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I Learned ... That One Can Never Go Back, That One Should Not Ever Try To Go Back - That The Essence Of Life Is Going Forward. Life Is Really A One Way Street, Isn't It?

-Agatha Christie

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I Learned ... That

Agatha Christie

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I Learned ... That One Can Never Go Back, That One Should Not Ever Try To Go Back - That The Essence Of Life Is Going Forward. Life Is Really A One Way Street, Isn't It?

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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.

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Juliet Singles Out Romeo. Desdemona Claims Othello. They Have No Doubts, The Young, No Fear, No Pride.

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Do You Know My Friend That Each One Of Us Is A Dark Mystery, A Maze Of Conflicting Passions And Desire And Aptitudes?

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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.

That Is Why Most Great Love Stories Are Tragedies.

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

Tea! Bless Ordinary Everyday Afternoon Tea!

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

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

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

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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.

Everything Must Be Taken Into Account. If The Fact Will Not Fit The Theory---let The Theory Go.

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What They Need Is A Little Immorality In Their Lives. Then They Wouldn't Be So Busy Looking For It In Other People's.

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?

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In My End Is My Beginning - That's What People Are Always Saying. But What Does It Mean?

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I Do Not Argue With Obstinate Men. I Act In Spite Of Them.

Now I Am Old-fashioned. A Woman, I Consider, Should Be Womanly. I Have No Patience With The Modern Neurotic Girl Who Jazzes From Morning To Night, Smokes Like A Chimney, And Uses Language Which Would Make A Billingsgate Fishwoman Blush!

You Cannot Mix Up Sentiment And Reason.

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.

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

I've Always Believed In Writing Without A Collaborator, Because Where Two People Are Writing The Same Book, Each Believes He Gets All The Worry And Only Half The Royalties.

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

People Should Be Interested In Books, Not Their Authors.

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.

The Out-of-date Returns In Due Course As The Picturesque.

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

A Mother's Love For Her Child Is Like Nothing Else In The World.

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..."

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

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

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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.

How Tedious Is Retirement! You Cannot Imagine To Yourself The Monotony With Which Day Comes After Day.

Mr. Jesmond Made A Peculiar Noise Rather Like A Hen Who Has Decided To Lay An Egg And Then Thought Better Of It.

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

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.

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

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

She Didn't Give George Any Too Easy A Time When She Was Alive. She Was One Of Those Semi-invalids – I Believe She Had Really Something Wrong With Her, But Whatever It Was She Played It For All It Was Worth. She Was Capricious, Exacting, Unreasonable. She Complained From Morning To Night. George Was Expected To Wait On Her, Hand And Foot And Everything He Did Was Always Wrong And He Got Cursed For It. Most Men, I'm Fully Convinced, Would Have Hit Her With A Hatchet Long Ago.

Writers Are Diffident Creatures -- They Need Encouragement.

Need Encouragement

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.

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

Youth Is A Failing Only Too Easily Outgrown.

You Should Employ Your Little Grey Cells.

It's So Much Nicer To Be A Secret And Delightful Sin To Anybody Than To Be A Feather In His Cap.

It Is Ridiculous To Set A Detective Story In New York City. New York City Is Itself A Detective Story.

An Archaeologist Is The Best Husband A Woman Can Have. The Older She Gets The More Interested He Is In Her.

One Must Make One's Own Mistakes

Use That Fluff Of Yours You Call A Brain.

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

Difficulties Are Made To Be Overcome ~ Miss Felicity Lemon, Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Plymouth Express

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

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

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.

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.

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

You Agree - I'm Sure You Agree That Beauty Is The Only Thing Worth Living For.

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

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.

Who Are You? You Don't Belong To The Police?' 'i Am Better Than The Police,' Said Poirot. He Said It Without Conscious Arrogance. It Was, To Him, A Simple Statement Of Fact.

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

... 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.

To Win A War Is As Disasterous As To Lose One.

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

A Great Many Men Are Mad, And No One Knows It. They Do Not Know It Themselves

Words Are Such Uncertain Things, They So Often Sound Well But Mean The Opposite Of What One Thinks They Do.

One Place Is Very Like Another.

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.

When You Find That People Are Not Telling You The Truth---look Out!

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

Many Years Ago, When I Was Once Saying Sadly To Max It Was A Pity I Couldn't Have Taken Up Archaeology When I Was A Girl, So As To Be More Knowledgeable On The Subject, He Said, 'don't You Realize That At This Moment You Know More About Prehistoric Pottery Than Any Woman In England?'

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.

I Believe, Messieurs, In Loyalty---to One's Friends And One's Family And One's Caste.

The Past Is The Father Of The Present.

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

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 Is No Fanatic Like A Religious Fanatic.

Religious Fanatics

To Rush Into Explanations Is Always A Sign Of Weakness.

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

Stage Performance

Everyone Is A Potential Murderer-in Everyone There Arises From Time To Time Thewish To Kill-though Not The Will To Kill.

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

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.

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.

Curious Things, Habits. People Themselves Never Knew They Had Them.

There Hung About Her The Restrained Energy Of A Whiplash.

Until One Looks Back On One's Own Past One Fails To Realise What An Extraordinary View Of The World A Child Has.

In The Midst Of Life, We Are In Death.

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

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