Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotes

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

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

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

An oyster may be crossed in love.

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

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.

<small>THEY</small>, by a strange Frenzy driven, fight for Power, for Plunder, and extended Rule—<small>WE</small>, for our Country, our Altars, and our Homes.—<small>THEY</small> follow an <small>ADVENTURER</small>, whom they fear—and obey a Power which they hate—<small>WE</small> 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 <small>WE</small> honour is the <small>PEOPLE'S CHOICE</small>—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.

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.]

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

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...

Such protection as vultures give to lambs.

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

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.

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.

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