Lindsey Davis Quotes

This was a solitary walk where the sun and the scents of wild flowers would act on a tortured mind like a soothing drug.

It struck me there might be a reason why Helena Justina whipped along at such a cracking pace: she did not want to be stuck in the wilderness with my corpse. I thanked Jove for her ruthless good sense. I did not want my corpse to be stuck with her in any case.

'How old now?'
'Thirty. Downhill to the dark boat across the Styx. Probably be sick over the side in Charon's ferry too…'

Curiosity is a terrible inducement.

Popular men who laugh at your jokes pose a threat which blatant villains can never command.

The plumber plodded along in silence, like a man who has learned to be polite to lunatics through dealing with civil engineers.

There comes a point for a nut-lover, Quintus thought, where funeral food is worth taking a risk, even when you are dining with a megalomaniac who wants to kill you.

In fact, making up a spiteful lie has become respectable. Today's "jesters" are outright public nuisances.

That's the trouble with foreign travel. You spend half your time trying to find edible food, and the rest fighting off men who profess extravagant love to your female companions. I'm amazed how many women believe outright lies from foreigners.

Love and death are gritty subjects. Their appropriate handling by poets does not require myrtle petals and violets.

Smartness always helps in gaining access to the houses of the wealthy. Anyone with a clean face is acceptable to thugs.

No woman who builds a career on hard work and talent will ever compliment a much younger one who uses the shallow gift of her looks.

Petronius would take his free bread buns and run. I happened to know that since Petro had been elected to the watch he had never cast a vote. He believed a man on a public salary should be impartial. I didn’t agree but I admired him being so stubborn in his eccentricities. Aufidius Crispus would be an unusual politician if he had allowed for such morality in the voters he was courting.

The world is full of people slandering their birthplaces, as if they really believe that small-town life is different elsewhere.

You could tell those two had been married by the way that she ignored him.