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
There are a set of malicious, prating, prudent gossips, both male and female, who murder characters to kill time; and will rob a young fellow of his good name before he has years to know the value of it.
A tale of scandal is as fatal to the credit of a prudent lady as a fever is generally to those of the strongest constitutions. But there is a sort of puny, sickly reputation, that is always ailing, yet will wither the robuster characters of a hundred prudes.
Here is the whole set! a character dead at every word.
I leave my character behind me.
I'm called away by particular business - but I leave my character behind me
You know it is not in my interest to pay the principal; nor is it my principal to pay the interest.
A bumper of good liquor will end a contest quicker than justice, judge, or vicar.
He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.
Remember that when you meet your antagonist, to do everything in a mild agreeable manner. Let your courage be keen, but, at the same time, as polished as your sword.
My valor is certainly going, it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out as it were, at the palms of my hands!
There's no possibility of being witty without a little ill-nature.
You know it is not my interest to pay the principal, or my principal to pay the interest.
The surest way to fail is not to determine to succeed.
We will not anticipate the past; so mind, young people,-our retrospection will be all to the future.