Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotes

81 Sourced Quotes

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.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
The art of the physician consists, in a great measure, in exciting hope, and other friendly passions and feelings.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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.

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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.

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

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

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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.

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

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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
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.

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Enter Tilburina stark mad in white satin, and her confidante stark mad in white linen.

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

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge; it blossoms throughout the year.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
On being asked to apologize for calling a fellow member of Parliament a liar:
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.

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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.

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

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Death's a debt; his mandamus binds all alike — no bail, no demurrer.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
To a young lady:
Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
They talk of avarice, lust, ambition, as great passions. It is a mistake; they are little passions. Vanity is the great commanding passion of all.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Mrs Candour: I'll swear her colour is natural—I have seen it come and go—
Lady Teazle: I dare swear you have, ma'am; it goes of a night and comes again in the morning.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
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.
Lady Sneerwell speaking

Richard Brinsley Sheridan
We will not anticipate the past; so mind, young people,—our retrospection will be all to the future.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan