Elizabeth Peters Quotes

Men are so easy to manipulate, poor things.

Fists and rocks and clubs can do a limited amount of harm, but a gun is entirely different. It makes a weak man feel like a hero and a strong man feel as if he is immortal, and it removes the last inhibition a killer might feel. You don't have to be close to a man to put a bullet in him. You don't have to have to see his face.

No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.

It was a needless precaution, I felt sure, but men always enjoy marching around with weapons and flexing their figurative muscles, and I saw no reason to deny them this harmless exercise.

Another dead body. Every year it is the same. Every year, another dead body...

It's not unsporting to thrash a cowardly cad,' said Simmons. 'Everyone knows you don't fight like a gentleman.'
'That might be called an oxymoron,' Ramses said. 'Oh — sorry. Bad form to use long words. Look it up when you get home.'
The poor devil didn't know how to fight, like a gentleman or otherwise.

Bless the ladies and their charming inconsistency! They demand to be treated like men, but they react like women.

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.

When one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one's footing.

Sekhmet crawled onto Ramses's lap and began to purr. 'The creature oozes like a furry slug,' said Ramses, eyeing it without favor.

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.)

The cat required far less attendance than a human child, which is one of the reasons why spinster ladies prefer felines to babies.

"Now, Mama, Papa, and sir," said Ramses, "please withdraw to the farthest corner and crouch down with your backs turned. It is as I feared; we will never break through by this method. The walls are eight feet thick. Fortunately I brought along a little nitroglycerin — "
"Oh, good Gad," shrieked Inspector Cuff.

The combination of physical strength and moral sincerity combined with tenderness of heart is exactly what is wanted in a husband. — Ameila Peabody

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.