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

Barbara Mertz

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.
BARBARA MERTZ

Arms Drug Government
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.
BARBARA MERTZ

Fighting Home Sorry
Since I am not as stupid as my children believe I am, I had immediately realized this might be a ruse, but I was not at all averse to a confrontation. In fact, I had been hoping for some such thing.
BARBARA MERTZ

Believe Children Stupid
…Nefret said with a gusty sigh, ‘Well, that’s done it. We may as well join in, Ramses, family arguments are the favorite form of amusement here and this looks like being a loud one.
BARBARA MERTZ

Amusement Done Looks
If someone lies down and invites you to trample upon him, you are a remarkable individual if you decline the invitation.
BARBARA MERTZ

Down And Lying Weakness
If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask. -Emerson
BARBARA MERTZ

Arrogance Men Surprise
Humor is an excellent method of keeping a tight rein on unproductive displays of emotion.
BARBARA MERTZ

Emotion Excellent Method
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.
BARBARA MERTZ

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

Crisis Lying Men
Superstition has its practical uses.
BARBARA MERTZ

Practical Superstitions Use
No woman really wants a man to carry her off; she only wants him to want to do it.
BARBARA MERTZ

Funny Want Women
To argue without knowledge is like trying to weave without thread.
BARBARA MERTZ

Arguing Thread Trying
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.
BARBARA MERTZ

Character Knowing Writing
Conventional history completely ignores half the human race.
BARBARA MERTZ

Half History Race
The approval of a cat cannot but flatter the recipient.
BARBARA MERTZ

Approval Cat Flatter Recipient
Giving other people advice is one of the most irritating and useless activities known to man.
BARBARA MERTZ

Giving Men People

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

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

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Popular Authors

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