AIC Key Quotes

• Mr Birling: '"You're just the kind of son-in-law I always wanted"'
• Mr Birling: '"I'm talking as a hard-headed, practical man of business… there isn't a chance of war"'
• Mr Birling: '"… unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable"'
• Mr Birling: '"…there's a fair chance that I might find my way into the next Honour's list"'
• Mr Birling: '"…we'll try to keep out of trouble during the next few months"'
• Mr Birling: '"…a man has to make his own way – has to look after himself… community and all that nonsense"'
• Mr Birling: '"I can't accept any responsibility"'
• Mr Birling: '"It's my duty to keep labour costs down"'
• Mr Birling: '"She'd had a lot to say – far too much – so she had to go"'
• Mr Birling: '"How do you get on with our Chief Constable, Colonel Roberts?"'
• Mr Birling: '"I've got to cover this up as soon as I can"'
• Mr Birling: '"Probably a Socialist or some sort of crank"'
• Mrs Birling: '"When you're married you'll realize that men with important work to do sometimes have to spend nearly all their time and energy on their business"'
• Mrs Birling: '"You know of course that my husband was Lord Mayor only two years ago and that he's still a magistrate"'
• Mrs Birling: '"I'm very sorry. But I think she had only herself to blame"'
• Mrs Birling: '"Unlike the other three, I did nothing I'm ashamed of"'
• Mrs Birling: '"Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility"'
• Mrs Birling: '"It wasn't I who had her turned out of her employment – which probably began it all"'
• Mrs Birling: '"She was claiming elaborate fine feelings and scruples that were simply absurd in a girl in her position"'
• Mrs Birling: '"I accept no blame at all"; "I blame the young man who was the father of the child"'
• Mrs Birling: '"You're not the type – you don't get drunk"'
• Mrs Birling: '"I was the only one of you who didn't give in to him"'
• Sheila: '"Don't be an ass, Eric"'
• Sheila: '"I've been so happy tonight. Oh I wish you hadn't told me"'
• Sheila: '"I think it was a mean thing to do. Perhaps that spoilt everything for her"'
• Sheila: '"These girls aren't cheap labour. They're people"'
• Sheila: '"I'll never, never do it again to anybody… I feel I can never go there again"'
• Sheila: '"Why – you fool – he knows. Of course he knows"'
• Sheila: '"He's been steadily drinking too much for the past two years"'
• Sheila: '"I don't dislike you as I did half an hour ago, Gerald. In fact, in some odd way, I rather respect you more than I've ever done before"'
• Sheila: '"You and I aren't the same people who sat down to dinner here"'
• Sheila: '"Mother, I think it was cruel and vile"'
• Sheila: '"You're beginning to pretend all over again that nothing much has happened"'
• Sheila: '"It doesn't much matter now, of course – but was he really a police inspector?"'
• Sheila: '"I suppose we're all nice people now"'
• Sheila: '"Well, he inspected us all right. And let's not start dodging and pretending now. Between us we drove that girl to suicide"'
• Eric: '"He could have kept her on instead of throwing her out"'
• Eric: '"That might have started it"'
• Eric: '"I've had a few drinks, including rather a lot of champagne"'
• Eric: '"I was in that state when a chap easily gets nasty"'