Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It's not a man's working hours that are important--it's his leisure hours. That's the mistake we all make.
I never can stand seeing people pleased with themselves,” said Joanna. “It arouses all my worst instincts.
Very unfortunately, she had no husband. She had never had a husband, and therefore did not kill a husband.
Difficulties are made to be overcome ~ Miss Felicity Lemon, Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Plymouth Express
The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.
Surfing is like that. You are either vigorously cursing or else you are idiotically pleased with yourself.
Men don't understand how their mannerisms can get on women's nerves so that you feel you just have to snap.
the detective's highest talent lay in the gentle art of seeking favours under the guise of conferring them!
Doctors can do almost anything nowadays, can't they, unless they kill you while they're trying to cure you.
Words are such uncertain things, they so often sound well but mean the opposite of what one thinks they do.
An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.
If I were at any time to set out on a career of deceit, it would be of Miss Marple that I should be afraid.
There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.
Who is there who has not felt a sudden startled pang at reliving an old experience or feeling an old emotion?
She was a lucky woman who had established a happy knack of writing what quite a lot of people wanted to read.
Mr. Jesmond made a peculiar noise rather like a hen who has decided to lay an egg and then thought better of it.
Until one looks back on one's own past one fails to realise what an extraordinary view of the world a child has.
Where do one's fears come from? Where do they shape themselves? Where do they hide before coming out into the open?
Don't think. That is the wrong way to bring anything back. Let it go. Sooner or later it will flash into your mind.
I have always been so sure - too sure... But now I am very humble and I say like a little child: "I do not know..."
We owe most of our great inventions and most of the achievements of genius to idleness either enforced or voluntary.
What they need is a little immorality in their lives. Then they wouldn't be so busy looking for it in other people's.
Do you know my friend that each one of us is a dark mystery, a maze of conflicting passions and desire and aptitudes?
It is the brain, the little gray cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within--not without." ~ Poirot
I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash.
One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.
You have a tendency, Hastings, to prefer the least likely. That, no doubt, is from reading too many detective stories.
Never worry about what you say to a man. They're so conceited that they never believe you mean it if it's unflattering.
I always take abroad with me one really good soft pillow--to me it makes all the difference between comfort and misery.
Everyone is a potential murderer-in everyone there arises from time to time thewish to kill-though not the will to kill.
The trouble with you and me, is that we don't live in the real world. We dream of fantastic things that may never happen.
Self-preservation's a man's first duty. And natives don't mind dying, you know. They don't feel about it as Europeans do.
marriage is an extraordinary thing - and I doubt if any outsider - even a child of the marriage - has the right to judge.
Writing is a great comfort to people like me, who are unsure of themselves and have trouble expressing themselves properly.
The bereaved had never any doubt about their dear ones' wishes and those wishes usually squared with their own inclinations.
Fey...a Scotch word...It means the kind of exalted happiness that comes before disaster. You know--it's too good to be true.
In conversation, points arise! If a human being converses much, it is impossible for him to avoid the truth! (Hercule Poirot)
Oh, no, I'm not brave. When a thing is certain, there's nothing to be brave about. All you can do is to find your consolation.
There is nothing more thrilling in this world, I think, than having a child that is yours, and yet is mysteriously a stranger.
Talk and tea is his specialty," said Giles. "He has about five cups of tea a day. But he works splendidly when we are looking.
Never go back to a place where you have been happy. Until you do it remains alive for you. If you go back it will be destroyed.
I know there's a proverb which that says 'To err is human,' but a human error is nothing to what a computer can do if it tries.
Sometimes I feel sure he is as mad as a hatter and then, just as he is at his maddest, I find there is a method in his madness.
It is really a hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are.
You're shocked, Mr. Burton, at hearing what our gossiping little town thinks. I can tell you this - they always think the worst!
What's wrong with my proposition?" Poirot rose. "If you will forgive me for being personal-I do not like your face, M. Ratchett.
... it's always interesting when one doesn't see. If you don't see what a thing means, you must be looking at it wrong way round.
I've got an uncle myself. Nobody should be held responsible for their uncles. Nature's little throwbacks - that's how I look at it.
Trains are wonderful.... To travel by train is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches and rivers, in fact, to see life.
But no artist, I now realize, can be satisfied with art alone. There is a natural craving for recognition which cannot be gain-said.