Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 – 1816)
Irish playwright and Whig statesman.
Such protection as vultures give to lambs.
You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading.
Here's to the maiden of bashful fifteen;
Here's to the widow of fifty;
Here's to the flaunting, extravegant quean,
And here's to the housewife that's thrifty.
Let the toast pass —
Drink to the lass;
I'll warrant she'll prove an excuse for the glass.
A practitioner in panegyric, or, to speak more plainly, a professor of the art of puffing.
Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.
Tale-bearers are as bad as the tale-makers.
Sheer necessity,—the proper parent of an art so nearly allied to invention.
Never say more than is necessary.
Had I a heart for falsehood framed,
I ne'er could injure you.
Believe not each accusing tongue,
As most weak persons do;
But still believe that story wrong,
Which ought not to be true!
The Spanish fleet thou canst not see, because—it is not yet in sight!
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.
While his off-heel, insidiously aside,
Provokes the caper which he seems to chide.
'Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion.
As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.
Death's a debt; his mandamus binds all alike — no bail, no demurrer.
No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a young woman.
I leave my character behind me.
Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with.