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I Live Now On Borrowed Time, Waiting In The Anteroom For The Summons That Will Inevitably Come. And Then - I Go On To The Next Thing, Whatever It Is. One Doesn't, Luckily, Have To Bother About That.

-Agatha Christie

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I Live Now On

Agatha Christie

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I Live Now On Borrowed Time, Waiting In The Anteroom For The Summons That Will Inevitably Come. And Then - I Go On To The Next Thing, Whatever It Is. One Doesn't, Luckily, Have To Bother About That.

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To Count - Really And Truly To Count - A Woman Must Have Goodness Or Brains.

I Have A Certain Experience Of The Way People Tell Lies.

It Is Really A Hard Life. Men Will Not Be Nice To You If You Are Not Good-looking, And Women Will Not Be Nice To You If You Are.

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.

There Is No Telling What A Human Character Is. Until The Test Comes. To Most Of Us The Test Comes Early In Life. A Man Is Confronted Quite Soon With The Necessity To Stand On His Own Feet, To Face Dangers And Difficulties And To Take His Own Line Of Dealing With Them. It May Be The Straight Way, It May Be The Crooked Way --- Whichever It Is, A Man Usually Learns Early Just What He Is Made Of.

In My Experience, People Who Go About Looking For Trouble Usually Find It.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

At My Time Of Life, One Knows That The Worst Is Usually True.

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

The Rottenness Comes From Within.

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

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?

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

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.

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

I'm Sure You Have A Theme: The Theme Of Your Life. You Can Embellish It Or Desecrate It, But It's Your Theme, And As Long As You Follow It, You Will Experience Harmony And Peace Of Mind.

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 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.

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

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

Everything That Has Existed, Lingers In The Eternity.

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.

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

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

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

To Put It Quite Crudely ... The Poor Don't Really Know How The Rich Live, And The Rich Don't Know How The Poor Live, And To Find Out Is Really Enchanting To Both Of Them.

I'm Afraid Of Death... Yes, But That Doesn't Stop Death Coming.

Afraid Of Death

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

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]

It's A Mystery To Me How Anyone Ever Gets Any Nourishment In This Place. They Must Eat Their Meals Standing Up By The Window So As To Be Sure Of Not Missing Anything.

In Old Days The Public Didn't Really Mind Much About Accuracy, But Nowadays Readers Take It Upon Themselves To Write To Authors On Every Possible Occasion, Pointing Out Flaws.

I Have Wanted . . . To Commit A Murder Myself. I Recognized This As The Desire Of The Artist To Express Himself! . . . But-incongruous As It May Seem To Some-i Was Restrained And Hampered By My Innate Sense Of Justice. The Innocent Must Not Suffer.

Oh, I'm Not Afraid Of Death! What Have I Got To Live For After All? I Suppose You Believe It's Very Wrong To Kill A Person Who Has Injured You-even If They've Taken Away Everything You Had In The World?

One Never Quite Allows For The Moron In Our Midst.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

It Is Deplorable...to Remove All The Romance - All The Mystery!

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

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

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

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.

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.

I Suppose Without Curiosity A Man Would Be A Tortoise. Very Comfortable Life, A Tortoise Has.

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.

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

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

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

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!

One Must Accept The Fact That We Have Only One Companion In This World, A Companion Who Accompanies Us From The Cradle To The Grave - Our Own Self. Get On Good Terms With That Companion - Learn To Live With Yourself.

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.

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.

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..."

And Yet," Said Poirot, "suppose An Accident-" "ah, No, My Friend-" "from Your Point Of View It Would Be Regrettable, I Agree. But Nevertheless Let Us Just For One Moment Suppose It. Then, Perhaps, All These Here Are Linked Together - By Death.

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

Time Is The Best Killer.

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

Many Friends Have Said To Me, 'i Never Know When You Write Your Books, Because I've Never Seen You Writing, Or Even Seen You Go Away To Write.' I Must Behave Rather As Dogs Do When They Retire With A Bone; They Depart In A Secretive Manner And You Do Not See Them Again For An Odd Half Hour. They Return Self-consciously With Mud On Their Noses. I Do Much The Same.

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.

To Every Problem, There Is A Most Simple Solution.

Simple Solutions

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

There Hung About Her The Restrained Energy Of A Whiplash.

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

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

Tea! Bless Ordinary Everyday Afternoon Tea!

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.

Assumptions Are Dangerous Things.

Dangerous Things

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

But No Artist, I Now Realize, Can Be Satisfied With Art Alone. There Is A Natural Craving For Recognition Which Cannot Be Gain-said.

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.

Imagination Is A Good Servant, And A Bad Master.

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.

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

I Always Think Loyalty's Such A Tiresome Virtue.

Coffee In England Always Tastes Like A Chemistry Experiment.

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

It Is The Brain, The Little Gray Cells On Which One Must Rely. One Must Seek The Truth Within--not Without." ~ Poirot

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

Any Medical Man Who Predicts Exactly When A Patient Will Die, Or Exactly How Long He Will Live, Is Bound To Make A Fool Of Himself. The Human Factor Is Always Incalculable. The Weak Have Often Unexpected Powers Of Resistance, The Strong Sometimes Succumb.

Nurses - Nurses, You'm All The Same. Full Of Cheerfulness Over Other People's Troubles.

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

Achievement Brings With It Its Own Anticlimax.

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.

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.

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.

Everyone Likes Talking About Himself. - Hercule Poirot

No, My Friend, I Am Not Drunk. I Have Just Been To The Dentist, And Need Not Return For Another Six Months! Is It Not The Most Beautiful Thought? --poirot

I Really Cannot Understand The Point Of What You're Saying. Really,' Said Clotilde, Looking At Her. 'what A Very Extraordinary Person You Are. What Sort Of A Woman Are You? Why Are You Talking Like This? Who Are You?' Miss Marple Pulled Down The Mass Of Pink Wool That Encircled Her Head, A Pink Wool Scarf Of The Same Kind That She Had Once Worn In The West Indies. 'one Of My Names,' She Said, 'is Nemesis.' 'nemesis? And What Does That Mean?' 'i Think You Know,' Said Miss Marple. 'you Are A Very Well Educated Woman. Nemesis Is Long Delayed Sometimes, But It Comes In The End.

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.

All I Needed Was A Steady Table And A Typewriter...a Marble-topped Bedroom Washstand Table Made A Good Place; The Dining-room Table Between Meals Was Also Suitable.

One Knows So Little. When One Knows More It Is Too Late.

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

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

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

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

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

I've Got A Stomach Now As Well As A Behind. And I Mean - Well, You Can't Pull It In Both Ways, Can You? ... I've Made It A Rule To Pull In My Stomach And Let My Behind Look After Itself.

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

An Appreciative Listener Is Always Stimulating.

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

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

Sooner Or Later

... The Belief In A Superstratum Of Human Beings ... Is The Most Evil Of All Beliefs. For When You Say, 'i Am Not As Other Men' -- You Have Lost The Two Most Valuable Qualities We Have Ever Tried To Attain: -- Humility And Brotherhood.

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.

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

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

One Does What One Can, Not What One Cannot.

Inspirational Life

Money ... Is Always The Great Clue To What Is Happening In The World.

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

They Tried To Be Too Clever---and That Was Their Undoing.

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

It Is My Experience That No One, In The Course Of Conversation, Can Fail To Give Themselves Away Sooner Or Later. Everyone Has An Irresistible Urge To Talk About Themselves.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

What I Feel Is That If One Has Got To Have A Murder Actually Happening In One's House, One Might As Well Enjoy It, If You Know What I Mean.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

"i Think You're Begging The Question," Said Haydock, "and I Can See Looming Ahead One Of Those Terrible Exercises In Probability Where Six Men Have White Hats And Six Men Have Black Hats And You Have To Work It Out By Mathematics How Likely It Is That The Hats Will Get Mixed Up And In What Proportion. If You Start Thinking About Things Like That, You Would Go Round The Bend. Let Me Assure You Of That!"

The Steamship Whose Machinery Is Broken May Be Brought Into Port And Made Fast To The Dock. She Is Safe, But Not Sound. Repairs May Last A Long Time. Christ Designs To Make Us Both Safe And Sound. Justification Gives The First - Safety; Sanctification Gives Us The Second - Soundness.

Sensationalism Dies Quickly, Fear Is Long-lived.

Writers Are Diffident Creatures -- They Need Encouragement.

Need Encouragement

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

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

Too Much Safety Is Abhorrent To The Nature Of A Human Being.

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.

Life Itself Is An Unsolved Mystery", Said The Clergyman Gravely.

Unsolved Mysteries

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.

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.

Those Who Never Think Of Money Need A Great Deal Of It.

The First Time You Do A Thing Is Always Exciting.

With Thought, All Problems Can Be Resolved.

What An Absurdity To Go And Bury Oneself In South America, Where They Are Always Having Revolutions.

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.

I Always Take Abroad With Me One Really Good Soft Pillow--to Me It Makes All The Difference Between Comfort And Misery.

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

If One Sticks Too Rigidly To One's Principles, One Would Hardly See Anybody.

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

With Method And Logic One Can Accomplish Anything.

... Nothing Is So Boring As Devotion.

No Innocent Person Ever Has An Alibi.

Innocent Person

If We Seek To Keep The Past Alive, We End, I Think, By Distorting It.

There Are Doubtless Certain Unworldly People Who Are Indifferent To Money. I Myself Have Never Met One.

Use That Fluff Of Yours You Call A Brain.

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

That Is Why Most Great Love Stories Are Tragedies.

In The Midst Of Life, We Are In Death.

I Was Thinking, That When My Time Comes, I Should Be Sorry If The Only Plea I Had To Offer Was That Of Justice. Because It Might Mean That Only Justice Would Be Meted Out To Me.

There Is No Fanatic Like A Religious Fanatic.

Religious Fanatics

Things Never Come When They Are Expected.

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.

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.

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

And, Of Course, Afterwards -- One Always Hears These Things Afterwards, So Much Better If One Heard Them Before -- We Found Out That Dozens Of Empty Brandy Bottles Were Taken Out Of The House Every Week!

Why Shouldn't I Hate Her? She Did The Worst Thing To Me That Anyone Can Do To Anyone Else. Let Them Believe That They're Loved And Wanted And Then Show Them That It's All A Sham.

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

One Must Make One's Own Mistakes

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.

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.

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.

Lie Is More Worth Living, More Full Of Interest When You Are Likely To Lose It. It Shouldn't Be, Perhaps, But It Is. When You're Young And Strong And Healthy, And Life Stretches Ahead Of You, Living Isn't Really Important At All. It's Young People Who Commit Suicide Easily, Out Of Despair From Love, Sometimes From Sheer Anxiety And Worry. But Old People Know How Valuable Life Is And How Interesting. - Jane Marple

I, Myself, Was Always Recognized . . . As The “slow One” In The Family. It Was Quite True, And I Knew It And Accepted It. Writing And Spelling Were Always Terribly Difficult For Me. My Letters Were Without Originality. I Was . . . An Extraordinarily Bad Speller And Have Remained So Until This Day.

Everything Has Got Its Right Size. When It Is Its Right Size And Well Run It's The Tops.

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

... 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.

The Science Of Tomorrow Is The Supernatural Of Today.

Nobody Believes In Magicians Any More, Nobody Believes That Anyone Can Come Along And Wave A Wand And Turn You Into A Frog. But If You Read In The Paper That By Injecting Certain Glands Scientists Can Alter Your Vital Tissues And You'll Develop Froglike Characteristics, Well, Everybody Would Believe That.

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

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

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

Happy Childhood

I Often Wonder Why The Whole World Is So Prone To Generalise. Generalisations Are Seldom If Ever True And Are Usually Utterly Inaccurate.

I Would Like It To Be Said That I Was A Good Writer Of Detective And Thriller Stories.

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

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

Be Sure Thy Sin Will Find Thee Out.

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

From An Early Age I Knew Very Strongly The Lust To Kill.

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

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

Dogs Are Wise. They Crawl Away Into A Quiet Corner And Lick Their Wounds And Do Not Rejoin The World Until They Are Whole Once More.

A Great Man Always Knows Better Than To Explain Unless An Explanation Is Demanded. To Rush Into Explanations And Excuses Is Always A Sign Of Weakness.

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