All Quotes by Agatha Christie
“Précisément! The body — the cage — is everything of the most respectable — but through the bars, the wild animal looks out.”
“See you, my dear doctor, me, I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash.”
“Tout de même, it is not necessary that he should be killed on the Orient Express. There are other places.”
““It makes me madder than a hornet to be disbelieved,” she explained.”
““Me, I am convinced it is the truth,” said M. Bouc, becoming more and more enamoured of his theory.”
““Do you always travel first-class, Mr. Hardman?” He winked.”
“I have the little idea, my friend, that this is a crime very carefully planned and staged. It is a far-sighted, long-headed crime. It is not — how shall I express it? — a Latin crime. It is a crime that shows traces of a cool, resourceful, deliberate brain — I think an Anglo-Saxon brain.”
“That's peace - real peace. To come to the end - not to have to go on... Yes, peace.”
“It was abominable — wicked. The good God should not allow such things. We are not so wicked as that in Germany.”
“The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.”
“Mon ami, if you wish to catch a rabbit you put a ferret into the hole, and if the rabbit is there he runs. That is all I have done.”
“If you confront anyone who has lied with the truth, they usually admit it — often out of sheer surprise. It is only necessary to guess right to produce your effect.”
““I like to see an angry Englishman,” said Poirot. “They are very amusing. The more emotional they feel the less command they have of language.””
“Exactly! It is absurd — improbable — it cannot be. So I myself have said. And yet, my friend, there it is! one cannot escape from the facts.”
“But how much are the delicate convolutions of the brain influenced by the digestive apparatus? When the mal de mere seizes me I, Hercule Poirot, am a creature with no grey cells, no order, no method — a mere member of the human race somewhere below average intelligence!”
“‘Yes, my friend,’ he said. ‘It is so easy to be an American — here in Paris! A nasal voice — the chewing gum — the little goatee — the horned-rimmed spectacles — all the appurtenances of the stage American…’”
“An Englishman thinks first of his work — his job, he calls it — and then of his sport, and last — a good way last — of his wife.”
“Yes, a private investigator like my Wilbraham Rice. The public have taken very strongly to Wilbraham Rice. He bites his nails and eats a lot of bananas. I don’t know why I made him bite his nails to start with — it’s really rather disgusting — but there it is. He started by biting his nails, and now he has to do it in every single book. So monotonous.”
“‘If one approaches a problem with order and method there should be no difficulty in solving it — none whatever,’ said Pirot severely.”
“There is no such thing as muddle — obscurity, yes — but muddle can exist only in a disorderly brain.”
“Ah, but it is incredible how often things force one to do the thing one would like to do.”
“Poirot twinkled at her gently.”
“One has occasionally to pocket one’s pride and readjust one’s ideas.”
“I have, perhaps, too professional a point of view where deaths are concerned. They are divided, in my mind, into two classes — deaths which are my affair and deaths which are not my affair — and though the latter class is infinitely more numerous — nevertheless whenever I come in contact with death I am like the dog who lifts his head and sniffs the scent.”
“Do you believe in the value of truth, my dear, or don’t you?”
“Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.”
“I don't pretend to be an author or to know anything about writing. I'm doing this simply because Dr Reilly asked me to, and somehow when Dr Reilly asks you to do a thing you don't like to refuse.”
“That was the worst of Dr Reilly. You never knew whether he was joking or not. He always said things in the same slow melancholy way — but half the time there was a twinkle underneath it.”
“Believe me, nurse, the difficulty of beginning will be nothing to the difficulty of knowing how to stop. At least that's the way it is with me when I have to make a speech. Someone's got to catch hold of my coat-tails and pull me down by main force.”
“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 felt that the murderer was in the room. Sitting with us — listening. one of us”
“Oh, dear, it's quite true what Dr. Reilly said. How does one stop writing? If I could find a really good telling phrase... Like the one M. Poirot used. In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate... Something like that.”
““Darling,” she drawled, “won’t that be rather tiresome? If any misfortunes happen to my friends I always drop them at once! It sounds heartless, but it saves such a lot of trouble later!””
“How true is the saying that man was forced to invent work in order to escape the strain of having to think.”
““There’s no reason why women shouldn’t behave like rational beings,” said Simon stolidly. “Quite frequently they do. That is even more upsetting!””
“But to succeed in life every detail should be arranged well beforehand.”
“It was a very British and utterly unconvincing performance.”
““You do well. Method and order, they are everything,” replied Poirot.”
“I’m used to that. It often seems to me that’s all detective work is — wiping out your false starts and beginning again.”
““That’s all very well — they’re not educated, poor creatures.” “No, and a good thing too. Education has devitalised the white races. Look at America — goes in for an orgy of culture. Simply disgusting.””
““It’s so dreadfully easy — killing people… And you begin to feel that it doesn’t matter… That it’s only you that matters! It’s dangerous — that.””
“And Mr. Burnaby said acutely: "Well, it doesn't seem to have done her much good, poor lass." But after a while they stopped talking about her and discussed instead who was going to win the Grand National. For, as Mr. Ferguson was saying at that minute in Luxor, it is not the past that matters but the future.”
“Pilar sat squeezed up against the window and thought how very odd the English smelt.”
““Pilar — remember — nothing is so boring as devotion.””
““Yes, Mr. Lee.” Superintendent Sugden did not wast time on explanations. “What’s all this?””
“The character of the victim has always something to do with his or her murder.”
“He is like a cat. And all cats are thieves.”
““Yes. I like to see people get angry. I like it very much. But here in England they do not get angry like they do in Spain. In Spain they take out their knives and they curse and shout. In England they do nothing, just get very red in the face and shut up their mouths tight.””
““I agree with you. It is here a family affair. It is a poison that works in the blood — it is intimate — it is deep-seated. There is here, I think, hate and knowledge…””
“The crime is now logical and reasonable.”
“There is always something about conscious tact that is very irritating.”
“Is it coding — or code breaking? Is it like Deborah’s job? Do be careful, Tommy, people go queer doing that and can’t sleep and walk about all night groaning and repeating 978345286 or something like that and finally have nervous breakdowns and go into homes.”
“‘I have often noticed that being a devoted wife saps the intellect,’ murmured Tommy.”
“‘Truth of it is,’ said Commander Haydock, steering rather erratically round a one-way island and narrowly missing collision with a large van, ‘when the beggars are right, one remembers it, and when they’re wrong you forget it.’”
“Flattery, in Tuppence’s opinion, should always be laid on with a trowel where a man is concerned.”
“‘You’re frightfully BBC in your language this afternoon, Albert,’ said Tuppance, with some exasperation. ‘I was listening to a very interesting talk on pond life last night,’ he explained.”
“No one human being knows the full truth about another human being. Not even one's nearest and dearest.”
“Like most Englishmen, he felt something strongly, and proceeded to muddle around until he had, somehow or other, cleared up the mess.”
“I could think of nothing more insufferable than members of one’s own gang dropping in full of sympathy and their own affairs.”
“Freckles are so earnest and Scottish.”
“Quite absurd, because Caleb has absolutely no taste for fornication. He never has had. So lucky, being a clergyman.”
“Work, Mr. Burton. There’s nothing like work, for men and women. The one unforgivable sin is idleness.”
““Jerry had an expensive public school education, so he doesn’t recognize Latin when he hears it,” said Joanna”
“To commit a successful murder must be very much like bringing off a conjuring trick.”
““It makes her rather alarming,” I said. “Sincerity has that effect,” said Miss Marple.”
“Miss Marple twinkled at me.”
“Last time I had my hands on you, you felt like a bird - struggling to escape. You'll never escape now...”
“It is the kind of thing that happens to you when you are stupid," said Esa. "Things go entirely differently from the way you planned them.”
“Courage is the resolution to face the unforeseen.”
“And yet," said Poirot, "suppose an accident-"”
“Fear is incomplete knowledge.”
“Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.”
“The rottenness comes from within.”
“Let us think only of the good days that are to come.”
“It's as easy to utter lies as truth.”
“Men are made fools by the gleaming limbs of women, and, lo, in a minute they are become discolored carnelians. A trifle, a little, the likeness of a dream. And death comes as the end.”
“Proof must be solid break walls of facts.”
“She broke off, unable to find words to frame her struggling thoughts. What life would be with Hori, she did not know. In spite of his gentleness, in spite of his love for her, he would remain in some respects incalculable and incomprehensible. They would share moments of great beauty and richness together - but what of their common daily life?”
“"I have made my choice, Hori. I will share my life with you for good or evil, until death comes..." With his arms round her, with the sudden new sweetness of his face against hers, she was filled with an exultant richness of living.”
“I must have a talk with you, David, and learn all the new ideas. As far as I can see, one must hate everybody but at the same time give them free medical attention and a lot of extra education, poor things! All those helpless little children herded into schoolhouses every day — and cod liver oil forced down babies’ throats whether they like it or not — such nasty-smelling stuff.”
“I think perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to read aloud Gibbon to me in the evenings, because if it’s nice and hot by the fire, there’s something about Gibbon that does, rather, make you go to sleep.”
“He could have shot her from behind a hedge in the good old Irish fashion and probably got away with it.”
““I am not very clever about Americanisms — and I understand they change very quickly.””
“Perhaps a little of Trollope, but not to drown in him.”
““I always feel that the young doctors are only too anxious to experiment. After they’ve whipped out all our teeth, and administered quantities of very peculiar glands, and removed bits of our insides, they then confess that nothing can be done for us. I really prefer the old-fashioned remedy of big black bottles of medicine. After all, one can always pour those down the sink.””
““No,” said Miss Marple. “Murder isn’t a game.”
“Weak and kindly people are often very treacherous. And if they’ve got a grudge against life it saps the little moral strength that they may posses.”
“It all came together then, you see — all the various isolated bits — and made a coherent pattern.”
“The tear rose in Miss Marple's eyes. Succeeding pity, there came anger - anger against a heartless killer. And then, displacing both these emotions, there came a surge of triumph - the triumph some specialist might feel who has successfully reconstructed an extinct animal from a fragment of jawbone and a couple of teeth.”
““A dog,” said Mr. Baldock, in his lecture-room style, which was capable of rousing almost anybody to violent irritation, “has an extraordinary power of bolstering up the human ego.””
““Here are my roses. Like ’em?” “On the whole,” said Mr. Baldock, “I prefer them to human beings. They don’t last as long for one thing.””
“Children and one’s social inferiors never know when to say good-bye. One has to say it for them.”
“They have, all of them, such wonderful good manners. Not taught good manners — the natural thing. I could never have believed till I came here that natural courtesy could be such a wonderful — such a positive thing.”
“I can imagine anything! That's the trouble with me. I can imagine things now — this minute. I could even make them sound all right, but of course none of them would be true.”
“It would be difficult Bland thought, to forget Hercule Poirot, and this not entirely for complimentary reasons.”
“What else will you have? Nice banana and bacon sandwich?”
“How convenient if you could ring up Harrods and say ‘Please send along two good murderers, will you?’”
“What beats me — it always does — is how a man can be so clever and yet be such a perfect fool.”
“These little grey cells. It is up to them.”
“Aeons passed . . . worlds spun and whirled . . . Time was motionless . . . It stood still—it passed through a thousand ages . . .”
“I have a certain experience of the way people tell lies.”
“One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood.”
“Bagi sebagian orang kebenaran itu penting, sebab mereka dapat menerimanya. Mereka dapat menghadapi kebenaran dengan tabah - ketabahan yang hanya dimiliki orang-orang yang mengharapkan kehidupan yang cerah.”
“"Well", said Miss Marple. "Are you going to let her get away with it?" There was a pause, then Father brought down his fist with a crash on the table. "No", he roared — "No, by God I'm not!" Miss Marple nodded her head slowly and gravely. "May God have mercy on her soul," she said.”
“The reason he liked attending rich patients rather than poor ones was the he could exercise his active imagination in prescribing for their ailments.”
“She came in with coffee and biscuits at half-past eleven with her mouth pursed up very prunes and prisms, and would hardly speak to me.”
““Aha? You have been very clever, madame.” “Ah. You had the good fortune then. That is just as important.””
“The old, you must remember, though considered incapable of action, have nevertheless a good fund of experience on which to draw.”
“It merely confirmed in him his long-held belief that you should never believe anything anyone said without first checking it. Suspect everybody, had been for many years, if not his whole life, one of his first axioms.”
“To every problem, there is a most simple solution.”
“Mrs. Oliver in her own opinion was famous for her intuition. One intuition succeeded another with remarkable rapidity, and Mrs. Oliver always claimed the right to justify the particular intuition which turned out to be right!”
“It was the technique of a man who selected thoughts as one might select pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. In due course they would be reassembled together so as to make a clear and coherent picture. At the moment the important thing was the selection, the separation.”
““Well, what are you doing? What have you done?” “It is the important thing,” said Poirot.”
““Tout de même,” said Poirot, “since I cannot find anything, eh bien, then the logic falls out of the window.””
“In my end is my beginning — that's what people are always saying. But what does it mean? And just where does my story begin? I must try and think...”
“Without interest (hers not the type to wonder why!) but with perfect efficiently, Miss Lemon had fulfilled her task.”
“Take this Hercules — this hero! Hero, indeed! What was he but a large muscular creature of low intelligence and criminal tendencies!”
“Even the sensible and the competent have been given tongues by le bon Dieu — and they do not always employ their tongues wisely.”
“He had not remembered her name, but he had seen her dance — had been carried away and fascinated by the supreme art that can make you forget art.”
“On the seat opposite him was an American tourist. The pattern of his clothes, of his overcoat, the grip he carried, down to his hopeful friendliness and his naïve absorption in the scenery, even the guidebook in his hand, all gave him away and proclaimed him a small town American seeing Europe for the first time. In another minute or so, Poirot judged, he would break into speech. His wistful dog-like expression could not be mistaken.”
“And then, startling in its crisp transatlantic tones, a voice said: Three pairs of hands were raised rapidly.”
“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.”
“Words had become to him a means of obscuring facts — not of revealing them. He was an adept in the art of the useful phrase — that is to say the phrase that falls soothingly on the ear and is quite empty of meaning.”
“Harold Waring, like many other Englishmen, was a bad linguist.”
“There are so many ways of being divided, length and height and breadth... but to be divided by time is the worst way of all.”
““Is he then an unhappy man?” “Ah, a rich man…””
“It is the misfortune of small, precise men always to hanker after large and flamboyant women.”
“But when investing money, keep, I beg of you, Hastings, strictly to the conservative.”
“They are so busy knocking that they do not notice that the door is open!”
“Remember, he was a fanatic, and there is no fanatic like a religious fanatic.”
“Never mind. I knew — that was the great thing.”
““Mademoiselle,” I said, “it is sometimes difficult for a dog to find a scent, but once he has found it, nothing on earth will make him leave it! That is if he is a good dog! And I, mademoiselle, I, Hercule Poirot, am a very good dog.””
“Never do I deceive you, Hastings. I only permit you to deceive yourself.”
““The English are very stupid,” said Poirot. “They think that they can deceive anyone but that no one can deceive them.””
“You have an excellent heart, my friend — but your grey cells are in a deplorable condition.”
“Who is there who has not felt a sudden startled pang at reliving an old experience or feeling an old emotion?”
“Not if the butcher had become a butcher simply in order to have a chance of murdering the baker. One must always look one step behind, my friend.”
“I aroused Judith’s contempt by asking what good all this was likely to do to mankind? There is no question that annoys your true scientist more.”
“This, Hastings, will be my last case. It will be, too, my most interesting case — and my most interesting criminal.”
“I have no more now to say. I do not know, Hastings, if what I have done is justified or not justified. No — I do not know. I do not believe that a man should take the law into his own hands... But on the other hand, I am the law! As a young man in the Belgian police force I shot down a desperate criminal who sat on a roof and fired at people below. In a state of emergency martial law is proclaimed.”
“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 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 shall not hunt together again, my friend. Our first hunt was here — and our last … They were good days, Yes, they have been good days...”
“Plymouth, Gwenda thought, as she moved forward obediently in the queu for Passports and Customs, was probably not the best of England.”
“Well, of course, Gwenda dear, you can always do that when you’ve exhausted every other line of approach, but I always think myself it’s better to examine the simplest and most commonplace explanations first.”
“In the midst of life, we are in death.”
“It’s not impossible my dear. It’s just a very remarkable coincidence — and remarkable coincidences do happen.”
“These little things are very significant.”
“Murder isn’t — it really isn’t — a thing to tamper with lightheartedly.”
“It really is very dangerous to believe people. I never have for years.”
“What governs one’s choice of memories? Life is like sitting in a cinema. Flick! Here am I, a child eating éclairs on my birthday. Flick! Just moments — and in between long empty spaces of months or even years.”
“To be part of something one doesn't in the least understand is, I think, one of the most intriguing things about life. I like living. I have sometimes been wildly despairing, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
“One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is to have a happy childhood. I had a very happy childhood. I had a home and a garden that I loved; a wise and patient Nanny; as father and mother two people who loved each other dearly and made a success of their marriage and of parenthood. Looking back I feel that our house was truly a happy house. That was largely due to my father, for my father was a very agreeable man.”
“The quality of agreeableness Is not much stressed nowadays. People tend to ask if a man is clever, industrious, if he contributes to the well-being of the community, if he ‘counts’ in the scheme of things.”
“I don't think necessity is the mother of invention — invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.”
“An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.”
“The truth must be quite plain, if one could just clear away the litter.”
“Death was for-the other people.”
“It's what's in”
“When you read the account of a murder - or, say, a fiction story based on murder - you usually begin with the murder itself. That's all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging at a given moment at a given point. People are brought into it from different parts of the globe and for unforeseen reasons. [...] The murder itself is the end of the story. It's Zero Hour.”
“An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.”
“Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.”
“Any woman can fool a man if she wants to and if he's in love with her.”
“I have given them life instead of death, freedom instead of the cords of superstition, beauty and truth instead of corruption and exploitation. The old bad days are over for them, the Light of the Aton has risen, and they can dwell in peace and harmony freed from the shadow of fear and oppression.”
“Oh dear, I never realized what a terrible lot of explaining one has to do in a murder!”
“I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest.”
“The intense interest aroused in the public by what was known at the time as “The Styles Case” has now somewhat subsided. Nevertheless, in view of the world-wide notoriety which attended it, I have been asked, both by my friend Poirot and the family themselves, to write an account of the whole story. This, we trust, will effectually silence the sensational rumours which still persist.”
“The fellow is an absolute outsider, anyone can see that. He’s got a great black beard, and wears patent leather boots in all weathers!”
““Ah!” Poirot shook his forefinger so fiercely at me that I quailed before it. “Beware! Peril to the detective who says: ‘It is so small — it does not matter. It will not agree. I will forget it.’ That way lies confusion! Everything matters.””
“Blood tells — always remember that — blood tells.”
“There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will.”
“Ah, my friend, one may live in a big house and yet have no comfort.”
“You give too much rein to your imagination. Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master. The simplest explanation is always the most likely.”
“Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory — let the theory go.”
““Tcha! Tcha!” cried Poirot irritably. “You argue like a child.””
“Now there is no murder without a motive.”
“Yes, he is intelligent. But we must be more intelligent. We must be so intelligent that he does not suspect us of being intelligent at all.”
“Two is enough for a secret.”
“See you, one should not ask for outside proof — no, reason should be enough. But the flesh is weak, it is consolation to find that one is on the right track.”
““This affair must all be unravelled from within.” He tapped his forehead. “These little grey cells. It is ‘up to them’ — as you say over here.””
“Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend.”
“For Poirot, uttering a hoarse and inarticulate cry, again annihilated his masterpiece of cards and putting his hands over his eyes swayed backwards and forwards, apparently suffering the keenest agony. “No, no,” he gasped. “It is — it is — that I have an idea!””
“I am not keeping back facts. Every fact that I know is in your possession. You can draw your own deductions from them.”
“I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself.”
“The happiness of one man and one woman is the greatest thing in all the world.”
“Nothing", I said sadly. "They are two delightful women!" "And neither of them is for you?" finished Poirot. "Never mind. Console yourself, my friend. We may hunt together again, who knows?”
“Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.”
“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.”
“Eh bien, Mademoiselle, all through my life I have observed one thing — 'All one wants one gets!' Who knows?" His face screwed itself up comically. "You may get more than you bargain for.”
“I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.”
“Men are foolish, are they not, Mademoiselle? To eat, to drink, to breathe the good air, it is a very pleasant thing, Mademoiselle. One is foolish to leave all that simply because one has no money — or because the heart aches. L´amour, it causes many fatalities, does it not?”
“I was wrong about that young man of yours. A man when he is making up to anybody can be cordial and gallant and full of little attentions and altogether charming. But when a man is really in love he can't help looking like a sheep. Now, whenever that young man looked at you he looked like a sheep. I take back all I said this morning. It is genuine.”
“I saw a particular personage and I threatened him — yes, Mademoiselle, I, Hercule Poirot, threatened him." "No," said Poirot drily, "With the Press — a much more deadly weapon.”
“"Life is like a train Mademoiselle. It goes on. And it is a good thing that that is so." "Yes — yes, it is true. You are young, younger than you yourself know. Trust the train Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it".”
“Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.”
“I like to inquire into everything. Hercule Poirot is a good dog. The good dog follows the scent, and if, regrettably, there is no scent to follow, he noses around — seeking always something that is not very nice.”
“From a distance he had the bland aspect of a philanthropist.”