An Inspector Calls Quotes

Mr Birling Quotes

• “the wretched girls suicide”

• “hard-headed business man”

• “we’re in for a time of steadily increasing prosperity”

• “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable”

• “don’t get into the police court or start a scandal”

• “you’d think everybody has to look after everybody else as if we were all mixed up together like bees in a hive”

• “if you don’t come down sharply on some of these people, they’d soon be asking for the earth”

• “lower costs and higher prices”

• “you’re just the kind of son in law I always wanted

• “Look, Inspector - I’d give thousands - yes, thousands”

• “This makes a difference, y’know. In fact, it makes all the difference”

Sheila Quotes

• “Look - Mummy - isn’t it a beauty?” to “No, Mother - please!”

• “Now I really feel engaged”

• “oh I wish you hadn’t told me”

• “these girls aren’t cheap labour - they’re people”

• [miserably] so I’m really responsible?

• “I know I’m to blame - and I’m desperately sorry”

• “No, because I remember what he said, how he looked, and what he made me feel.”

• “it frightens me the way you talk”

• “You’re squiffy”: Sheila is subject to influences which lie outside of Mrs Birling’s control.

• “Because I was in a furious temper”: Sheila got Eva fired on what could be called a mere whim: There is a huge imbalance in power between the rich and poor in society, in addition to the imbalance in actual money.

Gerald Quotes

• “we’re respectable citizens and not criminals”

• “You couldn't have done anything else.”

• “I've never known an Eva Smith.” : , he did not really know Eva properly. Not in the same way as he knows Sheila.it alludes to him not really knowing any working class woman.

• “Well, I never said I hadn't.” (after Sheila says “I expect you’ve done things you’re afraid of too” Gerald does admit that he is not perfect

• “I don't come into this suicide business.”

• “Mrs Birling, the inspector knows all that. And I don't think it's a very good idea to remind him--” Position and status are not quite that important to Gerald as they are to the elder Birlings.

• "I'm rather more—upset—by this business than I probably appear to be." 

• “I suppose it was inevitable. She was young and pretty and warm hearted – and intensely grateful. I became at once the most important person in her life”

• “I didn't feel about her as she felt about me”: Gerald was socially and financially more powerful

• “all right – I did for a time. Nearly any man would have done”: Priestley stressing that common human weaknesses are shared by everyone despite supposed class differences.

• "Everything's all right now, Sheila. (Holds up the ring.) What about this ring?" 

Mrs Birling Quotes

• “You'll have to get used to that, just as I had.”:

• “What an expression, Sheila! Really the things you girls pick up these days!”

• “Girls of that class”

• “No, of course not. He's only a boy”

• “I don't think we want any further details of this disgusting affair--”

• “I think she had only herself to blame”

• “Yes, I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence – quite deliberate – and naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case.”

• “Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility.”

• “Eric, I can't believe it. There must be some mistake. You don't know what we've been saying.”

• “deserving cases”

Eric Quotes

• “She's got a nasty temper sometimes – but she's not bad really. Good old Sheila!”

• “My god!”

• “Why shouldn't they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices”

• “That might have started it.”

• “Neither have I.” [ever known an Eva Smith]

• “well, I was in that state when a chap easily turns nasty”

• “Yes. I wasn't in love with her or anything – but I liked her – she was pretty and a good sport--”

• “I hate these fat old tarts round the town – the ones I see some of your respectable friends with--”

• “you killed them both – damn you, damn you”

• “it doesn't alter the fact that we all helped to kill her”

• “you're not the kind of father a chap could go to when he's in trouble – that's why.”

Inspector Quotes

• “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.”

• “Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges.”

• “There are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us.”

• “It’s better to ask for the earth than to take it.”

• “We often do on the young ones. They’re more impressionable.”

• “I haven’t much time.”

• “You’re offering the money at the wrong time.”

• “She lies with a burnt-out inside on a slab.”

• “If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”

• “Their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives.”

• “Sometimes there isn’t as much difference as you think.”

Priestley foreshadowing quotes

• [Sheila]: “I don’t believe I will. [Half playful, half serious, to Gerald] So you be careful. :This is said in reply to her mother reproaching Sheila for the comment above and telling Sheila important men will be busy with work and she must get used to that. Sheila says she doesn’t think she will and that is in fact partially true because a few years after the play was set and with the first world war, British women entered the world of work in massive numbers for the first time whilst their men folk were sent to the battlefield.

This comment by Sheila is interesting as it hints to the change in gender-relations which occur during this period and once again the different mentality she has to another of her parents. In the first few lines of the play we can see how Sheila is different to her parents. This represents a possibility for change and a hope for a better, fairer Britain.

• “unless Eric’s been up to something” Gerald

Responsibility Quotes

• “What happened to her then may have determined what happened to her afterwards, and what happened to her afterwards may have driven her to suicide.”

• “That might started it.”

• “you killed them both – damn you, damn you”

• “it doesn't alter the fact that we all helped to kill her”

• “I think she had only herself to blame”

• “Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility.”

Socialist Ideologies Quotes

• “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other.”

• “There are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us.”

• “Their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives.”

• “Why shouldn't they try for higher wages? We try for the highest possible prices”

Capitalist Ideologies Quotes

• “You’re offering the money at the wrong time.”

• “You couldn't have done anything else.”

Social status/class quotes

• “Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges.”

• “It’s better to ask for the earth than to take it.”

• “Sometimes there isn’t as much difference as you think.”

• “Neither have I.” [ever known an Eva Smith]

• “I hate these fat old tarts round the town – the ones I see some of your respectable friends with--”

• “Girls of that class”

• “deserving cases”

• “I don't think we want any further details of this disgusting affair--”

• “Yes, I think it was simply a piece of gross impertinence – quite deliberate – and naturally that was one of the things that prejudiced me against her case.”

• “I don't come into this suicide business.”

• “we’re respectable citizens and not criminals”

Age quotes

• “We often do on the young ones. They’re more impressionable.”

• “What an expression, Sheila! Really the things you girls pick up these days!”

• “No, of course not. He's only a boy”

Gender quotes

• “You'll have to get used to that, just as I had.”

• “No, of course not. He's only a boy”