An Inspector Calls: Important Quotes

MR.BIRLING
'lower costs and higher prices'
a man ' has to look after himself-and his family too'
'a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own'
'a man has to make his own way, look after himself and mind his own business'
'my duty to keep labour costs down'
'If you don't come down sharply on some of these people, they'd soon be asking for the earth'
'its better to ask for the earth than to take it"
'Public men, have responsibilities as well as privileges.'
'not the kind of father a chap could go to when he's in trouble.'
'offering money at the wrong time'
'there's nothing to be sorry for, nothing to learn.'

SHEILA
'these girls aren't cheap labour - they're people.'
'used the power that you had, as a daughter of a good customer and also of a man well known in the town, to punish the girl just because she made you feel like that?'
'if she leaves us now','she'll be alone with her responsibility, the rest of tonight, all tomorrow, all the next night.'
'If there is nothing else, we'll have to share our guilt.'
'Everything we said had happened really had happened'
'the famous younger generation who know it all'

MRS.BIRLING
'Girls of that class' (working class, poor)
'As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!'(low moral standards)
'prejudiced against her case'
'owing to your influence, as the most prominent member of the committee, that help was refused the girl?'
'think she had only herself to blame.'
'I did my duty'
'Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility.
'was justified'
'ought to be dealt with very severely'
'take some steps to find this young man and then make sure that he's compelled to confess in public his responsibility'
'you killed her - and the child she'd have had too - my child- your own grandshild'

ERIC BIRLING
'been steadily drinking too much for the last two years.'
'in that state when a chap easily turns nasty'
'threatened to make a row'
'as if she was an animal, a thing, not a person'
'Whoever that chap was, the fact remains that I did what I did'
'The money's not he important thing. It's what happened to the girl and what we all did to her that matters.'

INSPECTOR GOOLE
'you needn't give me any rope'
'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. A chain of events.'
'each of you helped to kill her'
'there are millions and(X3) of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us'
'all intertwined with our lives'
'We don't live alone.'
'We are members of one body.'
'We are responsible for each other'
'if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.'
'inspected us all right'('very artfully')

EVA SMITH/ DAISY RENTON/ MRS BIRLING
'good worker', ready to promote her into what we call a leading operator-head of a small group of girls'
wanted 'twenty-five shillings a week' instead of 'twenty-two and six'
became 'the four or five ring leaders'
'had to go'/'clear out'
'after two months, with no work, no money coming in, and living in lodgings, with no relatives to help her, few friends, lonely, half-starved, she was feeling desperate'
'wonderful stroke of luck' - 'a good deal of influenza about'
'liked working there'(Milwards)
'nice change from a factory'
'enjoyed being among pretty clothes'
'making a good fresh start'
'very gallant - about it'
'there'd never be anything as good again for her'
'just to make it last longer'
'she'd been turned out and turned down too many times'
'was going to have a child'
'A pretty, lively sort of girl, who never did anybody any harm. But she died in misery and agony - hating life'