Sekhmet crawled onto Ramses’s lap and began to purr. ‘The creature oozes like a furry slug,’ said Ramses, eyeing it without favor.

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...

Men like to create unnecessary organizations and give them impressive or mysterious names; this usually ends in increased confusion, and should therefore be ignored.

The approval of a cat cannot but flatter the recipient.

They will have difficulties to overcome,’ I admitted. ‘Including the differences in their religions. However, marriage is always a chancy business, Katherine. I have known individuals who appeared perfectly suited, by family background, religion, and...

Men are so easy to manipulate, poor things.

Why is a man with a knife after your blood? Who sent him? I would like to write the fellow a letter of thanks!

It was a needless precaution, I felt sure, but men always enjoy marching around with weapons and flexing their figurative muscles, and I saw no reason to deny them this harmless exercise.

Don’t sound so surprised. I have sensible moments, you know.

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...

I had had my night of weeping…I had purged myself of useless emotions that terrible night, now every nerve every sinew, every thought was bent on a single purpose

If she hasn’t learned to appreciate my sterling character and spectacular good looks by this time, it’s not likely she will.

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...

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.

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

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

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?

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...

For a time Emerson politely endeavored to conceal his boredom – like most men, he is profoundly disinterested in all children except his own – …

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.

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...

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.)

I always carry the book of Holy Writ…and something to read…

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

…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...

Bless the ladies and their charming inconsistency! They demand to be treated like men, but they react like women.

The men had scattered in all directions, which men are inclined to do when women leave them to their own devices for any length of time. I believe they are easily bored.

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...

love has a very dulling effect on the brain

Emerson has what I believe is called a selective memory. He can recall minute details of particular excavations but is likely to forget where he left his hat.