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

Barbara Mertz

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Barbara Mertz
Age: 85 †
Born: 1927
Born: September 29
Died: 2013
Died: August 8
Archaeologist
Author
Egyptologist
Novelist
Writer
Canton
Illinois
Elizabeth Peters
Barbara Michaels
Barbara Louise Mertz
Reins
Tight
Display
Excellent
Keeping
Method
Rein
Humor
Displays
Emotion
Unproductive

More quotes by Barbara Mertz

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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.
Barbara Mertz
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Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.
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It is easier to counterfeit old age than youth.
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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.
Barbara Mertz
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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.)
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Spring is always cruel, with its false promise of resurrection.
Barbara Mertz
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...Nefret said with a gusty sigh, 'Well, that's done it. We may as well join in, Ramses, family arguments are the favorite form of amusement here and this looks like being a loud one.
Barbara Mertz
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Martyrdom is often the result of excessive gullibility.
Barbara Mertz
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A fondness for martyrdom, especially of the verbal variety, is common to the young.
Barbara Mertz
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If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask. -Emerson
Barbara Mertz
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Loving someone condemns you to a lifetime of fear. You become painfully conscious of how fragile people are - bundles of brittle bones and vulnerable flesh, breeding grounds for billions of deadly germs and horrible diseases.
Barbara Mertz
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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.
Barbara Mertz
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Getting an idea for a book is not the problem, but you need 300 ideas - an idea a page.
Barbara Mertz
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I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family. Very boring, Emerson.
Barbara Mertz
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A lady cannot be blamed if a master criminal takes a fancy to her.
Barbara Mertz
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Children, I feel, are as much entitled to privacy as human beings.
Barbara Mertz
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..he continues to cling to the forlorn hope that I will turn into one of those swooning females...and fling myself squeeling at him whenever anything happens. Like all men, he clings to his illusions.
Barbara Mertz
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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.
Barbara Mertz
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Cats always pick the laps of the people who don't like them.
Barbara Mertz
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I can do a book in three months if I spend all day, seven days a week at it and, in fact, I work better that way.
Barbara Mertz