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

Barbara Mertz

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

Ignorance Maturity Profound
…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
The opportunity to lecture had restored my good humor.
BARBARA MERTZ

Lectures Opportunity Teaching
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
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.
BARBARA MERTZ

Cat Treats Way
kissing someone out of pity is always a mistake.
BARBARA MERTZ

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

Appearance Demand Female
Cats always made up to the people who hated them the most. Depending on how you chose to look at it, it was a touching manifestation of trust, or a malicious pleasure in human discomfort.
BARBARA MERTZ

Cat People Touching
There is nothing sadder than the cheerful letters of the dead, expressing hopes that were never fulfilled, ambitions that were never achieved, dreams cut off before they could come to fruition.
BARBARA MERTZ

Ambition Cutting Dream
The only way to do it is to do it: by writing, writing, writing.
BARBARA MERTZ

Only Way Write Writing
I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to – mostly the latter.
BARBARA MERTZ

Habit Latter Writing
stereotypes are awfully misleading. There are typical librarians, but not all librarians are typical.
BARBARA MERTZ

Librarian Stereo Typical
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).
BARBARA MERTZ

Doubt Gold Long Time
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
Money was the manure of politics.
BARBARA MERTZ

Manure Money Politics
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)
BARBARA MERTZ

Husband Independent Intelligent

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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