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Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotes

1751–1816 Ireland

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (30 October 1751 – 7 July 1816) was an Irish playwright and Whig statesman.

Ireland
Playwrights
Poets
Politicians
Satirists

Also known as: Sheridan, Richard Brinsley

Random Richard Brinsley Sheridan quote

79 quotes

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

The Rivals (1775)

Such protection as vultures give to lambs.

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

The School for Scandal (1777)

The Right Honourable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.

You're our enemy; lead the way, and we 'll precede.

The Rivals (1775)

No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a young woman.

The Rivals (1775)

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

The Rivals (1775)

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

The Rivals (1775)

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

The Rivals (1775)

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

The Duenna (1775)

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.

Be just before you're generous.

The School for Scandal (1777)

The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villainous — licentious — abominable — infernal — Not that I ever read them — no — I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper.

The Critic (1779)

One moral's plain, * * * without more fuss;
Man's social happiness all rests on us:
Through all the drama—whether damn'd! or not—
Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot.

The Rivals (1775)

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...

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

The Duenna (1775)

No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?

The Critic (1779)

I wish, sir, you would practice this without me. I can't stay dying here all night.

The Critic (1779)

The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villanous—licentious—abominable—infernal—not that I ever read them—no—I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper.

Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne.

The Critic (1779)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Richard Brinsley Sheridan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.