Quote

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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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
Human
Cats
Humans
Touching
Looks
Manifestation
Made
Cat
Always
Hated
Malicious
People
Trust
Depending
Pleasure
Discomfort
Look
Chose

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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.
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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).
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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.
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Humor is an excellent method of keeping a tight rein on unproductive displays of emotion.
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Exaggeration is the cheapest form of humor.
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I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.
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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.)
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Reputations are shaped not by facts but by prejudices.
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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.
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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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Your trousers are on fire. I would have told you, but you so dislike advice.
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I knew the answer, and--of course--so did Ramses. He has superb breath control and always gets in ahead of me.
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Nothing looks as self-satisfied as a contented cat.
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If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask. -Emerson
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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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Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.
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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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I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.
Barbara Mertz
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I am so tired of ruggedly handsome heroes. I don't know too many ruggedly handsome people who are necessarily nice people. In fact, the beautiful people have a big handicap because they rely too much on their appearance and don't bother to become interesting.
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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.
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