An Inspector Calls - Key Quotes Flashcards
“The money’s not the important thing. it’s what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters. And I still feel the same about it, and that’s why I don’t feel like sitting down and having a nice cosy talk”
Eric
“You’re beginning to pretend now that nothing’s really happened at all”
Eric
“She treated me - as if I were a kid. Though I was nearly as old as she was”
Eric
“I wasn’t in love with her or anything - but I liked her - she was pretty and a good sport”
Eric
“My God - I’m not likely to forget”
Eric
“(bitterly) You haven’t made it any easier for me, have you, mother”
Eric
“He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out. I call it tough luck”
Eric
“I left ‘em talking about clothes again… women are potty about ‘em”
Eric
“Everything’s all right now, Sheila. What about this ring?”
Gerald
“I didn’t feel for her as she felt about me”
Gerald
“It’s a favourite haunt of women of the town”
Gerald
“You’ve said your piece, and you’re obviously going to hate this so why on earth don’t you just leave us to it?”
Gerald
“Getting a little heavy-handed, aren’t you, Inspector?”
Gerald
“You seem like a nice well-behaved family”
Gerald
“Hear, hear! And I think my father would agree to that”
Gerald
“Now look at the pair of them - the famous younger generation who know it all. And they can’t even take a joke”
Mr Birling
“(jovially) But the whole thing’s different now”
Mr Birling
“(triumphantly) There you are! Proof positive. the whole story’s just a lot of moonshine”
Mr Birling
“There’s every excuse for what your mother and I did”
Mr Birling
“(angrily) Yes, and you don’t realise yet all you’ve done. Most of this is bound to come out. There’ll be a public scandal”
Mr Birling
“I’ve got to cover this up as soon as I can”
Mr Birling
“I don’t like the tone nor the way you’re handling this inquiry”
Mr Birling
“If you don’t come down sharply on some of these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth”
Mr Birling
“If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we’d had anything to do with, it would be very awkward”
Mr Birling
“The way some of these cranks talk and write now, you’d think everybody has to look after everybody, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive - community and all that nonsense”
Mr Birling
“She’d had a lot to say - far too much - so she had to go”
Mr Birling
“So long as we behave ourselves”
Mr Birling
“As a hard-headed business man, who has to tae risks and knows what he’s about”
Mr Birling
“lower costs and higher prices”
Mr Birling
“They’re over-tired. In the morning they’ll be as amused as we are”
Mrs Birling
“From the way you children talk, you might be wanting to help him instead of us. Now just be quiet so that your father can decide what to do”
Mrs Birling
“He should be made an example of. If the girl’s death is due to anybody, then it’s due to him”
Mrs Birling
“Simply absurd for a girl in her position”
Mrs Birling
“Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility”
Mrs Birling
“Unlike the other three, I did nothing I’m ashamed of or that would bear investigation”
Mrs Birling
“Girls of that class”
Mrs Birling
“What an expression Sheila! Really the things you girls pick up these days!”
Mrs Birling
“Arthur, you’re not supposed to say such things”
Mrs Birling
“You began to learn something. Now you’ve stopped. You’re ready to go on in the same old way”
Sheila
“I want to get out of this. It frightens me the way you talk”
Sheila
“I suppose we’re all nice people now”
Sheila
“It’s you two being childish by trying not to face the facts”
Sheila
“I behaved badly too. I know I did, I’m ashamed of it. But now you’re beginning all over again to pretend that nothing much has happened”
Sheila
“I rather respect you more than I’ve ever done before… You and I aren’t the same people who sat down for dinner here”
Sheila
“You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl. If you do, the the Inspector will just break it down. And it’ll be all the worse when he does”
Sheila
“I’m not a child, don’t forget. I’ve a right to know”
Sheila
“I know I’m to blame and I’m desperately sorry”
Sheila
“why - you fool - he knows. Of course he knows”
Sheila
“I’ll never, never do it again to anybody”
Sheila
“But these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people”
Sheila
“I’m sorry, Daddy”
Sheila
“We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other… if men will not learn that lesson then they will be taught it in fire and bloody and anguish”
Inspector
“One Eva Smith has gone but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us”
Inspector
“Each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it. But then I don’t think you ever will”
Inspector
“Her position now is that she lies with a burnt-out inside on a slab”
Inspector
“I think you did something terribly wrong - and that you’re going to spend the rest of your lives regretting it”
Inspector
“Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges”
Inspector
“Your daughter isn’t living on the moon. She’s here in Brumley too”
Inspector
“You see, we have to share something. If there’s nothing else, we’ll have to share our guilt”
Inspector
“Yes, but you can’t. It’s too late. She’s dead”
Inspector
“Often if it was left to me, L wouldn’t know where to draw the line”
Inspector
“A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody’s made of it”
Inspector
“It’s better to ask for the earth than to take it”
Inspector
“I hate those fat old tarts round the town - the ones I see your respectable friends with”
Eric
“You’re not the kind of father a chap can go to when he’s in trouble”
Eric
“It doesn’t matter to me. The one I knew is dead”
Eric
“And you think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?”
Inspector
“After all y’know, we’re responsible citizens and not criminals”
Mr Birling
“very pleased with life and rather excited”
Stage Directions
“The Germans don’t want war”
Mr Birling
“You’re behaving like a hysterical child tonight”
Mrs Birling
“As if a girl of that sort would refuse money”
Mrs Birling
“No he’s young man. And some young men have far too much to drink”
Inspector
“We often do on the young ones. They’re more impressionable”
Inspector
“At least I’m trying to tell the truth. I expect you’ve done things you’re ashamed of”
Sheila
“I hate those hard-eyed, dough-faced women”
Gerald
“a man has to make his own way - has to look after himself - and his family too”
Mr Birling
