Lindsey Davis quotes - page 2

"Marcus! I thought you must have been developing other interests, but I never expected to find you with your arms locked round a fish -" Then the lull sank to a silence. (Lindsey Davis)
How old now?' 'Thirty. Downhill to the dark boat across the Styx. Probably be sick over the side in Charon's ferry too... View quote
Lindsey Davis
"b>Emperors must make their own rules. View quote
Lindsey Davis
Words are real if other people think they understand their meaning. View quote
Lindsey Davis
The plumber plodded along in silence, like a man who has learned to be polite to lunatics through dealing with civil engineers. View quote
Lindsey Davis
You could tell those two had been married by the way that she ignored him. View quote
Lindsey Davis
If being hit on the head by a falling flower tub could be worth cash to the victim, what price a child's life under civil law? View quote
Lindsey Davis
I despise women who rely on men entirely for their own existence. View quote
Lindsey Davis
Some men are born lucky. Others are born Marcus Didius Falco. View quote
Lindsey Davis
He had the kind of personality that makes you think a boy will grow up to be a public torturer. View quote
Lindsey Davis
When I hear the words 'social order', I start looking around for somebody to pick a fight with. (Lindsey Davis)
Discovering that a fraud exists is only the first step. It has to be proved and the proof has to be absolutely watertight. View quote
Lindsey Davis
In my experience, men who sit in corners are the ones to watch. View quote
Lindsey Davis
We marched him to the turfy shack where he lived with his parents and while the youth sulked Petronius Longus put the whole moral issue in succinct terms to them: Ollia's father was a legionary veteran who had served in Egypt and Syria for over twenty years until he left with double pay, three medals, and a diploma that made Ollia legitimate; he now ran a boxers' training school where he was famous for his high-minded attitude and his fighters were notorious for their loyalty to him... The old fisherman was a toothless, hapless, faithless cove you would not trust too near you with a filleting knife, but whether from fear or simple cunning he co-operated eagerly. The lad agreed to marry the girl and since Silvia would never abandon Ollia here, we decided that the fisherboy had to come back with us to Rome. His relations looked impressed by this result. We accepted it as the best we could achieve. View quote
Lindsey Davis
Petronius would take his free bread buns and run. I happened to know that since Petro had been elected to the watch he had never cast a vote. He believed a man on a public salary should be impartial. I didn't agree but I admired him being so stubborn in his eccentricities. Aufidius Crispus would be an unusual politician if he had allowed for such morality in the voters he was courting. View quote
Lindsey Davis
I like my women in a few wisps of drapery: then I can hope for a chance to remove the wisps. If they start out with nothing I tend to get depressed because either they have just stripped off for someone else or, in my line of work, they are usually dead. View quote
Lindsey Davis
No woman who builds a career on hard work and talent will ever compliment a much younger one who uses the shallow gift of her looks. View quote
Lindsey Davis
Even the impetuous Helena Justina was an advocate of traditional family councils. However, every Roman matron knows that domestic councils were devised by our foremothers purely so the views of the matron of a household may prevail. View quote
Lindsey Davis
Intimidation and awe are how our rulers keep us respectful. View quote
Lindsey Davis
It struck me there might be a reason why Helena Justina whipped along at such a cracking pace: she did not want to be stuck in the wilderness with my corpse. I thanked Jove for her ruthless good sense. I did not want my corpse to be stuck with her in any case. View quote
Lindsey Davis
But mere technical details can be worked out any time. All a hero needs is grit. (Lindsey Davis)
Do you want a cretin or a meddler?' 'Which is better for us?' 'Whoever gets the larger backhander.' 'We won't pay. We are going for probity.' 'Can't afford true justice, eh? View quote
Lindsey Davis
Popular men who laugh at your jokes pose a threat which blatant villains can never command. View quote
Lindsey Davis
On the scale of country crime, rape tended to rank with shouting boo at chickens. View quote
Lindsey Davis
Petronius once told me that pathological murderers tend to start their killing sprees while they are children. Find a man who takes prostitutes off the streets as a personal vocation, and he'll probably have a set of neat jars with his childhood collection of dissected rats. View quote
Lindsey Davis