Richard Brinsley Sheridan - The School for Scandal (1777)

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

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

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

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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

Rowley: I believe there is no sentiment he has more faith in as that 'Charity begins at home'.
Sir Oliver Surface: And his I presume is of that domestic sort which never stirs abroad at all.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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

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

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

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

Richard Brinsley Sheridan