of Sidmouth, Vol. II (1847), p. 105
“He stated it distinctly...as what he conceived was the unalterable resolution of ministers, that no proposal for peace should be entertained, while a single French soldier had a footing on British ground. [This sentiment was universally applauded.]”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1697 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons on the war with France (10 August 1803), quoted in The Parliamentary History of England, From the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, Vol. XXXVI (1820), column 1697
“Take our constitution, wanting certainly as it did many reforms, yet, practically, it afforded the best security that human wisdom had ever given to man.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1156 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (21 July 1812), quoted in The Parliamentary Debates from the Year 1803 to the Present Time, Vol. XXIII (1812), column 1156
“You write with ease to show your breeding, But easy writing's curst hard reading.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Clio's Protest (1819)
“An oyster may be crossed in love.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1779 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The Critic’ (1779) act 3, sc. 1
“The right honorable gentlemen is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Believe not each accusing tongue, As most weak persons do; But still believe that story wrong, Which ought not to be true!”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Nicholas Harris Nicolas, The Carcanet: a Literary Album, Containing Select Passages from the Most Distinguished English Writers (1828), p. 132
“'Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The Rivals’ (1775) act 1, sc. 2
“A progeny of learning.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Never say more than is necessary.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know you are laughing in your sleeve.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He is the very pineapple of politeness!”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Too civil by half.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The Rivals’ (1775) act 3, sc. 4
“Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The Rivals’ (1775) act 4, sc. 1
“We will not anticipate the past; so mind, young people, — our retrospection will be all to the future.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a young woman.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The Rivals’ (1775) act 4, sc. 2
“You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you?”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The Rivals’ (1775) act 4, sc. 2
“The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; we should only spoil it by trying to explain it.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The Rivals’ (1775) act 4, sc. 3
“You're our enemy; lead the way, and we 'll precede.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's nothing like being used to a thing.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My valour is certainly going! — it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands!”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I own the soft impeachment.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Through all the drama — whether damned or not — Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I ne'er could any luster see In eyes that would not look on me.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I loved him for himself alone.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A bumper of good liquor Will end a contest quicker Than justice, judge, or vicar.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Had I a heart for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure you.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The Duenna’ (1775) act 2, sc. 4
“Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1777 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The School for Scandal’ (1777) act 1, sc. 1
“You had no taste when you married me.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1777 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The School for Scandal’ (1777) act 2, sc. 1
“Here is the whole set! a character dead at every word.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1777 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The School for Scandal’ (1777) act 2, sc. 2.
“I leave my character behind me.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1777 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘The School for Scandal’ (1777) act 4, sc. 1
“Be just before you're generous.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) first seen 1001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from: 1001 quotations to inspire you before you die; Quintessence Editions Ltd., 2016, ISBN 978-1-84403-895-4
Also quoted by: Eliza Haywood
“It was an amiable weakness.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy.”
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) said by 1816 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source