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Downstairs In The Lounge, By The Third Pillar From The Left, There Sits An Old Lady With A Sweet, Placid, Spinsterish Face And A Mind That Has Plumbed The Depths Of Human Iniquity And Taken It All As In The Day's Work....where Crime Is Concerned, She's The Goods.

-Agatha Christie

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Downstairs In The Lounge,

Agatha Christie

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Downstairs In The Lounge, By The Third Pillar From The Left, There Sits An Old Lady With A Sweet, Placid, Spinsterish Face And A Mind That Has Plumbed The Depths Of Human Iniquity And Taken It All As In The Day's Work....where Crime Is Concerned, She's The Goods.

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Be Sure Thy Sin Will Find Thee Out.

The Supernatural Is Only The Natural Of Which The Laws Are Not Yet Understood.

The Science Of Tomorrow Is The Supernatural Of Today.

But I Know Human Nature, My Friend, And I Tell You That, Suddenly Confronted With The Possibility Of Being Tried For Murder, The Most Innocent Person Will Lose His Head And Do The Most Absurd Things.

Innocent Person

Wonderful Things, Horses. Never Know What They Will Do, Or Won't Do.

I Admit," I Said, "that A Second Murder In A Book Often Cheers Things Up." - Hastings

You Are The Patient One, Mademoiselle,' Said Poirot To Miss Debenham. She Shrugged Her Shoulders Slightly. 'what Else Can One Do?' You Are A Philosopher, Mademoiselle.' That Implies A Detached Attitude. I Think My Attitude Is More Selfish. I Have Learned To Save Myself Useless Emotion.

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.

A Lot Of Trouble Has Been Caused By Memoirs. Indiscreet Revelations, That Sort Of Thing. People Who Have Been Close As An Oyster All Their Lives Seem Positively To Relish Causing Trouble When They Themselves Shall Be Comfortably Dead.

Instinct Is A Marvelous Thing. It Can Neither Be Explained Nor Ignored.

Liking Is More Important Than Loving. It Lasts. I Want What Is Between Us To Last, Luke. I Don't Want Us Just To Love Each Other And Marry And Get Tired Of Each Other And Then Want To Marry Some One Else.

I Always Think Loyalty's Such A Tiresome Virtue.

Everybody Said, "follow Your Heart". I Did, It Got Broken

There Are Questions That You Don't Ask Because You're Afraid Of The Answers To Them.

My Remarks Are, As Always, Apt, Sound, And To The Point. (hercule Poirot)

Vous Eprouves Trop D'emotion, Hastings, It Affects Your Hands And Your Wits. Is That A Way To Fold A Coat? And Regard What You Have Done To My Pyjamas. If The Hairwash Breaks What Will Befall Them?' 'good Heavens, Poirot,' I Cried, 'this Is A Matter Of Life And Death. What Does It Matter What Happens To Our Clothes?' 'you Have No Sense Of Proportion Hastings. We Cannot Catch A Train Earlier Than The Time That It Leaves, And To Ruin One's Clothes Will Not Be The Least Helpful In Preventing A Murder.

Women Observe Subconsciously A Thousand Little Details, Without Knowing They Are Doing So. Their Subconscious Mind Adds These Little Things Together - And They Call The Result Intuition.

Unless You Are Good At Guessing, It Is Not Much Use Being A Detective.

Evil Is Not Any Superhuman, But It Is Human.

There's Nothing So Dangerous For Anyone Who Has Something To Hide As Conversation.

The Things Young Women Read Nowadays And Profess To Enjoy Positively Frighten Me.

You Travel Life Has The Aspect Of A Dream. It Is Something Outside The Normal, Yet You Are In It. It Is Peopled With Characters You Have Never Seen Before And In All Probability Will Never See Again. It Brings Occasional Homesickness, And Loneliness, And Pangs Of Longing ... But You Are Like The Vikings Who Have Gone Into A World Of Adventure, And Home Is Not Home Until You Return.

Heather Badcock Meant No Harm. She Never Did Mean Harm, But There Is No Doubt That People Like Heather Badcock (and Like My Old Friend Alison Wilde), Are Capable Of Doing A Lot Of Harm Because They Lack - Not Kindness, They Have Kindness - But Any Real Consideration For The Way Their Actions May Affect Other People. She Though Always Of What An Action Meant To Her, Never Sparing A Thought To What It Might Mean To Somebody Else.

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've Always Noticed That If You Speak The Truth In A Rather Silly Way Nobody Believes You.

When The Sea Goes Down, There Will Come From The Mainland Boats And Men. And They Will Find Ten Dead Bodies And An Unsolved Problem On Indian Island.

More Children Suffer From Interference Than From Non-interference.

It Often Seems To Me That's All Detective Work Is, Wiping Out Your False Starts And Beginning Again." Yes, It Is Very True, That. And It Is Just What Some People Will Not Do. They Conceive A Certain Theory, And Everything Has To Fit Into That Theory. If One Little Fact Will Not Fit It, They Throw It Aside. But It Is Always The Facts That Will Not Fit In That Are Significant.

A Woman Who Doesn't Lie Is A Woman Without Imagination And Without Sympathy.

You'll Be Glad Too, When The End Comes.

I'm Sorry, But I Do Hate This Differentiation Between The Sexes. The Modern Girl Has A Thoroughly Businesslike Attitude To Life! That Sort Of Thing. It's Not A Bit True! Some Girls Are Businesslike And Some Aren't. Some Men Are Sentimental And Muddle-headed, Others Are Clear-headed And Logical. There Are Just Different Types Of Brains.

Speech ... Is An Invention Of Man's To Prevent Him From Thinking.

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.

Do You Believe In The Value Of Truth, My Dear, Or Don’t You?” “of Course I Believe In The Truth,” Said Rhoda, Staring. “yes, You Say That, But Perhaps You Haven’t Thought About It. The Truth Hurts Sometimes – And Destroys One’s Illusions.” “i’d Rather Have It All The Same.” Said Rhoda. “so Would I. But I Don’t Know That We’re Wise.” Mrs. Oliver; Rhoda Dawes

In Conversation, Points Arise! If A Human Being Converses Much, It Is Impossible For Him To Avoid The Truth! (hercule Poirot)

Hercule Poirot: I Am An Imbecile. I See Only Half Of The Picture. Miss Lemon: I Don't Even See That.

I Am Not One To Rely Upon The Expert Procedure. It Is The Psychology I Seek, Not The Fingerprint Or The Cigarette Ash.

One Of The Saddest Things In Life, Is The Things One Remembers.

Best Of An Island Is Once You Get There - You Can't Go Any Farther...you've Come To The End Of Things.

I'm Going To Marry Him. And If He Thinks He Can Get Divorced And Married Every Two Or Three Years In The Approved Hollywood Fashion, Well, He Never Made A Bigger Mistake In His Life. He's Going To Marry And Stick To Me.

Surfing Is Like That. You Are Either Vigorously Cursing Or Else You Are Idiotically Pleased With Yourself.

The Detective's Highest Talent Lay In The Gentle Art Of Seeking Favours Under The Guise Of Conferring Them!

Where Large Sums Of Money Are Concerned, It Is Advisable To Trust Nobody.

I Married An Archeologist Because The Older I Grow, The More He Appreciates Me.

Where Do One's Fears Come From? Where Do They Shape Themselves? Where Do They Hide Before Coming Out Into The Open?

Every Murderer Is Probably Somebody's Old Friend.

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.

The First Time You Do A Thing Is Always Exciting.

I Don't Know. I Don't Know At All. And That's What's Frightening The Life Out Of Me. To Have No Idea.

Prisoners At The Bar, Have You Anything To Say In Your Defence?

The Human Face Is, After All, Nothing More Nor Less Than A Mask.

I Don't Go In For Being Sorry For People. For One Thing It's Insulting. One Is Only Sorry For People When They're Sorry For Themselves. Self-pity Is One Of The Biggest Stumbling Blocks In The World Today.

Sensationalism Dies Quickly, Fear Is Long-lived.

Words, Mademoiselle, Are Only The Outer Clothing Of Ideas.

... 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.

Youth Is A Failing Only Too Easily Outgrown.

The Whole Thing Was Like A Nine-month Ocean Voyage To Which You Never Got Acclimatized.

Bad Temper Is Its Own Safety Valve. He Who Can Bark Does Not Bite.

Good Advice Is Always Certain To Be Ignored, But That's No Reason Not To Give It.

Mother And Daughter

Fear Is Incomplete Knowledge.

Incomplete Knowledge

Any Coincidencce Is Worth Noticing. You Can Throw It Away Later If It Is Only A Coincidence.

One Of Us In This Very Room Is In Fact The Murderer.

There Are Some People Who Don't Conform To The Signals. An Ordinary Well-regulated Locomotive Slows Down Or Pulls Up When It Sees The Red Light Hoisted Against It. Perhaps I Was Born Color Blind. When I See The Red Signal -- I Can't Help Forging Ahead. And In The End, You Know, That Spells Disaster.

Then There Are Some Minor Points That Strike Me As Suggestive - For Instance, The Position Of Mrs. Hubbard's Sponge Bag, The Name Of Mrs. Armstrong's Mother, The Detective Methods Of Mr. Hardman, The Suggestion Of Mr. Macqueen That Ratchett Himself Destroyed The Charred Note We Found, Princess Dragomiroff's Christian Name, And A Grease Spot On A Hungarian Passport.

It's Very Inconvenient To Be Loved. Nearly Everyone Has Found That Out, Sooner Or Later. The Fewer People Who Love You The Less You Will Have To Suffer.

I Think, Myself, That One's Memories Represent Those Moments Which, Insignificant As They May Seem, Nevertheless Represent The Inner Self And Oneself As Most Really Oneself.

There Are More Important Things Than Finding The Murderer. And Justice Is A Fine Word, But It Is Sometimes Difficult To Say Exactly What One Means By It. In My Opinion, The Important Thing Is To Clear The Innocent. - Hercule Poirot

I Looked At Her. Sheila Was My Girl--the Girl I Wanted--and Wanted For Keeps. But It Wasn't Any Use Having Illusions About Her. Sheila Was A Liar And Probably Always Would Be A Liar. It Was Her Way Of Fighting For Survival--the Quick Easy Glib Denial. It Was A Child's Weapon--and She'd Probably Never Got Out Of Using It. If I Wanted Sheila, I Must Accept Her As She Was--be At Hand To Prop Up The Weak Places. We've All Got Our Weak Places. Mine Were Different From Sheila's, But They Were There.

You Cannot Give To People What They Are Incapable Of Receiving.

If You Confront Anyone Who Has Lied With The Truth, He Will Usually Admit It - Often Out Of Sheer Surprise. It Is Only Necessary To Guess Right To Produce Your Effect.

Hasting - There Are Times When It Is One's Duty To Assert Oneself.

Don't Think. That Is The Wrong Way To Bring Anything Back. Let It Go. Sooner Or Later It Will Flash Into Your Mind.

You Want Beauty,' Said Hercules Poirot. 'beauty At Any Price. For Me, It Is Truth. I Want Always Truth.

Once I Went Professionally To An Archaeological Expedition-and I Learnt Something There. In The Course Of An Excavation, When Something Comes Up Out Of The Ground, Everything Is Cleared Away Very Carefully All Around It. You Take Away The Loose Earth, And You Scrape Here And There With A Knife Until Finally Your Object Is There, All Alone, Ready To Be Drawn And Photographed With No Extraneous Matter Confusing It. That Is What I Have Been Seeking To Do-clear Away The Extraneous Matter So That We Can See The Truth-the Naked Shining Truth.

You Don't Realize What Fine Fighting Material There Is In Age. ... You Show Me Any One Who's Lived To Over Seventy And You Show Me A Fighter - Some One Who's Got The Will To Live.

At The Small Table, Sitting Very Upright, Was One Of The Ugliest Old Ladies He Had Ever Seen. It Was An Ugliness Of Distinction - It Fascinated Rather Than Repelled.

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.

If You've Had A Happy Childhood, Nobody Can Take That Away From You.

Happy Childhood

When The Fact Doesn't Meet The Theory Then Let Go The Theory.

One Little Indian Boy Left All Alone; He Went And Hanged Himself And Then There Were None.

One Of The Luckiest Things That Can Happen To You In Life Is, I Think, To Have A Happy Childhood.

There Is Nothing So Dangerous For Anyone Who Has Something To Hide As Conversation!... A Human Being, Hastings, Cannot Resist Theopportunity To Reveal Himself And Express His Personality Which Conversation Gives Him. Every Time He Will Give Himself Away.

... There Are Many To Whom Money Has No Personal Appeal, But Who Can Be Tempted By The Power It Confers.

Ideas Are Like Everything Else. They've Got To Be Marketed.

Most Successes Are Unhappy. That's Why They Are Successes - They Have To Reassure Themselves About Themselves By Achieving Something That The World Will Notice.

I Suppose It Is Because Nearly All Children Go To School Nowadays And Have Things Arranged For Them That They Seem So Forlornly Unable To Produce Their Own Ideas.

Never Tell All You Know—not Even To The Person You Know Best.

Three Months Seems To Me Quite A Reasonable Time To Complete A Book, If One Can Get Right Down To It.

I Just Woke Up Feeling Happy This Morning. You Know Those Days When Everything In The World Seems Right.

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 Have Always Admired The Esquimaux (eskimos). One Fine Day A Delicious Meal Is Cooked For Dear Old Mother, And Then She Goes Walking Away Over The Ice, And Doesn't Come Back.

Everybody Is Very Much Alike, Really. But Fortunately, Perhaps, They Don't Realise It. - Miss Marple

Things Go Entirely Differently From The Way You Planned Them.

To Keep Something Wild Is Far More Difficult Than To Preserve It.

How Often Have I Not Heard A Perfectly Intelligent Female Says, In The Tone Of One Clinching An Argument, 'edgar Says -- ' And All The Time You Are Perfectly Aware That Edgar Is A Perfect Fool.

You Can Only Really Get Under Anybody's Skin If You Are Married To Them.

Doctors Can Do Almost Anything Nowadays, Can't They, Unless They Kill You While They're Trying To Cure You.

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.

A Man Doesn't Wasnt To Feel That A Woman Cares More For Him Than He Cares For Her. He Doesn't Want To Feel Owned, Body And Soul. It's That Damned Possessive Attitude. This Man Is Mine---he Belongs To Me! He Wants To Get Away --- To Get Free. He Wants To Own His Woman; He Doesn't Want Her To Own Him.(simon Boyle)

Poirot," I Said. "i Have Been Thinking." "an Admirable Exercise My Friend. Continue It.

One Is Alone When The Last One Who Remembers Is Gone.

It Is Curious - But You Cannot Make A Revolution Without Honest Men. ... Every Revolution Has Had Its Honest Men. They Are Soon Disposed Of Afterwards.

Nobody Knows What Another Person Is Thinking. They May Imagine They Do, But They Are Nearly Always Wrong.

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..."

One Is Left With The Horrible Feeling Now That War Settles Nothing; That To Win A War Is As Disastrous As To Lose One.

Jealousy, You Know, Is Usually Not An Affair Of Causes. It Is Much More-how Shall I Say?-fundamental Than That. Based On The Knowledge That One's Love Is Not Returned. And So One Goes On Waiting, Watching, Expecting...that The Loved One Will Turn To Someone Else.

Lawyers Never Go To Law, Do They? They Know Better.

He Was Very Much A Man Of Moods, Possibly Owing To What Is Styled The Artistic Temperment. I Have Never Seen, Myself, Why The Possession Of Artistic Ability Should Be Supposed To Excuse A Man From A Decent Exercise Of Self-control.

But Surely For Everything You Love You Have To Pay Some Price.

All Women, Without In The Least Meaning It, Consider Every Man They Meet As A Possible Husband For Themselves Or For Their Best Friend.

There's No Agony Like [getting Started]. You Sit In A Room, Biting Pencils, Looking At A Typewriter, Walking About, Or Casting Yourself Down On A Sofa, Feeling You Want To Cry Your Head Off.

The Happy People Are Failures Because They Are On Such Good Terms With Themselves They Don't Give A Damn.

It Is Clear That The Books Owned The Shop Rather Than The Other Way About. Everywhere They Had Run Wild And Taken Possession Of Their Habitat, Breeding And Multiplying, And Clearly Lacking Any Strong Hand To Keep Them Down.

Every Man Should Have Aunts. They Illustrate The Triumph Of Guess Work Over Logic.

It Had Come About Exactly In The Way Things Happened In Books.

I Can't Imagine Why Everybody Is Always So Keen For Authors To Talk About Writing. I Should Have Thought It Was An Author's Business To Write, Not Talk.

Beastly Things, Teeth. Give Us Trouble From The Cradle To The Grave.

The Popular Idea That A Child Forgets Easily Is Not An Accurate One. Many People Go Right Through Life In The Grip Of An Idea Which Has Been Impressed On Them In Very Tender Years.

Mother And Daughter

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.

One Of The Oddest Things In Life, As We All Know, Is The Way That When You Have Heard A Thing Mentioned, Within Twenty-four Hours You Nearly Always Come Across It Again.

What's Wrong With My Proposition?" Poirot Rose. "if You Will Forgive Me For Being Personal-i Do Not Like Your Face, M. Ratchett.

Never Do Anything Yourself That Others Can Do For You.

I Specialize In Murders Of Quiet, Domestic Interest.

Murder Mysteries

We Owe Most Of Our Great Inventions And Most Of The Achievements Of Genius To Idleness Either Enforced Or Voluntary.

Great Inventions

The Contemporary Historian Never Writes Such A True History As The Historian Of A Later Generation.

It's What's In *yourself* That Makes You Happy Or Unhappy.

I Have Enjoyed Greatly The Second Blooming That Comes When You Finish The Life Of The Emotions And Of Personal Relations; And Suddenly Find - At The Age Of Fifty, Say - That A Whole New Life Has Opened Before You, Filled With Things You Can Think About, Study, Or Read About...it Is As If A Fresh Sap Of Ideas And Thoughts Was Rising In You.

Time Is The Best Killer.

One Must Make One's Own Mistakes

You're Shocked, Mr. Burton, At Hearing What Our Gossiping Little Town Thinks. I Can Tell You This - They Always Think The Worst!

Women Can Accept The Fact That A Man Is A Rotter, A Swindler, A Drug Taker, A Confirmed Liar, And A General Swine, Without Batting An Eyelash, And Without Its Impairing Their Affection For The Brute In The Least. Women Are Wonderful Realists.

Very Unfortunately, She Had No Husband. She Had Never Had A Husband, And Therefore Did Not Kill A Husband.

Nothing, I Believe, Is So Full Of Life Under The Microscope As A Drop Of Water From A Stagnant Pool.

Plots Come To Me At Such Odd Moments, When I Am Walking Along The Street, Or Examining A Hat Shop… Suddenly A Splendid Idea Comes Into My Head.

Authors Were Shy, Unsociable Creatures, Atoning For Their Lack Of Social Aptitude By Inventing Their Own Companions And Conversations.

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.

You Have A Tendency, Hastings, To Prefer The Least Likely. That, No Doubt, Is From Reading Too Many Detective Stories.

Does The Real Thing Ever Have The Perfection Of A Stage Performance?

Stage Performance

Is There Ever Any Particular Spot Where One Can Put One's Finger And Say, "it All Began That Day, At Such A Time And Such A Place, With Such An Incident?

There Is Evil Everywhere Under The Sun.

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!

The Amount Of Missing Girls I've Had To Trace And Their Family And Their Friends Always Say The Same Thing. 'she Was A Bright And Affectionate Disposition And Had No Men Friends'. That's Never True. It's Unnatural. Girls Ought To Have Men Friends. If Not, Then There's Something Wrong About Them.

It's Not A Man's Working Hours That Are Important--it's His Leisure Hours. That's The Mistake We All Make.

There Is Nothing More Thrilling In This World, I Think, Than Having A Child That Is Yours, And Yet Is Mysteriously A Stranger.

The Rottenness Comes From Within.

Trains Are Wonderful.... To Travel By Train Is To See Nature And Human Beings, Towns And Churches And Rivers, In Fact, To See Life.

Marriage Is An Extraordinary Thing - And I Doubt If Any Outsider - Even A Child Of The Marriage - Has The Right To Judge.

You've A Pretty Good Nerve," Said Ratchett. "will Twenty Thousand Dollars Tempt You?" It Will Not." If You're Holding Out For More, You Won't Get It. I Know What A Thing's Worth To Me." I, Also M. Ratchett." What's Wrong With My Proposition?" Poirot Rose. "if You Will Forgive Me For Being Personal - I Do Not Like Your Face, M. Ratchett," He Said.

For In The Long Run, Either Through A Lie, Or Through Truth, People Were Bound To Give Themselves Away.

I'm Not Often Bored,' I Assured Her. "life's Not Long Enough For That.

The Bereaved Had Never Any Doubt About Their Dear Ones' Wishes And Those Wishes Usually Squared With Their Own Inclinations.

Fiction Is Founded On Truth....unless Things Did Happen,people Couldn't Think Of Them.

Very Few Of Us Are What We Seem.

... Evil Was, Perhaps, Necessarily Always More Impressive Than Good.

I Can Think Of Nothing More Soul Destroying In Life Than To Persist In Trying To Do A Thing You Want Desperately To Do Well, And To Know That You Are At The Best Second Rate.

The Truth, However Ugly In Itself, Is Always Curious And Beautiful To Seekers After It.

Our Weapon Is Our Knowledge. But Remember, It May Be A Knowledge We May Not Know That We Possess.

In The Midst Of Life, We Are In Death.

People Should Be Interested In Books, Not Their Authors.

The Best Time To Plan A Book Is While You're Doing The Dishes.

Intuition Is Like Reading A Word Without Having To Spell It Out. A Child Can't Do That Because It Has Had So Little Experience. A Grown-up Person Knows The Word Because They've Seen It Often Before.

When Engaged In Eating, The Brain Should Be The Servant Of The Stomach.

If You Are To Be Hercule Poirot, You Must Think Of Everything.

Real Evidence Is Usually Vague And Unsatisfactory. It Has To Be Examined---sifted. But Here The Whole Thing Is Cut And Dried. No, My Friend, This Evidence Has Been Very Cleverly Manufactured---so Cleverly That It Has Defeated Its Own Ends.

Ah, But Life Is Like That! It Does Not Permit You To Arrange And Order It As You Will. It Will Not Permit You To Escape Emotion, To Live By The Intellect And By Reason! You Cannot Say, 'i Will Feel So Much And No More.' Life, Mr. Welman, Whatever Else It Is, Is Not Reasonable. [hercule Poirot]

The Lure Of The Past Came Up To Grab Me. To See A Dagger Slowly Appearing, With Its Gold Glint, Through The Sand Was Romantic. The Carefulness Of Lifting Pots And Objects From The Soil Filled Me With A Longing To Be An Archaeologist Myself.

Your Not Reliable. You Wouldn't Be At All A Comfortable Sort Of Person To Live With.

Things Never Come When They Are Expected.

People Who Can Be Very Good Can Be Very Bad Too.

A Weak Man In A Corner Is More Dangerous Than A Strong Man.

And If You Cast Down An Idol, There's Nothing Left.

As You Yourself Have Said, What Other Explanation Can There Be?' Poirot Stared Straight Ahead Of Him. 'that Is What I Ask Myself,' He Said. 'that Is What I Never Cease To Ask Myself.

I Never Can Stand Seeing People Pleased With Themselves,” Said Joanna. “it Arouses All My Worst Instincts.

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.

We Are The Same People As We Were At Three, Six, Ten Or Twenty Years Old. More Noticeably So, Perhaps, At Six Or Seven, Because We Were Not Pretending So Much Then.

Time Does Not Dispose Of A Question - It Only Presents It Anew In A Different Guise.

It Is Completely Unimportant. That Is Why It Is So Interesting.

Tea! Bless Ordinary Everyday Afternoon Tea!

Coffee In England Always Tastes Like A Chemistry Experiment.

Evil Is Not Something Superhuman, It's Something Less Than Human.

One Place Is Very Like Another.

Sitting Here With One's Knitting, One Just Sees The Facts. -"the Blood-stained Pavement

The Urge To Write One's Autobiography, So I Have Been Told, Overtakes Everyone Sooner Or Later.

Sooner Or Later

I Am Not Mad. I Am Eccentric Perhaps--at Least Certain People Say So; But As Regards My Profession. I Am Very Much As One Says, 'all There.

Men Don't Understand How Their Mannerisms Can Get On Women's Nerves So That You Feel You Just Have To Snap.

To Feel Admiration For A Man All Through One's Married Life Would, I Think, Be Excessively Tedious.

You Gave 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.

That Was What, Ultimately, War Did To You. It Was Not The Physical Dangers--the Mines At Sea, The Bombs From The Air, The Crisp Ping Of A Rifle Bullet As You Drove Over A Desert Track. No, It Was The Spiritual Danger Of Learning How Much Easier Life Was If You Ceased To Think.

A Mother's Love For Her Child Is Like Nothing Else In The World. It Knows No Law, No Pity, It Dares All Things And Crushes Down Remorselessly All That Stands In Its Path.

An Appreciative Listener Is Always Stimulating.

If Only-if Only, Hastings, You Would Part Your Hair In The Middle Instead Of At The Side! What A Difference It Would Make To The Symmetry Of Your Appearance. And Your Moustache. If You Must Have A Moustache, Let It Be A Real Moustache-a Thing Of Beauty Such As Mine.

There Speaks The Passion And The Rebellion That Go With Red Hair. My Second Wife Had Red Hair. She Was A Beautiful Woman, And She Loved Me. Strange, Is It Not? I Have Always Admired Red-haired Women. Your Hair Is Very Beautiful. There Are Other Things I Like About You. Your Spirit, Your Courage; The Fact That You Have A Mind Of Your Own. ~mr. Aristides

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.

Who Is There Who Has Not Felt A Sudden Startled Pang At Reliving An Old Experience Or Feeling An Old Emotion?

Poirot Said Placidly, “one Does Not, You Know, Employ Merely The Muscles. I Do Not Need To Bend And Measure The Footprints And Pick Up The Cigarette Ends And Examine The Bent Blades Of Grass. It Is Enough For Me To Sit Back In My Chair And Think. It Is This – ” He Tapped His Egg-shaped Head – “this, That Functions!

There Is No Detective In England Equal To A Spinster Lady Of Uncertain Age With Plenty Of Time On Her Hands.

Books Are A Habit-forming Drug.

I Didn't Want To Work. It Was As Simple As That. I Distrusted Work, Disliked It. I Thought It Was A Very Bad Thing That The Human Race Had Unfortunately Invented For Itself.

It's No Good Starting Out By Thinking One Is A Heaven-born Genius- Some People Are, But Very Few. No, One Is A Tradesman - A Tradesman In A Good Honest Trade. You Must Learn The Technical Skills, And Then, Within That Trade, You Can Apply Your Own Creative Ideas, But You Must Submit Them To The Discipline Of Form.

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