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

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
Activities
Useless
Activity
Advice
Known
Giving
Men
People
Irritating

More quotes by 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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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.
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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.
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I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.
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stereotypes are awfully misleading. There are typical librarians, but not all librarians are typical.
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Humor is an excellent method of keeping a tight rein on unproductive displays of emotion.
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Your trousers are on fire. I would have told you, but you so dislike advice.
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there is nothing like a garden to rest the soul.
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Martyrdom is often the result of excessive gullibility.
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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.
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Sometimes the characters develop almost without your knowing it. You find them doing things you hadn't planned on, and then I have to go back to page 42 and fix things. I'm not recommending it as a way to write. It's very sloppy, but it works for me.
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Reputations are shaped not by facts but by prejudices.
Barbara Mertz
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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).
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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Nothing looks as self-satisfied as a contented cat.
Barbara Mertz
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Is is difficult to be angry with a gentleman who pays you compliments, even impertinent compliments. Especially impertinent compliments.
Barbara Mertz
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Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.
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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kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.
Barbara Mertz
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Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point
Barbara Mertz