Elizabeth Peters · 337 pages
Rating: (50.4K votes)
“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)”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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. ”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“There are too many people in the world as it is, but the supply of ancient manuscripts is severely limited.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“Men are frail creatures, of course; one does not expect them to exhibit the steadfastness of women.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“...Peabody had better retire to her bed; she is clearly in need of recuperative sleep, she has not made a sarcastic remark for fully ten minutes.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“love has a most unfortunate effect on the brain,”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“I may say, without undue egotism, that when I make up my mind to do something, it is done quickly.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“Nothing can be more infuriating than being forgiven over and over again.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“The current fashions are impractical for an active person. Skirts so tight one must toddle like an infant, bodices boned so firmly it is impossible to draw a deep breath…. And bustles! Of all the idiotic contrivances foisted upon helpless womankind, the bustle is certainly the worst.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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!”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“I believe you would square off at Satan if he came around and inconvenienced you!”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“he managed to create an atmosphere of sticky sentimentality that disgusted me.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“A woman’s instinct, I always feel, supercedes logic.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“at the time there were moments of extreme discomfort; but the adventure, the danger, the exhilaration of doubt and peril are in retrospect something I rather regret having lost.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“People of that sort seldom fall ill; they are too busy pretending to be ill.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“that was Evelyn’s weakness. She was too kind, and too truthful. Both, I have found, are inconvenient character traits.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“Before us, the moonlight lay upon the tumbled desolation of sand that had once been the brilliant capital of a pharaoh. For a moment I had a vision; I seemed to see the ruined walls rise up again, the stately villas in their green groves and gardens, the white walls of the temples, adorned with brilliantly painted reliefs, the flash of gold-tipped flagstaffs, with crimson pennants flying the breeze. The wide, tree-lined avenues were filled with a laughing throng of white-clad worshipers, going to the temple, and before them all raced the golden chariot of the king, drawn by matched pair of snow-white horses…. Gone. All gone, into the dust to which we must all descend when our hour comes. “Well?”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“semaphored warning as well as I could. He took the hint.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“As for my clothes, they suit the life I lead. The current fashions are impractical for an active person. Skirts so tight one must toddle like an infant, bodices boned so firmly it is impossible to draw a deep breath…And bustles! Of all the idiotic contrivances foisted upon helpless womankind, the bustle is certainly the worst. I wear them, since it is impossible to have a gown made without them, but at least I can insist on sensible dark fabrics and a minimum of ornament. What a fool I should look in puffs and frills and crimson satin—or a gown trimmed with dead birds, like one I saw!”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“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, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“I am not at all alarmed,” I said calmly. “Except for your friend’s health. He seems about to have a fit. Is he commonly subject to weakness of the brain?” The”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“No, no, you needn’t slap me; I am not at all hysterical.”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“So I went upstairs, to console the other half of the pair of heartbroken lovers, and a tedious business it was too, when a little common sense on both parts would have settled the matter to the satisfaction of all. With”
― Elizabeth Peters, quote from Crocodile on the Sandbank
“The hardest thing about being a parent is watching your kids make mistakes. Our instinct is to protect you. But you're right, Deenie. Sometimes we have to step aside and let you make them anyway. The best we can do is be there when you mess up.”
― Lisi Harrison, quote from Where There's a Wolf, There's a Way
“I will always know that the grass, though it seems emerald and glowing in that field on the other side—it isn’t. Flowers grow here. They grow over there. Weeds do, too. But both are wide, and they’re open. And I can lie and cry in one and move and spin in the other, all while knowing this: they’re the same field. And they’re both mine.”
― Andie Mitchell, quote from It Was Me All Along
“OFFICIAL ESTIMATES SAY THAT BETWEEN 1,000 AND 1,500 people sleep rough on the streets of London on any given night. Many of them are young runaways, fleeing abuse of various kinds at home. Some are elderly, people at the end of their lives who have lost everything. Quite a few have mental-health problems, made worse by the impossibility of getting their required medication. All are vulnerable; always cold, always hungry, slowly getting more weak and more scared.”
― Sharon J. Bolton, quote from Now You See Me
“I want to live and work alone. If we get married, do I have to live with you? No, he said. Will you marry me? Do I have to act like a wife? I don’t really want to be a wife. No, you don’t need to be a wife, he said. Will you marry me? If we get married, will we be able to sleep with other people? Yep, he said. Will you marry me? Can I maintain total control of my life? I need total control of my life. Yes, darling. I’m not trying to control you. At all. Will you marry me? I probably don’t want kids. That’s fine. I already have three. They’re great. Will you marry me? If I marry you and it doesn’t work, can we just get divorced? Sure, he said brightly.”
― Amanda Palmer, quote from The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
“Scrolls,” Jambu said. “Um. Those are . . . ?” Starflight looked as if someone had just asked him whether breathing was really necessary.”
― Tui T. Sutherland, quote from The Hidden Kingdom
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