English

• The Inspector: 'They might. But after all it's better to ask for the earth than to take it.'
• The Inspector: 'I don't play golf.'
• The Inspector: 'Are you sure you don't know?'
• The Inspector: 'A nice little promising life there, I thought, and a nasty mess somebody's made of it.'
• The Inspector: 'Yes, but you can't. It's too late. She's dead.'
• The Inspector: 'You think young women ought to be protected against unpleasant and disturbing things?'
• The Inspector: 'You see, we have to share something. If there's nothing else, we'll have to share our guilt.'
• The Inspector: 'he must wait his turn.'
• The Inspector: 'Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges.'
• The Inspector: 'I think you did something terribly wrong – and that you're going to spend the rest of your life regretting it.'
• The Inspector: 'Don't stammer and yammer at me again, man'
• The Inspector: 'Each of you helped to kill her. Remember that. Never forget it.'
• The Inspector: 'One Eva Smith has gone – but there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us'
• The Inspector: 'We don't live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.'
• The Inspector: 'Time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish. Good night.'
• Sheila: 'I'm sorry, Daddy.'
• Sheila:They might. But after all it's better to ask for the earth than to take it
• Sheila: 'But these girls aren't cheap labour- they're people.'
• Sheila: 'But she was very pretty and looked as if she could take care of herself. I couldn't be sorry for her.'
• Sheila: 'why – you fool – he knows. Of course he knows. And I hate to think how much he knows that we don't know yet. You'll see. You'll see.'
• Sheila: 'We all started like that – so confident, so pleased with ourselves until he began asking us questions.'
• Sheila: 'I'm not a child, don't forget. I've a right to know.'
• Sheila: 'No, he's giving us the rope – so that we'll hang ourselves.'
• Sheila: 'It's you two who are being childish – trying not to face the facts.'
• Sheila: 'I suppose we're all nice people now.'
• Sheila: 'I want to get out of this. It frightens me the way you talk.'
• Sheila: 'You began to learn something. And now you've stopped. You're ready to go on in the same old way.'
• Mrs Birling: 'Arthur, you're not supposed to say such things-'
• Mrs Birling: 'What an expression, Sheila! Really the things you girls pick up these days!'
• Mrs Birling: 'Please don't contradict me like that. And in any case I don't suppose for a moment that we can understand why the girl committed suicide. Girls of that class—'
• Mrs Birling: 'Yes. We've done a great deal of useful work in helping deserving cases.'
• Mrs Birling: 'If you think you can bring any pressure to bear upon me, Inspector, you're quite mistaken. Unlike the other three, I did nothing I'm ashamed of or that won't bear investigation.'
• Mrs Birling: 'I'm sorry she should have come to such a horrible end. But I accept no blame for it at all.'
• Mrs Birling: 'If, as she said, he didn't belong to her class, and was some drunken young idler, then that's all the more reason why he shouldn't escape. He should be made an example of. If the girl's death is due to anybody, then it's due to him.'
• Mrs Birling: 'Really, 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 we ought to do.'
• Birling: 'Perhaps we may look forward to the time when Crofts and Birlings are no longer competing but are working together – for lower costs and higher prices.'
• Birling: 'As a hard-headed business man, who has to take risks and know what he's about – I say, you can ignore all this silly pessimistic talk'
• Birling: 'I gather there's a very good chance of a knighthood – so long as we behave ourselves, don't get into the police court or start a scandal – eh?'
• Birling: 'you'd think everybody has to look after everybody else, as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive – community and all that nonsense.'
• Birling: 'Still, I can't accept any responsibility. If we were all responsible for everything that happened to everybody we'd had anything to do with, it would be very awkward, wouldn't it?'