Agatha Christie: Trending quotes (page 16)

“Ah, but it is incredible how often things force one to do the thing one would like to do.”

“And if you cast down an idol, there's nothing left.”

“How true is the saying that man was forced to invent work in order to escape the strain of having to think.”

“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.”

“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.”

“And then, startling in its crisp transatlantic tones, a voice said:
“Stick ’em up.”
They swerved around. Schwartz, dressed in a peculiarly vivid set of striped pyjamas stood in the doorway. In his hand he held an automatic.
“Stick ’em up, guys. I’m pretty good at shooting.”
He pressed the trigger — and a bullet sang past the big man’s ear and buried itself in the woodwork of the window.
Three pairs of hands were raised rapidly.”

“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.”

“To commit a successful murder must be very much like bringing off a conjuring trick.”

“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.”

“Elinor was still staring at this missive, her plucked brows drawn together in distaste, when the door opened. The maid announced, "Mr Welman," and Roddy came in.”

““Aha? You have been very clever, madame.”
“No, I haven’t really. It was a pure accident. I mean, I walked into a small café place and there the girl was, just sitting there.”
“Ah. You had the good fortune then. That is just as important.””

““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.””

“Even the sensible and the competent have been given tongues by le bon Dieu — and they do not always employ their tongues wisely.”

“I have made my choice, Hori. I will share my life with you for good or evil, until death comes…”

“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?”

“We had three servants, which was a minimum then.”

“Looking back, it seems to me extraordinary that we should have contemplated having both a nurse and a servant, but they were considered essentials of life in those days, and were the last things we would have thought of dispensing with. To have committed the extravagance of a car, for instance, would never have entered our minds. Only the rich had cars.”

“Servants, of course, were not a particular luxury–it was not a case of only the rich having them; the only difference was that the rich had more.”

“Evil is not something superhuman, - it's something less than human.”