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....

Use that fluff of yours you call a brain.

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

That’s peace-real peace. To come to the end-not to have to go on. . . .Yes, peace. . . .

I have no pity for myself either. So let it be Veronal. But I wish Hercule Poirot had never retired from work and come here to grow vegetable marrows.

I was tired of this silly joking about my ‘speaking countenance’. I could keep a secret as well as anyone. Poirot had always persisted in the humiliating belief that I am a transparent character and...

What are the years from twenty to forty? Fettered and bound by personal and emotional relationships. That’s bound to be. That’s living. But later there’s a new stage. You can think, observe life, discover something...

For somewhere,” said Poirot to himself, indulging in an absolute riot of mixed metaphors, “there is in the hay a needle, and among the sleeping dogs there is one on whom I shall put my...

We are ready to despair too soon, we are ready to say, ‘What’s the good of doing anything?’ Hope is the virtue we should cultivate most in this present day and age.

… Good gracious, Jerry, you’ll probably have to marry the girl.’Joanna was half serious, half laughing.It was at that moment that I made a very important discovery.’Damn it all,’ I said. ‘I don’t mind if...

Las mujeres, claro está, deben pensar en ellas mismas.

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 is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c’est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy!

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...

There was only one thing about his own appearance which really pleased Hercule Poirot, and that was the profusion of his moustaches, and the way they responded to grooming and treatment and trimming. They were...

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...

It is romantic, yes,’ agreed Hercule Poirot. ‘It is peaceful. The sun shines. The sea is blue. But you forget, Miss Brewster, there is evil everywhere under the sun’.

Wwhat the hell? Weve all got to die sometime!

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...

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.

That’s peace – real peace. To come to the end – not to have to go on… Yes, peace.

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...

I think you are wise. You haven’t got what it takes for this job. You are like Rosemary’s father. He couldn’t understand Lenin’s dictum: ‘Away with softness.'”I thought of Hercule Poirot’s words.”I’m content,” I said,...

I believe, Messieurs, in loyalty—to one’s friends and one’s family and one’s caste.

It’s a rotten job, but somebody’s got to do it.

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...

How true is the saying that man was forced to invent work inorder to escape the strain of having to think.

¡El dinero es ridículo! ¡El crédito es ridículo! ¡Convenga usted en que la vida tiene mucho de ridículo!

… human nature is much the same everywhere…” – Ms. Marple, The Thumb Mark of St. Peter, Pg. 69

A great many men are mad, and no one knows it. They do not know it themselves

There! Now we’re friends!” declared the minx. “Say you’re sorry about my sister -“”I am desolated!””That’s a good boy!

When engaged in eating, the brain should be the servant of the stomach.

There are questions that you don’t ask because you’re afraid of the answers to them.

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.

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.

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...

To every problem, there is a most simple solution.

The popular view 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.

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...

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.

Tea! Bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea!

To rush into explanations is always a sign of weakness.

The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.

Poirot thought it not quite professional to begin a routine working day before ten.

When the sun shines you cannot see the moon,” he said. “But when the sun is gone ah,when the sun is gone.

Human nature is always interesting… And it’s curious to see how certain types always tend to act in exactly the same way.” – Miss Marple, The Herb of Death, Pg. 167

… it isn’t really guilt that is important – it’s innocence. … Some people may go through a lifetime crushed by the weight of a suspicion that is really unjustified.” – Sir Henry Clithering, The...

A statesman in these days has a difficult task. He has to pursue the policy he deems advantageous to his country, but he has at the same time to recognize the force of popular feeling....

If one could order a crime as one does a dinner, what would you choose? . . . Let’s review the menu. Robbery? Frogery? No, I think not. Rather too vegetarian. It must be murder—red-blooded...

… Hate isn’t creative.” – Dr. Stillinglfeet, Pg. 247