Top 100 Elizabeth Peters Quotes
#1. for, failing to capture the attention of a waiter, I hooked one of them by the arm and ordered a whiskey and soda. The buzz of conversation,
Elizabeth Peters
#2. Which he needs time and privacy. What better way of keeping us in Cairo,
Elizabeth Peters
#3. 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
#4. 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
#5. If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask.
-Emerson
Elizabeth Peters
#6. When one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one's footing.
Elizabeth Peters
#7. I knew the answer, and
of course
so did Ramses. He has superb breath control and always gets in ahead of me.
Elizabeth Peters
#8. 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
#9. 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
#10. Nefret was still pouting when Emerson helped her into the carriage. Emerson did not observe the pout. He would not have observed it (men being what they are) even if something had not distracted him.
Elizabeth Peters
#11. God help the poor mummy who encounters you, Peabody," he said bitterly. "We ought to supply it with a pistol, to even the odds.
Elizabeth Peters
#12. Humor is an excellent method of keeping a tight rein on unproductive displays of emotion.
Elizabeth Peters
#13. 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
#14. 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
#16. 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
#17. 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
#18. I had had my night of weeping ... I had purged myself of useless emotions that terrible night, now every nerve every sinew, every thought was bent on a single purpose
Elizabeth Peters
#19. 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
#21. 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. (p9)
Elizabeth Peters
#22. People of that sort seldom fall ill; they are too busy pretending to be ill.
Elizabeth Peters
#23. 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
#24. There are too many people in the world as it is, but the supply of ancient manuscripts is severely limited.
Elizabeth Peters
#25. I believe you would square off at Satan if he came around and inconvenienced you!
Elizabeth Peters
#26. In the silence I heard Bastet, who had retreated under the bed, carrying on a mumbling, profane monologue. (If you ask how I knew it was profane, I presume you have never owned a cat.)
Elizabeth Peters
#27. That was Evelyn's weakness. She was too kind, and too truthful. Both, I have found, are inconvenient character traits.
Elizabeth Peters
#28. 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
#29. 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
#30. A lady cannot be blamed if a master criminal takes a fancy to her.
Elizabeth Peters
#31. 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
#32. The roar of an angry crowd is one of the most terrifying sounds in the world.
Elizabeth Peters
#33. My nature does not lend itself to the meekness required of a wife in our society. I could not endure a man who would let himself be ruled by me, and I would not endure a man who tried to rule me.
Elizabeth Peters
#34. 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
#35. (Romanticism is not a quality I despise, but it is inconvenient in a butler.)
Elizabeth Peters
#36. 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
#37. She was so pitiful as she lay there on the cold, damp ground that only a heart of stone could have been unmoved. There are many hearts of that composition, however.
Elizabeth Peters
#38. The secret of happiness is to enjoy the moment, without allowing unhappy memories or fear of the future to shadow the shining present.
Elizabeth Peters
#39. 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
#40. 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
#42. Another dead body. Every year it is the same. Every year, another dead body ...
Elizabeth Peters
#43. 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
#44. 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
#45. Emerson maintains, justly or unjustly, that all religious leaders are showmen at heart.
Elizabeth Peters
#46. 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
#48. 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
#49. Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point
Elizabeth Peters
#50. I would never have supposed that inexperienced girl was capable of such cold-blooded, calculating manipulation!
Elizabeth Peters
#52. Emerson is a remarkable person, considering that he is a man. Which is not saying a great deal.
Elizabeth Peters
#53. Intervals of munching and mumbling as she crammed food into her mouth. I did not blame Lady Baskerville for her precipitate departure
Elizabeth Peters
#54. 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
#55. 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
#57. 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
#58. I would be the first to admit that my maternal instincts are not well developed
though in defense I must add that the raising of Ramses would have discouraged any woman.
Elizabeth Peters
#59. I may say, without undue egotism, that when I make up my mind to do something, it is done quickly.
Elizabeth Peters
#60. I do not doubt he has a low opinion of women too. Gallantry is often a cloak for contempt.
Elizabeth Peters
#61. The trouble with unknown enemies is that they are so difficult to identify.
Elizabeth Peters
#62. Nothing can be more infuriating than being forgiven over and over again.
Elizabeth Peters
#63. Any writer who waits for inspiration to strike will never finish a book. Inspiration is all very well but it will never replace sheer dogged determination.
Barbara Michaels
#64. 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
#65. The room didn't look haunted or eerie now;it was only melancholy in it's faded grandeur.
Elizabeth Peters
#67. I couldn't help overhearing," he went on. "Grrr," said Emerson. (I assure you, there is really no other way of reproducing this sound.) "Honestly.
Elizabeth Peters
#68. So now you have it. The plot, the whole plot, and nothing but the plot.
Elizabeth Peters
#69. I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.
Elizabeth Peters
#71. 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
#72. 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
#73. I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.
Elizabeth Peters
#74. 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
#75. 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
#76. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family."
"Very boring, Emerson.
Elizabeth Peters
#77. No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.
Elizabeth Peters
#78. 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
#79. I always carry the book of Holy Writ ... and something to read ...
Elizabeth Peters
#80. 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
#82. Speculation,' I retorted, 'is never a waste of time. It clears away the deadwood in the thickets of deduction.
Elizabeth Peters
#83. Your trousers are on fire. I would have told you, but you so dislike advice ...
Elizabeth Peters
#84. 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
#85. As I left I heard Ramses say, 'May I remark, Papa, dat alt'ough your consideration for my sensitivities was quite unnecessary, I am not without a proper appreciation of de sentiment dat prompted it.
Elizabeth Peters
#86. The sun is born again from the womb of night," he said. "See how the light spreads, remaking the world.
Elizabeth Peters
#87. 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
#88. Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.
Elizabeth Peters
#89. He managed to create an atmosphere of sticky sentimentality that disgusted me.
Elizabeth Peters
#90. 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
#92. Stokes is running a little late this morning, ma'am. Like, an emergency, you know. Being a woman of moderate expectations, Jacqueline accepted the stumbling
Elizabeth Peters
#93. 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
#94. 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
#95. Moon dipped low over the dark outlines of the mountains, and the sable sky blazed with stars. There
Elizabeth Peters
#96. Bless the ladies and their charming inconsistency! They demand to be treated like men, but they react like women.
Elizabeth Peters
#97. For some reason his parents had a low opinion of his common sense.
Elizabeth Peters
#98. 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
#99. 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
#100. Can't you ever stop joking?"
"No, why should I? Laughter is one of the two things that make life worthwhile. Aren't you going to ask what the other one is?
Elizabeth Peters
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