An Inspector Calls Quotes

‘You’re Squiffy’

Sheila (to Eric)

‘I speak as a hard-headed business man’

Mr Birling

‘Unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’

Mr Birling

‘We really must stop these silly pretences’

Sheila (to Mrs Birling)

‘Girls of that class’

Mrs Birling

‘You’re not the kind of father a chap can go to when he’s in trouble’

Eric

‘We are members of one body, we are responsible for one another’

Inspector

‘Community and all that nonsense … mixed up together like bees in a hive’

Mr Birling

‘We’ve been had, that’s all’

Mr Birling

‘I can't accept any responsibility for everything that happens to everyone’

Mr Birling

‘You have no power to make me change my mind’

Mrs Birling

‘I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it.’

Mrs Birling

‘I was the only one who didn’t give in to him’

Mrs Birling

‘I accept no blame for it at all’

Mrs Birling

‘Is it the one you wanted me to have? … Look mummy, isn’t it a beauty!’

Sheila

‘I’ll never, never, do it to anybody again’

Sheila

‘They’re not cheap labour, they’re people’

Sheila

‘The point is – you don’t seem to have learnt anything’

Sheila

‘It's you two who are being childish – trying not to face the facts.’

Sheila

‘I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty’

Eric

‘Why shouldn’t they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices.’

Eric

‘The girl’s dead and we all killed her’

Eric

‘I’m rather more – upset – by this business than I probably appear to be –’

Gerald

‘It may have all be nonsense’

Gerald

'He creates at once an impression of massiveness’

Inspector

‘It’s better to ask for the earth than take it’

Inspector

‘I was almost certain for a knighthood in the next Honours List’

Mr Birling

‘A man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own’

Mr Birling

‘Absurd business’

Mrs Birling

‘Eric! You stole money?’

Mrs Birling

‘**[laughs rather hysterically] Why - you fool - he knows. Of course he knows’**

Sheila

‘Mother, I think that was cruel and vile’

Sheila

‘(She hands him the ring.)’

Sheila

‘We drove that girl to commit suicide'

Sheila

‘It’s still the same rotten story whether it’s been told to a police inspector or to somebody else.’

Eric

‘I think Miss Birling ought to be excused…. She’s had a long and exciting day.’

Gerald

‘There’ll be plenty of time, when I’ve gone, for you all to adjust your family relationships.’

Inspector