Richard Brinsley Sheridan quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Richard Brinsley Sheridan Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Richard Brinsley Sheridan on Wise Famous Quotes.

Fame, the sovereign deity of proud ambition.

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

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

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

There never was a scandalous tale without some foundation.

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

My hair has been in training some time.

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

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

Had I a heart for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure you.

Those that vow the most are the least sincere.

A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside.

Through all the drama - whether damned or not -Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot.

Easy writings curse is hard reading.

Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.

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

Good reading makes for damn hard writing.

The right honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.

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

To pity, without the power to relieve, is still more painful than to ask and be denied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A bumper of good liquor will end a contest quicker than justice, judge, or vicar.

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.

I leave my character behind me.

That old man dies prematurely whose memory records no benefits conferred. They only have lived long who have lived virtuously.

There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature.

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

There is no trusting appearances.

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

Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

If Charles is undone, he'll find half his acquaintance ruined too, and that, you know, is a consolation.

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.

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

There's only one truth about war: people die.

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

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

The throne we honour is the people's choice.

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

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

Our memories are independent of our wills.

-'tis an old observation, and a very true one; but what's to be done, as I said before? how will you prevent people from talking? ...

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

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.

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

Death's a debt; his mandamus binds all alike- no bail, no demurrer.

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

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

He is the very pineapple of politeness!

The number of those who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed.

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

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

I own the soft impeachment.

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

Happiness is an exotic of celestial birth.

Wit loses its point when dipped in malice.

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

Alas! the devil's sooner raised than laid.

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

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

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

Never say more than is necessary.

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

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

An oyster may be crossed in love.

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

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

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

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

Prudence, like experience, must be paid for.

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

A progeny of learning.

An aspersion upon my parts of speech!

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.

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

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.

Believe that story false that ought not to be true.

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

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.

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

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

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

Humanity always becomes a conqueror.

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

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

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.

An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance!

There 's nothing like being used to a thing.

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

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

I was struck all on a heap.

When of a gossiping circle it was asked, "What are they doing?" The answer was, "Swapping lies.

I loved him for himself alone.

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

No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?