Top 15 Elizabeth Peters Quotes

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

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.

Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.

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)

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.)

Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point

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?

Your trousers are on fire. I would have told you, but you so dislike advice...

I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.

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.

Is is difficult to be angry with a gentleman who pays you compliments, even impertinent compliments. Especially impertinent compliments.

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

Peculiar or not, it is my idea of pleasure. Why, why else do you lead this life you don't enjoy it? Don't talk of duty to me; you men always have some high-sounding excuse for indulging yourselves. You go gallivanting over the earth, climbing mountains, looking for the sources of the Nile; and expect women to sit dully at home embroidering. I embroider very badly. I think I would excavate rather well.

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

Humor is an excellent method of keeping a tight rein on unproductive displays of emotion.