Top 90 Elizabeth Peters Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “My feelings are a fact, not a personal delusion. They are valid for me. What business have you got trying to tell me how I ought to feel?”

— Elizabeth Peters

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

— Elizabeth Peters

3. “The way to get on with a cat is to treat it as an equal – or even better, as the superior it knows itself to be.”

— Elizabeth Peters

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

— Elizabeth Peters

5. “I myself have no objection to comfort so long as it does not interfere with more important activities.”

— Elizabeth Peters

6. “Among other emotions – I confess it without shame – was maternal pride. Ramses had displayed the qualities I might have expected from a descendant of the Emersons and the Peabodys. I.”

— Elizabeth Peters

7. “It is a misconception that the innocent sleep well. The worse a man is, the more profound his slumber; for if he had a conscience, he would not be a villain. When.”

— Elizabeth Peters

8. “Speculation,′ I retorted, ’is never a waste of time. It clears away the deadwood in the thickets of deduction.”

— Elizabeth Peters

9. “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.”

— Elizabeth Peters

10. “Men are frail creatures, of course; one does not expect them to exhibit the steadfastness of women.”

— Elizabeth Peters

11. “People of that sort seldom fall ill; they are too busy pretending to be ill.”

— Elizabeth Peters

12. “Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.”

— Elizabeth Peters

13. “Men are frightful nuisances at times; how much simpler life would be if we women did not have to make allowances for their little peculiarities.”

— Elizabeth Peters

14. “There are occasions upon which a candid expression of opinion may be not only rude, but counterproductive. L.”

— Elizabeth Peters

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

— Elizabeth Peters

16. “I do not doubt he has a low opinion of women too. Gallantry is often a cloak for contempt.”

— Elizabeth Peters

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

— Elizabeth Peters

18. “There is no creature better at delicate rudeness than a cat...”

— Elizabeth Peters

19. “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

20. “I believe you would square off at Satan if he came around and inconvenienced you!”

— Elizabeth Peters

21. “As I left I heard Ramses say, ‘May I remark, Papa, dat alt’ough your consideration for my sensitivities was quite unnecessary, I am not without a proper appreciation of de sentiment dat prompted it.”

— Elizabeth Peters

22. “Emerson, do you mean it?’ ‘It is only your due, my dear Peabody. Spite and selfishness alone kept me from beginning on them long ago. You deserve pyramids, and pyramids you will have!”

— Elizabeth Peters

23. “Have I mentioned to you, Peabody, that one of the reasons I adore you is that you are more inclined to beat people with your umbrella than fall weeping on your bed?”

— Elizabeth Peters

24. “I love you, he said flatly. I – love – you. Shall I elaborate? I have loved you. I do love you. I will love you. I didn’t want to love you. I tried not to love you. I will undoubtably regret loving you, but – God help me – I love you – so much.”

— Elizabeth Peters

25. “Goodness, what a nasty suspicious mind the boy has, I thought. He must have got it from me.”

— Elizabeth Peters

26. “And off he marched, his shoulders squared and his eyes lifted to the horizon. He looked so splendid I didn’t have the heart to point out the disadvantages of this posture; when one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one’s footing. Sure enough, he stumbled into Ramses’ pile of potsherds and went sprawling.”

— Elizabeth Peters

27. “I had seen engravings of the Great Pyramid and read extensively about it; I thought I was prepared for the sight. But I was not. It was so much grander than I had imagined! The massive bulk bursts suddenly on one’s sight as one mounts the steep slope leading up to the rocky platform. It fills the sky. And the color! No black-and-white engraving can possibly prepare one for the color of Egyptian limestone, mellow gold in the sunlight against a heavenly-blue vault.”

— Elizabeth Peters

28. “What’s a little hot water, when the cause is just?′ demanded Emerson, who might be said to have spent most of his life up to his neck in boiling liquid.”

— Elizabeth Peters

29. “Emerson bent a tender look upon his son and heir. ‘Very well, Ramses; Papa will find you all the dead bodies you want.”

— Elizabeth Peters

30. “When one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one’s footing.”

— Elizabeth Peters

31. “His blue-and-white striped robe ballooning out in the wind, he rode directly to me and fell off the donkey. Gasping theatrically, he handed me a note and then collapsed face down in the sand. Since the donkey had been doing all the work, I ignored this demonstration. While John bent over the fallen man with expressions of concern I opened the note.”

— Elizabeth Peters

32. “Men believe women are hopeless gossips, but women know men are. The poor creatures are worse than women in some ways, because they cannot admit to themselves that they are gossiping, or doubt the discretion of the individuals in whom they confide. ‘Strictly in confidence, old boy, just between you and me... ’.”

— Elizabeth Peters

33. “I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.”

— Elizabeth Peters

34. “Ten years of Ramses had convinced me that my inability to have more children was not, as I had first viewed it, a sad disappointment, but rather a kindly disposition of all-knowing Providence. One Ramses was enough. Two or more would have finished me.”

— Elizabeth Peters

35. “I was beginning to fear that you had turned into one of those boring females who can only say ‘Yes, my dear’... You know very well, Peabody, that our little discussions are the spice of life – ‘The pepper in the soup of marriage’ – Very aptly put, Peabody. If you become meek and acquiescent, I will put an advertisement in the Times telling Sethos to drop by and collect you. Promise me you will never stop scolding...”

— Elizabeth Peters

36. “Lady Baskerville paced up and down wringing her hands. She required only an armful of weedy flowers to make a somewhat mature Ophelia.”

— Elizabeth Peters

37. “Emerson, we are going to have a hard time solving this case if we hope to do it by using you as bait. There are too many people in Egypt who would like to kill you.”

— Elizabeth Peters

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

— Elizabeth Peters

39. “I was glad Emerson was with me, and even happier that he had not suggested I remain behind. In this, as in all our adventures, we were equal partners. Few men could have accepted that arrangement. Emerson is a remarkable man. But then, if he had not been a remarkable man, I would not have married him.”

— Elizabeth Peters

40. “We should call it a draw. You tried to shoot me, I tried to poison you. As I said before Peabody, we are well matched.”

— Elizabeth Peters

41. “I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.”

— Elizabeth Peters

42. “The cat required far less attendance than a human child, which is one of the reasons why spinster ladies prefer felines to babies.”

— Elizabeth Peters

43. “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

44. “Emerson would thus have the satisfaction of doing what he secretly yearned to do, and the even greater satisfaction of blaming it all on ME.”

— Elizabeth Peters

45. “Emerson maintains, justly or unjustly, that all religious leaders are showmen at heart.”

— Elizabeth Peters

46. “A woman’s instinct, I always feel, supercedes logic.”

— Elizabeth Peters

47. “Cousin John reads Tolkien. No man who does that can be wholly evil.”

— Elizabeth Peters

48. “I may say, without undue egotism, that when I make up my mind to do something, it is done quickly.”

— Elizabeth Peters

49. “A man is at a decided disadvantage when he receives irate brothers and indignant lovers wrapped in a sheet.”

— Elizabeth Peters

50. “Papa, I would like to attend de funeral.’ ‘Why on earth would you want to do that?’ Emerson asked. ‘Dere is a variety of folktale dat claims dat de murderer is drawn to de funeral services of his victim. I suspect dat is pure legend, but a truly scientific mind does not dismiss a t’eory simply because it – ’ ‘Ramses, I am surprised.”

— Elizabeth Peters