Background Image

...

The Point Is That One's Got An Instinct To Live. One Doesn't Live Because One's Reason Assents To Living. People Who, As We Say, 'would Be Better Dead' Don't Want To Die! People Who Apparently Have Everything To Live For Just Let Themselves Fade Out Of Life Because They Haven't Got The Energy To Fight.

-Agatha Christie

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The Point Is That

Agatha Christie

...

The Point Is That One's Got An Instinct To Live. One Doesn't Live Because One's Reason Assents To Living. People Who, As We Say, 'would Be Better Dead' Don't Want To Die! People Who Apparently Have Everything To Live For Just Let Themselves Fade Out Of Life Because They Haven't Got The Energy To Fight.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Agatha Christie

One Place Is Very Like Another.

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.

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

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

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

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.

"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!"

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

Stage Performance

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

You Regard It As Impossible That A Sinner Should Be Struck Down By The Wrath Of God! I Do Not!

Never Worry About What You Say To A Man. They're So Conceited That They Never Believe You Mean It If It's Unflattering.

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.

Never Do Anything Yourself That Others Can Do For You.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Youth Is A Failing Only Too Easily Outgrown.

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.

Assumptions Are Dangerous Things.

Dangerous Things

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.

Oh, No, I'm Not Brave. When A Thing Is Certain, There's Nothing To Be Brave About. All You Can Do Is To Find Your Consolation.

Books Are A Habit-forming Drug.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

You Should Employ Your Little Grey Cells.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

More Children Suffer From Interference Than From Non-interference.

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.

I Always Think Loyalty's Such A Tiresome Virtue.

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

Everybody Always Knows Something," Said Adam, "even If It's Something They Don't Know They Know.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

Desperate Ills Need Desperate Remedies.

A Man When He Is Making Up To Anybody Can Be Cordial And Gallant And Full Of Little Attentions And Altogether Charming. But When A Man Is Really In Love He Can't Help Looking Like A Sheep.

The Point Is That One's Got An Instinct To Live. One Doesn't Live Because One's Reason Assents To Living. People Who, As We Say, 'would Be Better Dead' Don't Want To Die! People Who Apparently Have Everything To Live For Just Let Themselves Fade Out Of Life Because They Haven't Got The Energy To Fight.

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

It Is A Curious Thought, But It Is Only When You See People Looking Ridiculous That You Realize Just How Much You Love Them.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Sometimes I Feel Sure He Is As Mad As A Hatter And Then, Just As He Is At His Maddest, I Find There Is A Method In His Madness.

There Is No Fanatic Like A Religious Fanatic.

Religious Fanatics

That Is Why Most Great Love Stories Are Tragedies.

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.

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

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

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

... 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Sooner Or Later

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

I Specialize In Murders Of Quiet, Domestic Interest.

Murder Mysteries

These Little Grey Cells. It Is Up To Them.

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.

Bottled, Was He?" Said Colonel Bantry, With An Englishman's Sympathy For Alcoholic Excess. "oh, Well, Can't Judge A Fellow By What He Does When He's Drunk? When I Was At Cambridge, I Remember I Put A Certain Utensil - Well - Well, Nevermind.

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

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.

Very Few Of Us Are What We Seem.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Evil Never Goes Unpunished, Monsieur. But The Punishment Is Sometimes Secret.

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.

He Laughs Best Who Laughs At The End.

Things Go Entirely Differently From The Way You Planned Them.

I Have Enjoyed Greatly The Second Blooming... Suddenly You Find - At The Age Of 50, Say - That A Whole New Life Has Opened Before You.

Inspirational Birthday

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

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

You Cannot Mix Up Sentiment And Reason.

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

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

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.

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)

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

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.

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

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

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)

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.

With Method And Logic One Can Accomplish Anything.

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

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.

There Is Something About Conscious Tact That Is Very Irritating.

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

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

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.

The Past Is The Father Of The Present.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Afraid Of Death

One Must Make One's Own Mistakes

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

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

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?

The Rottenness Comes From Within.

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

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

The First Time You Do A Thing Is Always Exciting.

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

Everything That Has Existed, Lingers In The Eternity.

With Thought, All Problems Can Be Resolved.

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.

There Is No Question Of Defence. I Have Always Acted In Accordance With The Dictates Of My Conscience. I Have Nothing With Which To Reproach Myself.

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]

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.

... 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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

In The Midst Of Life, We Are In Death.

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.

Someone You Love

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Courage Is The Resolution To Face The Unforeseen.

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.

Elephants Can Remember, But We Are Human Beings And Mercifully Human Beings Can Forget.

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

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

Trending Author

George Plimpton

Category