Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridanwas an Irish satirist; a playwright and poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as The Rivals, The School for Scandal, The Duenna and A Trip to Scarborough. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig MP in the British House of Commons for Stafford, Westminsterand Ilchester. He is buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. His plays remain a central part of the canon, and...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth30 October 1751
CountryIreland
Fame, the sovereign deity of proud ambition.
Happiness is an exotic of celestial birth.
Wit loses its point when dipped in malice.
O Lord, Sir - when a heroine goes mad she always goes into white satin.
The throne we honour is the people's choice.
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.
Pity those who nature abuses; never those who abuse nature.
Give them a corrupt House of Lords, give them a venal House of Commons, give they a tyrannical Prince, give them a truckling court, and let me have but an unfettered press. I will defy them to encroach a hair's breadth upon the liberties of England.
Self confidence is the ground stone of success
It is not my interest to pay the principal, nor my principle to pay the interest.
Be just before you are generous.
There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature - the malice of a good thing is the barb that makes it stick.
An aspersion upon my parts of speech!
When delicate and feeling souls are separated, there is not a feature in the sky, not a movement of the elements, not an aspiration of the breeze, but hints some cause for a lover's apprehension.