Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 – 1816)
Irish playwright and Whig statesman.
If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!
No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?
An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance.
A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.
You're our enemy; lead the way, and we 'll precede.
Where they do agree on the stage, their unanimity is wonderful.
I loved him for himself alone.
I wish, sir, you would practice this without me. I can't stay dying here all night.
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.