Agatha Christie Quotes

A large fierce-looking dog whom Poirot suspected of having mange growled from his position on a moderately comfortable fourth chair.

Murder, I have often noticed, is a great matchmaker.

Six people were thinking of Rosemary Barton who had died nearly a year ago ...

What pleased the land-owner's husband most was the insertion of a clause which stated that, if in any way our work of excavation was interfered with, or the contract was voided, he would have to pay £1000 down. He immediately went away and boasted of this to all his friends. 'It is a matter of such importance,' he said proudly, 'that unless I give all the assistance in my power, and keep all the promises I have made on my wife's behalf, I shall lose £1000.' Everybody was enormously impressed. '£1000,' they said. 'It is possible he will lose £1000! have you heard that? They can extract from him £1000 if anything goes wrong!' I

But nothing will suit him now but the best! He's got on wonderfully, and naturally he wants something to show for it, but many's the time I wonder where it will end.

You know I want you. You know that I'd give my soul to pick you up in my arms and keep you here, hidden away from the world, forever and ever.

After all, perhaps dirt isn't really so unhealthy as one is brought up to believe.

In conversation, points arise! If a human being converses much, it is impossible for him to avoid the truth! (Hercule Poirot)

Sometimes one sees things clearly years afterwards than one could possibly at the time.

I was born to live dangerously.

gone on Miss Lily.

Hercule Poirot: I am an imbecile. I see only half of the picture.
Miss Lemon: I don't even see that.

I'm afraid of death ... Yes, but that doesn't stop death coming ...

There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you're writing, and aren't writing particularly well.

I suppose what I really am is restless. I want to go everywhere, see everything, do everything. I want to find something. Yes, that's it, I want to find something.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

Ah, I see you are an actress, Miss Marple, as well as an avenger.

But man was a ridiculous animal anyway....

People are capable of surprising one frightfully. One gets an idea of them into one's head, and sometimes it's absolutely wrong. Not always - but sometimes.

Spider's Web * The Unexpected Guest

She could be attractive when she wanted to be but life had taught her that efficiency and competence often paid better results and avoided painful complications.

It's often when you're talking over things that you seem to see your way clear. Your mind gets made up for you sometimes without your knowing how it's happened. Talking leads to a lot of things one way or another.

How often is tittle tattle, as you call it, true! And I think if, as I say, they really examined the facts they would find that it was true nine times out of ten! That's really just what makes people so annoyed about it.

Death, mademoiselle, unfortunately creates a prejudice. A prejudice in favour of the deceased. I heard what you said just now to my friend Hastings. 'A nice bright girl with no men friends.' You said that in mockery of the newspapers. And it is very true - when a young girl is dead, that is the kind of thing that is said. She was bright. She was happy. She was sweet-tempered. She had not a care in the world. She had no undesirable acquaintances. There is a great charity always to the dead. Do you know what I should like this minute? I should like to find someone who knew Elizabeth Barnard and who does not know she is dead! Then, perhaps, I should hear what is useful to me - the truth.

I've a theory that one can always get anything one wants if one will pay the price. And do you know what the price is, nine times out of ten? Compromise.

Do you know this part of the world well?

First Aid and Home Nursing classes were popular during 1913, and at the beginning of 1914. We all went to these, bandaged each other's legs and arms, and even attempted to do neat head-bandaging: much more difficult. We passed our exams, and got a small printed card to prove our success. So great was female enthusiasm at this time that if any man had an accident he was in mortal terror of ministering women closing in on him.
'Don't let those First Aiders come near me!' The cry would rise. 'Don't touch me, girls. Don't touch me!

But then, how do you know?"
"Because I am Hercule Poirot I do not need to be told.

Ah! Madame, I reserve the explanations for the last chapter.

Underneath the quarrels,the misunderstandings, the apparent hostility of everyday life, a real and true affection can exist. Married life, I mused, as I went to bed,
was a curious thing.

Perhaps it was, what you don't realize, my dear (not having killed anyone) our judgement is distorted afterward and everything seems exaggerated.

All you need is a chair
and a table
and a typewriter
and a bit of peace

Never worry about what you say to a man. They're so conceited that they never believe you mean it if it's unflattering.

Best of an island is once you get there - you can't go any farther ... you've come to the end of things ...

Poirot and I behaved in the customary fashion of people being shown over houses. We stood stock still, looking a little ill at ease, murmuring remarks such as: "Very nice." "A very pleasant room." "The morning-room, you say?

He did not know- he simply did not know.
But he felt he ought to know.

how often do we forget that there is hope as well, and that we seldom think about hope? We are ready to despair too soon, we are ready to say, 'What's the good of doing anything?' Hope is the virtue we should cultivate most in this present day and age. We have made ourselves a Welfare State, which has given us freedom from fear, security, our daily bread and a little more than our daily bread; and yet it seems to me that now, in this Welfare State, every year it becomes more difficult for anybody to look forward to the future. Nothing is worth-while. Why? Is it because we no longer have to fight for existence? Is living not even interesting any more? We cannot appreciate the fact of being alive. Perhaps we need the difficulties of space, of new worlds opening up, of a different kind of hardship and agony, of illness and pain, and a wild yearning for survival? Oh

manner. He was very apologetic. So early

Life is always dangerous - never forget that. In the end, perhaps, not only great natural forces, but the work of our own hands may destroy it.

In the second place the seat next to the driving seat was encumbered by several maps, a handbag, three novels, and a large bag of apples. Mrs. Oliver was partial to apples and has indeed been known to eat as many as five pounds straight off while composing the complicated plot of The Death in the Drain Pipe, coming to herself with a start and an incipient stomach-ache an hour and ten minutes after she was due at an important luncheon party given in her honor.

Me and my old man went on a coach trip to Switzerland and Italy once and it was a whole hour further on there. Must be something to do with this Common Market. I don't hold with the Common Market and nor does Mr. Curtain. England's good enough for me.

A man in love is a sorry spectacle.

It is a profound belief of mine that if you can induce a person to talk to you for long enough, on any subject whatever! sooner or later they will give themselves away.

Two people rarely see the same thing.

God bless my soul, woman, the more personal you are the better! This is a story of human beings - not dummies! Be personal - be prejudiced - be catty - be anything you please! Write the thing your own way. We can always prune out the bits that are libellous afterwards!

I have no pity for myself either. So let it be Veronal. But I wish Hercule Poirot had never retired from work and come here to grow vegetable marrows.

Wardress in a prison,was she, that old hippopotamus? That is significant, perhaps."
Sarah said:
"You mean that that is the cause of her tyranny? It is the habit of her former profession."
Gerard shook his head.
"No, that is approaching it from the wrong angle. There is some deep underlying compulsion. She does not love tyranny because she has been a wardress. Let us rather say that she became a wardress because she loved tyranny. In my theory it was a secret desire for power over other human beings that led her to adopt that profession."
His face was very grave.
"There are such strange things buried down in the unconscious. A lust for power - a lust for cruelty - a savage desire to tear and rend - all the inheritance of our past racial memories...They are all there, Miss King, all the cruelty and savagery and lust...We shut the door on them and deny them conscious life, but sometimes - they are too strong."
Sarah shivered. "I know."
Gerard continued: "We see it all around us today - in political creeds, in the conduct of nations. A reaction from humanitarianism - from pity - from brotherly good-will. The creeds sound well sometimes - a wise régime - a beneficent government - but imposed by force - resting on a basis of cruelty and fear. They are opening the door, these apostles of violence, they are letting up the old savagery, the old delight in cruelty for its own sake! Oh, it is difficult - Man is an animal very delicately balanced.

No, my friend, I am not drunk. I have just been to the dentist, and need not return for another six months! Is it not the most beautiful thought?
Poirot

Ah, but you must have a Christmas uncomplicated by murder.

Mademoiselle, I beseech you, do not do what you are doing." "Leave dear Linnet alone, you mean!" "It is deeper than that. Do not open your heart to evil." Her lips fell apart; a look of bewilderment came into her eyes. Poirot went on gravely: "Because - if you do - evil will come ... Yes, very surely evil will come ... It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out.

What one does not tell to Papa Poirot he finds out.

Eh bien, then, you are crazy, or appear crazy or you think you are crazy, and possibly you may be crazy.

Pride comes in handy for masking one's feelingsーit doesn't stop you from feeling them

"Look here," I said, "people like to collect disasters."

The oth­ers went up­stairs, a slow unwilling pro­ces­sion. If this had been an old house, with creak­ing wood, and dark shad­ows, and heav­ily pan­elled walls, there might have been an eerie feel­ing. But this house was the essence of moder­ni­ty. There were no dark corners - ​no pos­si­ble slid­ing pan­els - it was flood­ed with elec­tric light - every­thing was new and bright and shining. There was noth­ing hid­den in this house, noth­ing con­cealed. It had no at­mo­sphere about it. Some­how, that was the most fright­en­ing thing of all. They ex­changed good-​nights on the up­per land­ing. Each of them went in­to his or her own room, and each of them automatical­ly, al­most with­out con­scious thought, locked the door....

The Captain's habit of letting off a revolver at real or imaginary cats was a sore trial to his neighbours.

No one human being knows the full truth about another human being. Not even one's nearest and dearest.

But one thing is certain, he is the master criminal of this age. He controls a marvellous organization. Most of the Peace propaganda during the war was originated and financed by him.

Young men are sadly degenerate nowadays.

As for Nigel, she had no wish to burden him with useless remorse even if a note from her would have achieved that object ... "Poor old Hilary," he would say, "bad luck"
and it might be that, secretly, he would be rather relieved. Because she guessed that she was, slightly, on Nigel's conscience, and he was a man who wished to feel comfortable with himself.

Just look, Letty." Miss Blacklock looked. Her eyebrows went up. She threw a quick scrutinizing glance round the table. Then she read the advertisement out loud. "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m. Friends please accept this, the only intimation.

Poirot: Do not allow Hate into your heart, for it will make a home there.
Jackie: If Love cannot live there, Hate works just as well.

If his father couldn't see that, of course, you joked about a thing because you had felt badly about it - well, he couldn't see it! It wasn't the sort of thing you could explain.

Her real passion in life was the perfection of a filing system beside which all other filing systems should sink into oblivion. She dreamed of such a system at night.

You are not the happy, unthinking child you have always appeared to be, accepting everything at its face value. You are not just one of the women of the household. You are Renisenb who wants to think for herself, who wonders about other people.

It was artificial conversation, but it tided us over the first awkwardness.

Enemies! People these days don't have enemies! Not English people!

In case, I would prefer to say, that some circumstances should strike me in a different light to the one in which it struck you. Human reactions vary and so does human experience.

~Hercule Poirot

A murderer is seldom content with one crime.

At my time of life, one knows that the worst is usually true.

But I don't doubt it will be essentially the same type of crime. The details may be different, but the essentials underlying them will be the same. It's odd, but a criminal gives himself away every time by that. Man is an unoriginal animal," said Hercule Poirot.
"Women," said Mrs. Oliver, " are capable of infinite variation. I should never commit the same type of murder twice running."
"Don't you ever write the same plot twice running?" asked Battle.

He was clearly marked with the stamp of the Philistine.

But I always find it prudent to suspect everybody
just a little. What I say is, you really never know, do you?

But no artist, I now realize, can be satisfied with art alone. There is a natural craving for recognition which cannot be gain-said.

HC: You think I shall differently tomorrow? [about suicide]

J: People do.

HC: Yes, perhaps. If you're doing things in a mood of hot despair. But when it's cold despair, it's different. I've nothing to live for, you see.

~Hilary Craven; Jessop

I find most of the human race extraordinarily repulsive. They probably reciprocate this feeling.

Mrs. McGinty's dead..how did she die?
down on one knee..just like I
mrs. McGinty's dead..how did she die?
holding her hand out..just like I
mrs. McGinty's dead.. how did she die?
sticking her neck out..just like I

I believe, Messieurs, in loyalty
to one's friends and one's family and one's caste.

I don't think I like her very much. She is very good looking, but I sometimes think she is like one of those beautiful pears one gets-they have a rosy flush and a rather waxen appearance-" He shook his head.
"And they're bad inside?" said Lydia. "How funny you should say that, Alfred!"
"Why funny?"
She answered:
"Because-usually-you are such a gentle soul. You hardly ever say an unkind thing about anyone. I get annoyed with you sometimes because yo're not sufficiently, oh, what shall I say?-sufficiently suspicious-not worldly enough!

Your idea of a woman is someone who gets on a chair and shrieks if she sees a mouse. That's all prehistoric.

Archaeologists only look at what lies beneath their feet. The sky and the heavens don't exist for them.

No, Captain Lombard, the matter rests there. It is understood by my client that your reputation is that of a good man in a tight place. I am empowered to hand you one hundred guineas in return for which you will travel to Sticklehaven, Devon. The nearest station is Oakbridge, you will be met there and motored to Sticklehaven where a motor launch will convey you to Soldier Island. There you will hold yourself at the disposal of my client. Lombard

It was so hard to get an idea of people you had never seen. You had to rely on other people's judgment ... Other people's impressions were no good to you. They might be just as true as yours but you couldn't act on them. You couldn't, as it were, use
another person's angle of attack.

To say a man does mad things because he is mad is merely unintelligent and stupid. A madman is as logical and reasoned in his action as a sane man--given his peculiar biased point of view. For example, if a man insists on going out and squatting about in nothing but a loin cloth his conduct seems eccentric in the extreme. But once you know that the man himself is firmly convinced that he is Mahatma Gandhi, then his conduct becomes perfectly reasonable and logical.

The things she said seemed to have very little relation to the last thing she had said a minute before. She was the sort of person, Tommy thought, who might know a great deal more than she chose to reveal.

Perhaps George is going to be assassinated," said Lord Caterham hopefully. "What do you think, Bundle-perhaps I'd better go after all.

Fire in her eyes, ice in her voice.

I thought then, and indeed have thought ever since, what a wonderful person Max is. He is so quiet, so sparing with words of commiseration. He does things. He does just the things you want done and that consoles you more than anything else could.

It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.

If you've lost, you've lost.

An air of infinite reluctance M. Poirot climbed aboard the train. The conductor climbed after him.

But when a man is really in love he can't help looking like a sheep. Now whenever that young man looked he looked like a sheep I take back all is this morning. It is genuine.

I have had too much experience of life to believe in the infallibility of doctors. Some of them are clever men and some of them are not, and half the time the best of them don't know what is the matter with you.

When you're in the middle of a nightmare, something ordinary is the only hope. Anyway, ordinary things are the best. I've always thought so.

She's had a long life of experience in noticing evil, fancying evil, suspecting evil and going forth to do battle with evil.

It is curious to look back over life, over all the varying incidents and scenes - such a multitude of odds and ends. Out of them all what has mattered? What lies behind the selection that memory has made? What makes us choose the things that we have remembered? It is as though one went to a great trunk full of junk in an attic and plunged one's hands into it and said, 'I will have this - and this - and this.

The only clue to what is in people's minds is in their behavior. If a man behaves strangely, oddly, is not himself--

Then you suspect him?

No. That is just what I mean. A man whose mind is evil and whose intentions are evil is conscious of that fact and he knows that he must conceal it all costs. He dare not, therefore, afford any unusual behavior.

The trouble is that practically everything one does nowadays is illegal," said Giles gloomily. "That's why one has a permanent feeling of guilt.

The sons of rich men are proverbially wild.

You yourself are English and yet you do not seem to appreciate the quality of the English reaction to a direct question. It is invariably one of suspicion and the natural result is reticence.