Top 93 Quotes & Sayings by Barbara Mertz

I've been reading ghost stories ever since I could read. I'm immensely curious about ghosts and UFOs and all that stuff, but I'm a very hard-headed person.

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.

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.

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.

Getting an idea for a book is not the problem, but you need 300 ideas - an idea a page.

I do, however, think it would be difficult to write books I don't like to read.

I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to - mostly the latter.

Dogs can be made to feel guilty about anything, including the sins of their owners. Cats refuse to take the blame for anything - including their own sins.

A fondness for martyrdom, especially of the verbal variety, is common to the young.

I never meant to marry. In my opinion, a woman born in the last half of the nineteenth century of the Christian era suffered from enough disadvantages without willfully embracing another.

Everything has happened before - not once, but over and over again. We may not be able to solve our problems through what are pompously called "the lessons of history," but at least we should be able to recognize the issues and perhaps avoid some of the solutions that have failed in the past. And we can take heart in our own dilemma by realizing that other people in other times have survived worse.

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.

Reputations are shaped not by facts but by prejudices.

A lady cannot be blamed if a master criminal takes a fancy to her.

Money was the manure of politics.

The trouble with unknown enemies is that they are so difficult to identify.

Many persons lead lives of crushing boredom.

The opportunity to lecture had restored my good humor.

Now, Mama, Papa, and sir," said Ramses, "please withdraw to the farthest corner and crouch down with your backs turned. It is as I feared; we will never break through by this method. The walls are eight feet thick. Fortunately I brought along a little nitroglycerin--" "Oh, good Gad," shrieked Inspector Cuff.

a church ought to express the joy of religion as well as its majesty.

When one is striding bravely into the future one cannot watch one's footing.

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

kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.

His masculinity was only too apparent

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).

The approval of a cat cannot but flatter the recipient.

love has a very dulling effect on the brain

Conventional history completely ignores half the human race.

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.

The only way to do it is to do it: by writing, writing, writing.

To argue without knowledge is like trying to weave without thread.

But the dust! And the clutter! My housewifely and scholarly instincts were equally offended.

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.

It's not unsporting to thrash a cowardly cad,' said Simmons. 'Everyone knows you don't fight like a gentleman.' 'That might be called an oxymoron,' Ramses said. 'Oh--sorry. Bad form to use long words. Look it up when you get home.' The poor devil didn't know how to fight, like a gentleman or otherwise.

It was hate at first sight, clean, pure and strong as grain alcohol.

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

He hesitated for a moment. Then he said softly, "I love you, Mother." He took my hand and kissed it, and folded my fingers round the stem of the rose. He had stripped it of its thorns.

I knew the answer, and--of course--so did Ramses. He has superb breath control and always gets in ahead of me.

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

A man asking for help ought to at least give directions.

Exaggeration is the cheapest form of humor.

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

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.

People who relate what they believe to be new and startling information like to have such information received with exclamations of astonishment and admiration.

That's maturity-when you realize that you've finally arrived at a state of ignorance as profound as your parents.

there is nothing like a garden to rest the soul.

When emotion supersedes reason ... gullibility must follow.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be the respected patriarch of an ordinary English family." "Very boring, Emerson.

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

Martyrdom is often the result of excessive gullibility.

I had refused Emerson's well-meant offers of assistance, knowing his efforts would be confined to moving the furniture to the wrong places and demanding how much longer the process would take.

When men start talking about 'honor', there is sure to be trouble ahead.

Cats always pick the laps of the people who don't like them.

Noble causes have a deplorable effect on the morals of the persons who espouse them.

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

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.

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

..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.

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

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.)