Top 100 Elizabeth Peters Quotes
#1. He managed to create an atmosphere of sticky sentimentality that disgusted me.
Elizabeth Peters
#2. I had refused Emerson's well-meant offers of assistance, knowing his efforts would be confined to moving the furniture to the wrong places and demanding how much longer the process would take.
Elizabeth Peters
#3. What a nice neat deep trench,' I said. 'Er - should Nefret be down in it?'
'She thought she saw a skull,' Ramses said. 'You know how she is about bones.
Elizabeth Peters
#4. I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.
Elizabeth Peters
#5. Ramses had always been fond of Helen, in his peculiar fashion, but if he had looked at me as he was looking at her, I would have sent for a constable.
Elizabeth Peters
#6. He never comes to see us unless he wants something. Find out what it is, tell him "no," and let us be off.
Elizabeth Peters
#7. I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.
Elizabeth Peters
#9. The room didn't look haunted or eerie now;it was only melancholy in it's faded grandeur.
Elizabeth Peters
#11. I do not doubt he has a low opinion of women too. Gallantry is often a cloak for contempt.
Elizabeth Peters
#12. I may say, without undue egotism, that when I make up my mind to do something, it is done quickly.
Elizabeth Peters
#13. Sekhmet crawled onto Ramses's lap and began to purr. 'The creature oozes like a furry slug,' said Ramses, eyeing it without favor.
Elizabeth Peters
#14. Men like to create unnecessary organizations and give them impressive or mysterious names; this usually ends in increased confusion, and should therefore be ignored.
Elizabeth Peters
#15. When, oh when will justice and reason prevail, and Woman descend from the pedestal on which Man has placed her (in order to prevent her from doing anything except standing perfectly still) and take her rightful place beside him?
Elizabeth Peters
#16. Intervals of munching and mumbling as she crammed food into her mouth. I did not blame Lady Baskerville for her precipitate departure
Elizabeth Peters
#17. Emerson is a remarkable person, considering that he is a man. Which is not saying a great deal.
Elizabeth Peters
#18. My feelings are a fact, not a personal delusion. They are valid for me. What business have you got trying to tell me how I ought to feel?
Elizabeth Peters
#19. The cat required far less attendance than a human child, which is one of the reasons why spinster ladies prefer felines to babies.
Elizabeth Peters
#20. Men are frightful nuisances at times; how much simpler life would be if we women did not have to make allowances for their little peculiarities.
Elizabeth Peters
#21. For some reason his parents had a low opinion of his common sense.
Elizabeth Peters
#22. The combination of physical strength and moral sincerity combined with tenderness of heart is exactly what is wanted in a husband.
Ameila Peabody
Elizabeth Peters
#23. For a time Emerson politely endeavored to conceal his boredom - like most men, he is profoundly disinterested in all children except his own - ...
Elizabeth Peters
#25. E continues to cling to the forlorn hope that I will turn into one of those swooning females ... and fling myself squeeling at him whenever anything happens. Like all men, he clings to his illusions.
Elizabeth Peters
#26. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family."
"Very boring, Emerson.
Elizabeth Peters
#27. Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.
Elizabeth Peters
#28. But he was a perfect gentleman, Aunt Amelia. He did not even try to kiss me, though he wanted to ... You always tell me I must be receptive to broadening experiences. That would have been a broadening experience. And, from what I have observed, a very enjoyable one.
Elizabeth Peters
#29. The sun is born again from the womb of night," he said. "See how the light spreads, remaking the world.
Elizabeth Peters
#30. There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.
Elizabeth Peters
#31. Your trousers are on fire. I would have told you, but you so dislike advice ...
Elizabeth Peters
#32. Speculation,' I retorted, 'is never a waste of time. It clears away the deadwood in the thickets of deduction.
Elizabeth Peters
#34. I hope I number patience among my virtues, but shilly-shallying, when nothing is to be gained by delay, is not a virtue.
Elizabeth Peters
#35. I always carry the book of Holy Writ ... and something to read ...
Elizabeth Peters
#36. I don't know why I should have been so pleased to see Lucas behaving like a gentleman for a change. I never liked the man ... But of course I know why. I would have defended Satan himself if he had been in disfavor with Emerson.
Elizabeth Peters
#37. You are softening toward the young rascal because he is ill, and because he says he likes cats."
"It is an engaging quality, Emerson."
"That depends," said Emerson darkly, "on how he likes them.
Elizabeth Peters
#38. I believe you would square off at Satan if he came around and inconvenienced you!
Elizabeth Peters
#39. There are too many people in the world as it is, but the supply of ancient manuscripts is severely limited.
Elizabeth Peters
#40. I don't think she realized how much she cared for him, or he for her, until the end. Hasn't someone said a woman may be known by the men who love her enough to die for her? (If they haven't, I claim the credit myself.)
Elizabeth Peters
#41. People of that sort seldom fall ill; they are too busy pretending to be ill.
Elizabeth Peters
#43. Nefret said with a gusty sigh, 'Well, that's done it. We may as well join in, Ramses, family arguments are the favorite form of amusement here and this looks like being a loud one.
Elizabeth Peters
#44. I have been accused of being somewhat abrupt in my actions and decisions, but I never act without thought; it is simply that I think more quickly and more intelligently than most people.
Elizabeth Peters
#45. I warn. Give it to me. If you do, no harm will follow, I swear it.' As Emerson might have said, this was the wrong approach to take to me. (In fact, Emerson would have put it more emphatically, using terms like 'red flag to a bull.') I
Elizabeth Peters
#47. Lady Baskerville paced up and down wringing her hands. She required only an armful of weedy flowers to make a somewhat mature Ophelia.
Elizabeth Peters
#48. The only people who are not in awe of Emerson's powerful voice and well-nigh superhuman strength are the members of his own family. He is aware of this, and often complains about it; so from time to time I like to put on a little show of being intimidated. 'Proceed, my dear,' I said apologetically.
Elizabeth Peters
#49. Emerson has what I believe is called a selective memory. He can recall minute details of particular excavations but is likely to forget where he left his hat.
Elizabeth Peters
#50. I knew the answer, and
of course
so did Ramses. He has superb breath control and always gets in ahead of me.
Elizabeth Peters
#51. If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask.
-Emerson
Elizabeth Peters
#52. It is much more sensible to be an optimist instead of a pessimist, for if one is doomed to disappointment, why experience it in advance?
Elizabeth Peters
#53. I have always been of the opinion that your successes are due not so much to your medical skill as your dogged determination. No one would have the audacity to die when you are doctoring them.
Elizabeth Peters
#54. Which he needs time and privacy. What better way of keeping us in Cairo,
Elizabeth Peters
#55. No man but Emerson would have considered walking across the fields in full evening kit, much less expect me to trail my red satin skirts and lace ruffles through the dirt; but Emerson is unique. When he behaves irrationally it is necessary to be firm with him. He
Elizabeth Peters
#56. I would never have supposed that inexperienced girl was capable of such cold-blooded, calculating manipulation!
Elizabeth Peters
#57. You don't sound like a librarian," she said.
"I'm on vacation," Jacqueline laughed. "Well, I supposed there is an image, isn't there? But stereotypes are awfully misleading. there are typical librarians, but not all librarians are typical. Any more than any other profession.
Elizabeth Peters
#59. There is nothing more abominable than being in a state of bodily exhaustion and mental irritation; I was too lethargic to get up and seek some means of occupying my mind, but I was too uneasy to fall asleep.
Elizabeth Peters
#60. Emerson maintains, justly or unjustly, that all religious leaders are showmen at heart.
Elizabeth Peters
#61. The way to get on with a cat is to treat it as an equal - or even better, as the superior it knows itself to be.
Elizabeth Peters
#62. The men had scattered in all directions, which men are inclined to do when women leave them to their own devices for any length of time. I believe they are easily bored.
Elizabeth Peters
#63. Another dead body. Every year it is the same. Every year, another dead body ...
Elizabeth Peters
#65. Emerson, do you mean it?' 'It is only your due, my dear Peabody. Spite and selfishness alone kept me from beginning on them long ago. You deserve pyramids, and pyramids you will have!
Elizabeth Peters
#66. Emerson,' I said, choosing my words with care, 'it is a sheer drop from the cleft down to the base of the cliff. If you are bent on breaking your arm or your leg or your neck or all three, find a place closer to home so we won't have to carry you such a distance.
Elizabeth Peters
#67. (Romanticism is not a quality I despise, but it is inconvenient in a butler.)
Elizabeth Peters
#68. I love you, he said flatly. I
love
you. Shall I elaborate? I have loved you. I do love you. I will love you. I didn't want to love you. I tried not to love you. I will undoubtably regret loving you, but
God help me
I love you
so much.
Elizabeth Peters
#69. The roar of an angry crowd is one of the most terrifying sounds in the world.
Elizabeth Peters
#70. I felt obligated by friendship as well as duty to make certain they were comfortably housed. Since men seem to measure comfort by the degree of dirt and confusion that prevails, I deduced that they were very comfortable.
Elizabeth Peters
#71. A lady cannot be blamed if a master criminal takes a fancy to her.
Elizabeth Peters
#72. I felt about him as I might feel about a friendly, dimwitted dog that had decided to move in with us. He could not be cast out into the street, but he was shedding all over the furniture.
Elizabeth Peters
#73. If all else fails, we will simply have to drug our attendants, overpower the guards, raise the oppressed peasants to arms, and take over the government.
Elizabeth Peters
#74. That was Evelyn's weakness. She was too kind, and too truthful. Both, I have found, are inconvenient character traits.
Elizabeth Peters
#75. I myself have no objection to comfort so long as it does not interfere with more important activities.
Elizabeth Peters
#76. Are we all agreed? Excellent. Then Peabody had better retire to her bed; she is clearly in need of recuperative sleep, she has not made a sarcastic remark for fully ten minutes.
Elizabeth Peters
#77. At the time there were moments of extreme discomfort; but the adventure, the danger, the exhilaration of doubt and peril are in retrospect something I rather regret having lost.
Elizabeth Peters
#78. Americans have many admirable characteristics, but literary taste is rare among them.
Elizabeth Peters
#79. Eavesdropping, Mother?' Ramses inquired.
'It is a shameful habit, but cursed useful,' I said, quoting something he had once said, and was rewarded by one of his rare and rather engaging smiles.
Elizabeth Peters
#82. I fink it is a femuw. A femuw of a winowcowus ... A a-stinct winocowus.
Elizabeth Peters
#84. If she hasn't learned to appreciate my sterling character and spectacular good looks by this time, it's not likely she will.
Elizabeth Peters
#85. I do hope you have some money. I'm getting tired of hitting people.
Elizabeth Peters
#86. His lips parted, but long years of experience with Ramses, and to some extent, Emerson, had taught me how to turn a conversation into a monologue.
Elizabeth Peters
#88. Is is difficult to be angry with a gentleman who pays you compliments, even impertinent compliments. Especially impertinent compliments.
Elizabeth Peters
#89. Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself!
Elizabeth Peters
#90. Men are frail creatures, of course; one does not expect them to exhibit the steadfastness of women.
Elizabeth Peters
#91. I disapprove of matrimony as a matter of principle ... Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself! (Amelia Peabody)
Elizabeth Peters
#93. Since I am not as stupid as my children believe I am, I had immediately realized this might be a ruse, but I was not at all averse to a confrontation. In fact, I had been hoping for some such thing.
Elizabeth Peters
#94. That didn't surprise me; any man with a grain of sense knows that marriage is the only way, these days, to acquire a full-time maid who works twenty-five hours a day. with no time off and no pay except room and board.
Elizabeth Peters
#95. Bah,' said Emerson. 'It relieved my feelings, but it had not the
Elizabeth Peters
#96. It is a misconception that the innocent sleep well. The worse a man is, the more profound his slumber; for if he had a conscience, he would not be a villain. When
Elizabeth Peters
#97. But the dust! And the clutter! My housewifely and scholarly instincts were equally offended.
Elizabeth Peters
#98. There are occasions upon which a candid expression of opinion may be not only rude, but counterproductive. L
Elizabeth Peters
#99. We all know how ruthlessly these American millionaires crush their rivals as they climb to power.
Elizabeth Peters
#100. As the Egyptians say, Ramses can hear a whisper across the Nile.
Elizabeth Peters
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