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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.

-Agatha Christie

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If Only-if Only, Hastings,

Agatha Christie

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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.

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

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

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

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Incomplete Knowledge

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.

Hate Doesn't Last. Love Does.

It's Astonishing In This World How Things Don't Turn Out At All The Way You Expect Them To.

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Truth, However Bitter, Can Be Accepted, And Woven Into A Design For Living.

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.

"look Here," I Said, "people Like To Collect Disasters."

The Human Mind Prefers To Be Spoon-fed With The Thoughts Of Others, But Deprived Of Such Nourishment It Will, Reluctantly, Begin To Think For Itself - And Such Thinking, Remember, Is Original Thinking And May Have Valuable Results.

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

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

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.

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.

One Doesn't Recognize The Really Important Moments In One's Life Until It's Too Late.

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

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

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

Curious Things, Habits. People Themselves Never Knew They Had Them. [witness For The Prosecution, Also Published In The Hound Of Death And Other Stories.]

The Heart Of A Woman Who Loves Will Forgive Many Blows.

There Is No Greater Mistake In Life Than Seeing Things Or Hearing Them At The Wrong Time.

The Saddest Thing In Life And The Hardest To Live Through, Is The Knowledge That There Is Someone You Love Very Much Whom You Cannot Save From Suffering.

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

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

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

She Was A Lucky Woman Who Had Established A Happy Knack Of Writing What Quite A Lot Of People Wanted To Read.

I Specialize In Murders Of Quiet, Domestic Interest.

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

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

Everyone Likes Talking About Himself. - Hercule Poirot

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Sooner Or Later

Too Much Mercy... Often Resulted In Further Crimes Which Were Fatal To Innocent Victims Who Need Not Have Been Victims If Justice Had Been Put First And Mercy Second.

If You Place Your Head In A Lion's Mouth, Then You Cannot Complain One Day If He Happens To Bite It Off.

I've A Theory That One Can Always Get Anything One Wants If One Will Pay The Price. And Do You Know What The Price Is, Nine Times Out Of Ten? Compromise.

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

Evil Is Not Any Superhuman, But It Is Human.

That Is What I Mean. A Bath! The Receptacle Of Porcelain, One Turns The Taps And Fills It, One Gets In, One Gets Out And Ghoosh - Ghoosh - Ghoosh, The Water Goes Down The Waste Pipe!" "m. Poirot Are You Quite Mad?" "no, I Am Extremely Sane.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

No Innocent Person Ever Has An Alibi.

Innocent Person

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.

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

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An Ugly Voice Repels Me Where An Ugly Face Would Not.

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Everything That Has Existed, Lingers In The Eternity.

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The Simplest Explanation Is Always The Most Likely.

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

I Have Often Had Occasion To Notice How, Where A Direct Question Would Fail To Elicit A Response, A False Assumption Brings Instant Information In The Form Of A Contradiction.

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

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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.

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

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Love Is Not Everything ... It Is Only When We Are Young That We Think It Is.

The Truth Often Does Sound Unconvincing.

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

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

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

Coffee In England Always Tastes Like A Chemistry Experiment.

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

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

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

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

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?

Things Go Entirely Differently From The Way You Planned Them.

It's Like All Those Quiet People, When They Do Lose Their Tempers They Lose Them With A Vengeance.

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

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.

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

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)

In The Midst Of Life, We Are In Death.

If You Love, You Will Suffer, And If You Do Not Love, You Do Not Know The Meaning Of A Christian Life.

You Cannot Mix Up Sentiment And Reason.

Achievement Brings With It Its Own Anticlimax.

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

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

There's Too Much Tendency To Attribute To God The Evils That Man Does Of His Own Free Will.

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.

There Is Too Much Tendency To Attribute To God The Evils That Man Does Of His Own Free Will. I Must Concede You The Devil. God Doesn't Really Need To Punish Us, Miss Barton. We're So Busy Punishing Ourselves.

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, 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.

There Hung About Her The Restrained Energy Of A Whiplash.

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

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

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.

With Method And Logic One Can Accomplish Anything.

And So Could You Know It If You Would Only Use The Brains The Good God Has Given You. Sometimes I Really Am Tempted To Believe That By Inadvertence, He Passed You By.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If You Ask Me, Nobody Really Likes People Who Are Always Doing Their Duty.

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

Imagination Is A Good Servant, And A Bad Master.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

One Does See So Much Evil In A Village,' Murmured Miss Marple In An Explanatory Voice.

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

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

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

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.

It Is The Quietest And Meekest People Who Are Often Capable Of The Most Sudden And Unexpected Violences For The Reason That When Their Control Does Snap, It Goes Entirely. (hercule Poirot)

... 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.

If Anyone Is Really Determined To Lend You A Book, You Never Can Get Out Of It!

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.

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.

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.

What Good Is Money If It Can't Buy Happiness?

The Impossible Could Not Have Happened, Therefore The Impossible Must Be Possible In Spite Of Appearances.

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

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.

People Should Be Interested In Books, Not Their Authors.

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

Time Is The Best Killer.

Writers Are Diffident Creatures -- They Need Encouragement.

Need Encouragement

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

That Is Why Most Great Love Stories Are Tragedies.

You Know, Emily Was A Selfish Old Woman In Her Way. She Was Very Generous, But She Always Wanted A Return. She Never Let People Forget What She Had Done For Them - And, That Way She Missed Love.

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

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.

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.

To All Those Who Lead Monotonous Lives In The Hope That They May Experience At Second Hand The Delights And Dangers Of Adventure. [author's Dedication]

Monotonous Life

Be Sure Thy Sin Will Find Thee Out.

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

To Every Problem, There Is A Most Simple Solution.

Simple Solutions

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

One Must Make One's Own Mistakes

... Nothing Is So Boring As Devotion.

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

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

There Is Evil Everywhere Under The Sun.

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 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.

One Never Quite Allows For The Moron In Our Midst.

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

As Life Goes On It Becomes Tiring To Keep Up The Character You Invented For Yourself, And So You Relapse Into Individuality And Become More Like Yourself Everyday.

One Does What One Can, Not What One Cannot.

Inspirational Life

Youth Is A Failing Only Too Easily Outgrown.

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

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

Any Woman Can Fool A Man If She Wants To And If He's In Love With Her.

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.

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