An Inspector Calls-quotes

• 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.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'Wouldn't dream of it. In fact, I insist upon being one of the family now. I've been trying long enough, haven't I?'
• GERALD CROFT: 'Thank you. And I drink to you – and hope I can make you as happy as you deserve to be.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'Sure to be. Unless Eric's been up to something. (nodding confidentially to Birling.) and that would be awkward, wouldn't it?'
• GERALD CROFT: 'Getting a bit heavy-handed, aren't you, inspector?'
• GERALD CROFT: 'So – for god's sake – don't say anything to the inspector.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'I happened to look in, one night, after a long dull day, and as the show wasn't very bright, I went down into the bar for a drink. It's a favourite haunt of women of the town--'
• GERALD CROFT: ': (distressed) sorry – I – well, I've suddenly realized – taken it in properly – that's she's dead--'
• GERALD CROFT: 'I made her go to Morgan Terrace because I was sorry for her, and didn't like the idea of her going back to the palace bar. I didn't ask for anything in return.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'it's hard to say. I didn't feel about her as she felt about me.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'No, it wasn't. ( he waits a moment, then in a low, troubled tone.) she told me she'd been happier than she'd ever been before – but that she knew it couldn't last – hadn't expected it to last. She didn't blame me at all. I wish to God she had now. Perhaps I'd feel better about it.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'I insisted on a parting gift of enough money – though it wasn't so very much – to see her through to the end of the year.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'in that case – as I'm rather more – upset – by this business than I probably appear to be – and – well, I'd like to be alone for a while – I'd be glad if you'd let me go.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'Well, you were right. There isn't any such inspector. We've been had.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'I did keep a girl last summer. I've admitted it. And I'm sorry, Sheila.'
• GERALD CROFT: 'Everything's all right now, Sheila. (Holds up the ring.) What about this ring?'
• SHEILA: 'Except for all last summer, when you never came near me, and I wondered what had happened to you.'
• SHEILA: 'Oh – Gerald – you've got it – is it the one you wanted me to have?'
• SHEILA: '"I'm sorry, Daddy. Actually I was listening" She looks attentive, as they all do.'
• SHEILA: 'But these girls aren't cheap labour- they're people.'
• SHEILA: 'If she'd been some miserable plain little creature, I don't suppose I'd have done it. But she was very pretty and looked as if she could take care of herself. I couldn't be sorry for her.'
• SHEILA: 'It's the only time I've ever done anything like that, and I'll never, never do it again to anybody.'
• SHEILA: '(laughs rather hysterically) 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: '(eagerly) I know I'm to blame – and I'm desperately sorry – but I can't believe – I won't believe – it's simply my fault that in that in the end she – she committed suicide. That would be too horrible –'
• Wife


  About fifty, a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior
• Eric


  In his early twenties, not quite at ease, half shy, half assertive
• Inspector


  A man in his fifties, dressed in a plain darkish suit of the period. He speaks carefully, weightily, and has a disconcerting habit of looking hard at the person he addresses before actually speaking.
• 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: '(as Inspector arrives) "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"'