"No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it."
— Elizabeth Peters

"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

"Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries."
— Elizabeth Peters (The Mummy Case)

"I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it."
— Elizabeth Peters

"Most men are reasonably useful in a crisis. The difficulty lies in convincing them that the situation has reached a critical point"
— Elizabeth Peters

"Many persons lead lives of crushing boredom."
— Elizabeth Peters

"The combination of physical strength and moral sincerity combined with tenderness of heart is exactly what is wanted in a husband.--Ameila Peabody"
— Elizabeth Peters

"I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny."
— Elizabeth Peters (The Hippopotamus Pool)

""Another dead body. Every year it is the same. Every year, another dead body..."
"
— Elizabeth Peters (Lion in the Valley)

"'...DAMNATION!'

No device of the printer's art, not even capital letters, can indicate the intensity of that shriek of rage. Emerson is known to his Egyptian workers by the admiring sobriquet of Father of Curses. The volume as well as the content of his remarks earned him the title; but this shout was extraordinary even by Emerson's standards, so much so that the cat Bastet, who had become more or less accustomed to him, started violently, and fell with a splash into the bathtub.

The scene that followed is best not described in detail. My efforts to rescue the thrashing feline were met with hysterical resistance; water surged over the edge of the tub and onto the floor; Emerson rushed to the rescue; Bastet emerged in one mighty leap, like a whale broaching, and fled -- cursing, spitting, and streaming water. She and Emerson met in the doorway of the bathroom.

The ensuing silence was broken by the quavering voice of the safragi, the servant on duty outside our room, inquiring if we required his assistance. Emerson, seated on the floor in a puddle of soapy water, took a long breath. Two of the buttons popped off his shirt and splashed into the water. In a voice of exquisite calm he reassured the servant, and then transferred his bulging stare to me.

'I trust you are not injured, Peabody. Those scratches...'

'The bleeding has almost stopped, Emerson. It was not Bastet's fault.'

'It was mine, I suppose,' Emerson said mildly.

'Now, my dear, I did not say that. Are you going to get up from the floor?'

'No,' said Emerson.

He was still holding the newspaper. Slowly and deliberately he separated the soggy pages, searching for the item that had occasioned his outburst. 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.)"
— Elizabeth Peters (The Deeds of the Disturber)

"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)."
— Elizabeth Peters

"..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."
— Elizabeth Peters (The Last Camel Died at Noon)

"If you take a man by usrprise, and behave with sufficient arroance, he will generally do what you ask.
-Emerson"
— Elizabeth Peters (The Last Camel Died at Noon)

"Nefret had always had an uncanny ability to read his thoughts. 'Did she cry?' she asked sweetly. 'And then you kissed her? You shouldn't have done that. I'm sure you meant well, but kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.'"
— Elizabeth Peters (The Falcon at the Portal)

"I would never have supposed that inexperienced girl was capable of such cold-blooded, calculating manipulation! "
— Elizabeth Peters (The Ape Who Guards the Balance)

"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.)"
— Elizabeth Peters (The Ape Who Guards the Balance)

"The cat Horus shot out from under the table and headed for the door, his ears flattened and his tail straight out. There he encountered Abdullah, who had been waiting for us on the verandah and who had, I supposed, been alarmed by Emerson's shouts and hurried to discover what disaster had prompted them. The cat got entangled in Abdullah's skirts and a brief interval of staggering (by Abdullah), scratching (by Horus) and swearing (by both parties) ensued before Horus freed himself and departed. "
— Elizabeth Peters (The Ape Who Guards the Balance)

"When one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one's footing. "
— Elizabeth Peters

"Who are we really? Combinations of common chemicals that perform mechanical actions for a few years before crumbling back into the original components? Fresh new souls, drawn at random for some celestial cupboard where God keeps an unending supply?

or the same soul, immortal and eternal, refurbished and reused through endless lives, by that thrifty Housekeeper? In Her wisdom and benevolence She wipes off the memory slates, as part of the cleaning process, because if we could remember all the things we have experienced in earlier lives, we might object to risking it again. "
— Elizabeth Peters

"Sekhmet crawled onto Ramses's lap and began to purr. 'The creature oozes like a furry slug,' said Ramses, eyeing it without favor."
— Elizabeth Peters (Seeing a Large Cat)

"As Ramses did the same for his mother, he saw that her eyes were fixed on him. She had been unusually silent. She had not needed his father's tactless comment to understand the full implications of Farouk's death. As he met her unblinking gaze he was reminded of one of Nefret's more vivid descriptions. 'When she's angry, her eyes look like polished steel balls.' That's done it, he thought. She's made up her mind to get David and me out of this if she has to take on every German and Turkish agent in the Middle East."
— Elizabeth Peters (He Shall Thunder in the Sky)

"He smiled affably at the burglar, a burly fellow whom he continued to hold with one hand, as easily as if he had been a child. The entire household had been aroused, and a good number of them had joined in, shouting questions and brandishing various deadly instruments. The burglar glared wildly at Emerson, bare to the waist and bulging with muscle - at Gargery and his cudgel - at Selim, fingering a knife even longer than Nefret's - at assorted footmen armed with pokers, spits, and cleavers - and at the giant form of Daoud advancing purposefully toward him. 'It's a bleedin' army!' he gurgled. 'The lyin' barstard said you was some kind of professor!' "
— Elizabeth Peters

"He smiled affably at the burglar, a burly fellow whom he continued to hold with one hand, as easily as if he had been a child. The entire household had been aroused, and a good number of them had joined in, shouting questions and brandishing various deadly instruments. The burglar glared wildly at Emerson, bare to the waist and bulging with muscle - at Gargery and his cudgel - at Selim, fingering a knife even longer than Nefret's - at assorted footmen armed with pokers, spits, and cleavers - and at the giant form of Daoud advancing purposefully toward him. 'It's a bleedin' army!' he gurgled. 'The lyin' barstard said you was some kind of professor!' "
— Elizabeth Peters (The Falcon at the Portal)

"There are too many people in the world as it is, but the supply of ancient manuscripts is severely limited."
— Elizabeth Peters (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 (Crocodile on the Sandbank)