Barbara Mertz Quotes

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.

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

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.

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

A man asking for help ought to at least give directions.

If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask. -Emerson

When emotion supersedes reason ... gullibility must follow.

Cats always made up to the people who hated them the most. Depending on how you chose to look at it, it was a touching manifestation of trust, or a malicious pleasure in human discomfort.

The cat Horus shot out from under the table and headed for the door, his ears flattened and his tail straight out. There he encountered Abdullah, who had been waiting for us on the verandah and who had, I supposed, been alarmed by Emerson's shouts and hurried to discover what disaster had prompted them. The cat got entangled in Abdullah's skirts and a brief interval of staggering (by Abdullah), scratching (by Horus) and swearing (by both parties) ensued before Horus freed himself and departed.

The only way to do it is to do it: by writing, writing, writing.

But the dust! And the clutter! My housewifely and scholarly instincts were equally offended.

His masculinity was only too apparent

Nefret had always had an uncanny ability to read his thoughts. 'Did she cry?' she asked sweetly. 'And then you kissed her? You shouldn't have done that. I'm sure you meant well, but kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.

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

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)

There is nothing sadder than the cheerful letters of the dead, expressing hopes that were never fulfilled, ambitions that were never achieved, dreams cut off before they could come to fruition.

The approval of a cat cannot but flatter the recipient.

It was hate at first sight, clean, pure and strong as grain alcohol.

There are too many people in the world as it is, but the supply of ancient manuscripts is severely limited.

I would not be at all surprised to find that it was for gold that Cain committed the first murder. (It happened a very long time ago, and Holy Writ, though no doubt divinely inspired, is a trifle careless about details. God is not a historian).

People who relate what they believe to be new and startling information like to have such information received with exclamations of astonishment and admiration.

Dogs can be made to feel guilty about anything, including the sins of their owners. Cats refuse to take the blame for anything - including their own sins.

there is nothing like a garden to rest the soul.

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.)

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family." "Very boring, Emerson.

Children, I feel, are as much entitled to privacy as human beings.

It is easier to counterfeit old age than youth.

Getting an idea for a book is not the problem, but you need 300 ideas - an idea a page.

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.

Martyrdom is often the result of excessive gullibility.

Spring is always cruel, with its false promise of resurrection.

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

Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.

Who are we really? Combinations of common chemicals that perform mechanical actions for a few years before crumbling back into the original components? Fresh new souls, drawn at random for some celestial cupboard where God keeps an unending supply?Or the same soul, immortal and eternal, refurbished and reused through endless lives, by that thrifty Housekeeper? In Her wisdom and benevolence She wipes off the memory slates, as part of the cleaning process, because if we could remember all the things we have experienced in earlier lives, we might object to risking it again.

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.

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.)

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.

The trouble with unknown enemies is that they are so difficult to identify.

a church ought to express the joy of religion as well as its majesty.

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.

Cats always pick the laps of the people who don't like them.

I never meant to marry. In my opinion, a woman born in the last half of the nineteenth century of the Christian era suffered from enough disadvantages without willfully embracing another.

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

love has a very dulling effect on the brain

Reputations are shaped not by facts but by prejudices.

Conventional history completely ignores half the human race.

I do hope you have some money. I'm getting tired of hitting people.

Giving other people advice is one of the most irritating and useless activities known to man.