Agatha Christie citations

Page 10

“Les affaires - les affaires"-M. Bauc”

“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.”

“You’re frightfully BBC in your language this afternoon, Albert,’ said Tuppance, with some exasperation.
Albert looked slightly taken aback and reverted to a more natural form of speech.
‘I was listening to a very interesting talk on pond life last night,’ he explained.”

“What else will you have? Nice banana and bacon sandwich?”

““Here are my roses. Like ’em?”
“They’re beautiful,” said Laura politely.
“On the whole,” said Mr. Baldock, “I prefer them to human beings. They don’t last as long for one thing.””

“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!”

“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.”

“He could have shot her from behind a hedge in the good old Irish fashion and probably got away with it.”

“Proof must be solid break walls of facts.”

“Blood tells — always remember that — blood tells.”

“I could think of nothing more insufferable than members of one’s own gang dropping in full of sympathy and their own affairs.”

“Pilar sat squeezed up against the window and thought how very odd the English smelt.”

“It’s so messy bleeding like a pig.”

“The reason he liked attending rich patients rather than poor ones was the he could exercise his active imagination in prescribing for their ailments.”

“But when investing money, keep, I beg of you, Hastings, strictly to the conservative.”

““Well, what are you doing? What have you done?”
“I am sitting in this char,” said Poirot. “Thinking,” he added.
“Is that all?” said Mrs. Oliver.
“It is the important thing,” said Poirot.”

“Do you always travel first-class, Mr. Hardman?”
“Yes, sir. The firm pays my travelling expenses.”

“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.””

“There’s no reason why women shouldn’t behave like rational beings,” said Simon stolidly.
Poirot said dryly:
“Quite frequently they do. That is even more upsetting!”

““Tcha! Tcha!” cried Poirot irritably. “You argue like a child.””

“How averse human beings were ever to admit ignorance!”

““It makes her rather alarming,” I said.
“Sincerity has that effect,” said Miss Marple.”

“Remember, he was a fanatic, and there is no fanatic like a religious fanatic.”

““Me, I am convinced it is the truth,” said M. Bouc, becoming more and more enamoured of his theory.”

“It's as easy to utter lies as truth.”

“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.”

“"Life is like a train Mademoiselle. It goes on. And it is a good thing that that is so."
"Why?"
"Because the train gets to its journey's end at last, and there is a proverb about that in your language, Mademoiselle."
"'Journeys end in lovers meeting'" Lenox laughed. "That is not going to be true for me."
"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".”

“Without interest (hers not the type to wonder why!) but with perfect efficiently, Miss Lemon had fulfilled her task.”

“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.
“Good heavens Poirot!” I cried. “What is the matter? Are you taken ill?””

“There is always something about conscious tact that is very irritating.”