A trifle, a little, the likeness of a dream, and death comes at the end.

Death comes as the End

"Yes, I see what you mean. Only the things that you can see and touch and eat are real... To write down 'I have two hundred and forty bushels of barley' means nothing unless you have the barley. One could write down lies."

***

"You do not understand, Renisenb. There is an evil that comes from outside, that attacks so that all the world can see, but there is another kind of rottenness that breeds from withthin- that shows no outward sign. It grows slowly, day by day, till at last the whole fruit is rotten- eaten away by disease."

***

Men are made fools by the gleaming limbs of women, and lo, in a minute they are become discoloured cornelians...

***

"You know that in a ll tombs there is always a false door?"
Renisnb stared. "Yes, of course."
"Well, people are like that too. They create a false door- to deceive. If they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhelming authority- and, after a time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody thinks, that they are like that. But behind the door, Renisenb, is bare rock... And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of truth- their true self reasserts itself. For Kait gentleness and submission brought her all she desired- a husband and children. Stupidity made life easier for her- but when reality in the form of danger threatened, her true nature appeared. She did not change, Renisenb- that strength and that ruthlessness were always there."

***

When fear came, it took her unawares. She learned then that courage is the resolution to face the unforeseen- and she had not got that courage.

***

"You're lucky, Renisenb. You have found happiness that is inside everybody's own heart. To most women happiness means coming and going, busied over small affairs. It is care for one's children and laughter and conversation and quarrels with other women and alternate love and anger with a man. It is made up of small thing strung together like beads on a string."

***

"Fear is only incomplete knowledge," said Hori. "When we know, Renisenb, then there will be no more fear."

***

Before s\her eyes, very clearly, she saw spread out the panorama of green fields, rich and lush, and beyond, far away, an enchanted distance of pale rose and amethyst fading into the horizon, and cleaving the two, the pale silver blue of the Nile....

She caught her breath- for with the vision, the sights and sounds around her faded- there came instead a stillness, a richness an infinite satisfaction....

***

Life was not a matter of safety- it must be hazarded to win the game.

Initially, I thought that this book would be something like 'And then there were none' not that it is a bad thing but well... with so many books under her belt it is no wonder that some stories.. or their structure might repeat themselves. I do admit that her characters do overlap in some books haha. But I was proven quite wrong and I must say that Agatha really did her homework on this one. How true I do not know but the entire book really felt Egyptian to me. The beliefs, the gods the names, the Nile etc etc. Though not really my cup of tea but this book does convey some life lessons :)

=do something right=