Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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

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

There is no trusting appearances.

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.

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

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.

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

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

An aspersion upon my parts of speech!

’Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion. He is the very pineapple of politeness!

The throne we honour is the people’s choice.

I was struck all of a heap.

I wish sir, you would practise this without me. I can’t stay dying here all night. O Lord, Sir—when a heroine goes mad she always goes into white satin.

If it is abuse,—why one is always sure to hear of it from one damned goodnatured friend or another!

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

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

The Spanish fleet thou canst not see, because—it is not yet in sight!

Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne.

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

Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.

No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?

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

A practitioner in panegyric, or, to speak more plainly, a professor of the art of puffing.