Crocodile on the Sandbank Quotes

“I disapprove of matrimony as a matter of principle.... Why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself! (Amelia Peabody)”
― 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

“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

“Men are frail creatures, of course; one does not expect them to exhibit the steadfastness of women.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“God help the poor mummy who encounters you, Peabody,” he said bitterly. “We ought to supply it with a pistol, to even the odds.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“I have been accused of being somewhat abrupt in my actions and decisions, but I never act without thought; it is simply that I think more quickly and more intelligently than most people.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“...Peabody had better retire to her bed; she is clearly in need of recuperative sleep, she has not made a sarcastic remark for fully ten minutes.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“love has a most unfortunate effect on the brain,”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“my nature does not lend itself to the meekness required of a wife in our society. I could not endure a man who would let himself be ruled by me, and I would not endure a man who tried to rule me.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“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, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“Nothing can be more infuriating than being forgiven over and over again.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“There is nothing more abominable than being in a state of bodily exhaustion and mental irritation; I was too lethargic to get up and seek some means of occupying my mind, but I was too uneasy to fall asleep.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“I may say, without undue egotism, that when I make up my mind to do something, it is done quickly.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“why should any independent, intelligent female choose to subject herself to the whims and tyrannies of a husband? I assure you, I have yet to meet a man as sensible as myself!”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“I believe you would square off at Satan if he came around and inconvenienced you!”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“A woman’s instinct, I always feel, supercedes logic.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“No, no, you needn’t slap me; I am not at all hysterical.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“People of that sort seldom fall ill; they are too busy pretending to be ill.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“The current fashions are impractical for an active person. Skirts so tight one must toddle like an infant, bodices boned so firmly it is impossible to draw a deep breath…. And bustles! Of all the idiotic contrivances foisted upon helpless womankind, the bustle is certainly the worst.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“that was Evelyn’s weakness. She was too kind, and too truthful. Both, I have found, are inconvenient character traits.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“he managed to create an atmosphere of sticky sentimentality that disgusted me.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“at the time there were moments of extreme discomfort; but the adventure, the danger, the exhilaration of doubt and peril are in retrospect something I rather regret having lost.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“Peabody, you may as well hear the truth. I am mad about you! Since the day you walked into my tomb and started ordering us all about, I have known you were the only woman for me. Why do you suppose I have sulked and avoided you since we left Amarna? I was contemplating a life without you—a bleak, gray existence, without your voice scolding me and your big bright eyes scowling at me, and your magnificent figure—has no one told you about your figure, Peabody?—striding up and down prying into all sorts of places where you had no business to be…. I knew I couldn’t endure it! If you hadn’t spoken tonight, I should have borrowed Alberto’s mummy costume and carried you off into the desert! There, I have said it. You have stripped away my defenses. Are you satisfied with your victory?” I did not reply in words, but I think my answer was satisfactory. When Emerson had regained his breath he let out a great hearty laugh.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“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, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“Stop," he ordered, in a low but compelling voice. "Do not take another step, or I fire! Dash it," he added vexedly, "does the monstrosity understand English? How absurd this is!"

"It understands the gesture, at least," I called, thrusting head and shoulders through the window. "Lucas, for pity's sake, seize it! Don't stand there deriding its linguistic inadequacies!”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“Before us, the moonlight lay upon the tumbled desolation of sand that had once been the brilliant capital of a pharaoh. For a moment I had a vision; I seemed to see the ruined walls rise up again, the stately villas in their green groves and gardens, the white walls of the temples, adorned with brilliantly painted reliefs, the flash of gold-tipped flagstaffs, with crimson pennants flying the breeze. The wide, tree-lined avenues were filled with a laughing throng of white-clad worshipers, going to the temple, and before them all raced the golden chariot of the king, drawn by matched pair of snow-white horses…. Gone. All gone, into the dust to which we must all descend when our hour comes. “Well?”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“Other attempts ensued. I was visited by streams of attentive nieces and nephews assuring me of their devotion—which had been demonstrated, over the past years, by their absence.”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“I am not at all alarmed,” I said calmly. “Except for your friend’s health. He seems about to have a fit. Is he commonly subject to weakness of the brain?” The”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“So I went upstairs, to console the other half of the pair of heartbroken lovers, and a tedious business it was too, when a little common sense on both parts would have settled the matter to the satisfaction of all. With”
― Elizabeth Peters, Crocodile on the Sandbank

“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, Crocodile on the Sandbank