Richard Brinsley Sheridan

"Mr. Sheridan is one of the most perfect comic writers I know, and unites the most uncommon qualities — his plots are sufficiently deep, without the clumsy entanglement and muddy profundity of Congreve — characters strictly in nature — wit without affectation. What talents! — The complete orator in the senate, or in Westminster Hall — and the excellent dramatist in the most difficult province of the drama!"

"The country was highly indebted to him for his fair and manly conduct."

"Mankiewicz started his own independent company in Italy, and spoke to me a few weeks ago of being anxious to make another classic with me and (conceivably) Audrey Hepburn. He suggested Twelfth Night but I tried very hard to woo him to the idea of The School for Scandal, which I have long thought might be an excellent vehicle for the screen, especially with an all-English star cast. For on the stage one can never afford to cast it up to the hilt, whereas even the smallest parts could be played by stars in a picture. Sheridan's style is so much more leisurely than Shakespeare's as regards construction, and would allow of cuts and transpositions without harming the quality of the text. The order of scenes — so important in Shakespeare — matters far less in Sheridan, and the humour seems to me universally comprehensible today for audiences everywhere, whereas in Shakespeare — particularly the comedies — there are so many archaic jokes that you have to keep cutting or leaving dead wood, especially with the low comedy parts and passages."

"He was handsome, not merely in the eyes of a partial sister, but generally allowed to be so. His cheeks had the glow of health, his eyes,—the finest in the world,—the brilliancy of genius, and were soft as a tender and affectionate heart could render them. The same playful fancy, the same sterling and innoxious wit, that was shown afterwards in his writings, cheered and delighted the family circle. I admired—I almost adored him. I would most willingly have sacrificed my life for him."

"[O]ne who was equally the delight of society, and the grace of literature — whom it has been for many years the fashion to quote as a bold reprover of the selfish spirit of party; and throughout a period fruitful of able men and trying circumstances, as the most popular specimen in the British senate of political consistency, intrepidity, and honour."

"An apothecary should never be out of spirits."

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

"I will not say that there have been no instances of sedition; but I will affirm even that the evidence of these appears in so questionable a shape as ought to excite your suspicion. It is supported by a system of spies and informers, a system which has been carried to a greater extent under the present administration, than in any former period of the history of the country. ... [T]he government which avails itself of such support does not exist for the happiness of the people. It is a system which is calculated to engender suspicion, and to beget hostility; it not only destroys all confidence between man and man, but between the governors and the governed; where it does not find sedition, it creates it."

"He was of opinion that the Press should be unfettered; that its freedom should be, as indeed it was, commensurate with the freedom of the People, and the well-being of a virtuous State: on that account, he thought that even one hundred libels had better be ushered into the world, than one prosecution be instituted which might endanger the liberty of the press of this country."

"While his off-heel, insidiously aside, Provokes the caper which he seems to chide."

"Such protection as vultures give to lambs."

"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..."

"My visits to you may possibly be misunderstood by my friends; but I hope you know, Mr. Addington, that I have an unpurchasable mind."

"He stated it distinctly...as what he conceived was the unalterable resolution of ministers, that no proposal for peace should be entertained, while a single French soldier had a footing on British ground. [This sentiment was universally applauded.]"

"THEY, by a strange Frenzy driven, fight for Power, for Plunder, and extended Rule—WE, for our Country, our Altars, and our Homes.—THEY follow an ADVENTURER, whom they fear—and obey a Power which they hate—WE serve a Monarch whom we love—a God whom we adore...They call on us to barter all of Good we have inherited and proved, for the desperate Chance of Something better which they promise.—Be our plain Answer this: The Throne WE honour is the PEOPLE'S CHOICE—the Laws we reverence are our brave Fathers' Legacy—the Faith we follow teaches us to live in bonds of Charity with all Mankind, and die with Hope of Bliss beyond the Grave. Tell your Invaders this; and tell them too, we seek no Change; and, least of all, such Change as they would bring us."

"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."

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

"An oyster may be crossed in love."

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

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

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

"Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory."

"A progeny of learning."

"Never say more than is necessary."

"I know you are laughing in your sleeve."

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

"He is the very pineapple of politeness!"

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

"As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile."

"Too civil by half."

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

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

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

"You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you?"

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

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

"There's nothing like being used to a thing."

"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."

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

"I own the soft impeachment."

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

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

"I loved him for himself alone."

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

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

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

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

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

"You had no taste when you married me."

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