Home > Author > Richard Brinsley Sheridan
1 " Never say more than is necessary. "
― Richard Brinsley Sheridan
2 " The right honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts. "
― Richard Brinsley Sheridan , Sheridaniana: Or, Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan
3 " Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of the two! "
― Richard Brinsley Sheridan , The Critic
4 " SNEER. But, what the deuce, is the confidante to be mad too?PUFF. To be sure she is. The confidante is always to do whatever her mistress does- weep when she weeps, smile when she smiles, go mad when she goes mad.-Now, Madam Confidante! But keep your madness in the background, if you please. "
5 " Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible. "
6 " There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy. "
7 " 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. "
8 " Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers. "
― Richard Brinsley Sheridan , The School for Scandal
9 " The number of those who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed. "
10 " When of a gossiping circle it was asked, "What are they doing?" The answer was, "Swapping lies. "
11 " A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge. "
12 " To pity, without the power to relieve, is still more painful than to ask and be denied. "
13 " Had I a thousand daughters, by Heaven! I'd as soon have them taught the black art as their alphabet! "
― Richard Brinsley Sheridan , The Rivals
14 " The heart that is conscious of its own integrity is ever slow to credit another´s treachery. "
15 " My hair has been in training some time. "
16 " If to raise malicious smiles at the infirmities or misfortunes of those who have never injured us be the province of wit or humour, Heaven grant me a double portion of dullness. "
17 " -'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?... "
18 " You write with ease, to show your breeding,But easy writing's curst hard reading. "
― Richard Brinsley Sheridan , The Dramatic Works Of Richard Brinsley Sheridan
19 " LADY TEAZLE. Sir Peter — Sir Peter you — may scold or smile, according to your Humour[,] but I ought to have my own way in everything, and what’s more I will too — what! tho’ I was educated in the country I know very well that women of Fashion in London are accountable to nobody after they are married. SIR PETER. Very well! ma’am very well! so a husband is to have no influence, no authority? LADY TEAZLE. Authority! no, to be sure — if you wanted authority over me, you should have adopted me and not married me[:] I am sure you were old enough. "
― Richard Brinsley Sheridan , Delphi Complete Works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Illustrated) (Delphi Series Eight Book 13)
20 " There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature. "
