Agatha Christie

If you are to be Hercule Poirot, you must think of everything.

Hercule Poirot: I am an imbecile. I see only half of the picture.
Miss Lemon: I don't even see that.

Never do anything yourself that others can do for you.

Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them.
[Witness for the Prosecution, also published in The Hound of Death and Other Stories.]

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 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.

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.

An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her.

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

As a matter of fact it wouldn’t be safe to tell any man the truth about his wife! Funnily enough, I’d trust most women with the truth about their husbands. 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.

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.
-The Last Seance (from The Hound of Death and Other Stories, also Double Sin and Other Stories)

Bagi sebagian orang kebenaran itu penting, sebab mereka dapat menerimanya. Mereka dapat menghadapi kebenaran dengan tabah - ketabahan yang hanya dimiliki orang-orang yang mengharapkan kehidupan yang cerah.

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.

It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.

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.

One doesn't recognize the really important moments in one's life until it's too late.

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.

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.

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention . . . arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.

In the midst of life, we are in death.

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.

I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.

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.

The young people think the old people are fools -- but the old people know the young people are fools.

She was a lucky woman who had established a happy knack of writing what quite a lot of people wanted to read.

Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking."
"An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.

I always think loyalty's such a tiresome virtue.

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

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?

In fact-Dr. Sheppard!

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.

At my time of life, one knows that the worst is usually true.

It's so much nicer to be a secret and delightful sin to anybody than to be a feather in his cap.

I've always believed in writing without a collaborator, because where two people are writing the same book, each believes he gets all the worries and only half the royalties.

Handsome, strong, gay ... She felt again the thro and lilt of her blood. She had loved Kameni in that moment. She loved him now. Kameni could take the place that Khay had held in her life.
She thought: 'We shall be happy together - yes, we shall be happy. We shall live together and take pleasure in each other and we shall have strong, handsome children. There will be busy days full of work ... and days of pleasure when we sail on the River...Life will be again as I knew it with Khay...What could I ask more than that? What do I want more than that?'
And slowly, very slowly indeed, she turned her face towards Hori. It was as though, silently, she asked him a question.
As though he understood her, he answered:
'When you were a child, I loved you. I loved your grave face and the confidence with which you came to me, asking me to mend your broken toys. And then, after eight years' absence, you came again and sat here, and brought me the thoughts that were in your mind. And your mind, Renisenb, is not like the minds of the rest of your family. It does not turn in upon itself, seeking to encase itself in narrow walls. Your mind is like my mind, it looks over the River, seeing a world of changes, of new ideas - seeing a world where all things are possible to those with courage and vision...'
She broke off, unable to find words to frame her struggling thoughts. What life would be with Hori, she did not know. In spite of his gentleness, in spite of his love for her, he would remain in some respects incalculable and incomprehensible. They would share moments of great beauty and richness together - but what of their common daily life?
(...)
I have made my choice, Hori. I will share my life with you for good or evil, until death comes...
With his arms round her, with the sudden new sweetness of his face against hers, she was filled with an exultant richness of living.

There is nothing more thrilling in this world, I think, than having a child that is yours, and yet is mysteriously a stranger.

Everybody always knows something," said Adam, "even if it's something they don't know they know.

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....

mrs. McGinty’s dead..how did she die?
down on one knee..just like I
mrs. McGinty’s dead..how did she die?
holding her hand out..just like I
mrs. McGinty’s dead.. how did she die?
sticking her neck out..just like I

If you place your head in a lion's mouth, then you cannot complain one day if he happens to bite it off.

But surely for everything you love you have to pay some price.

To every problem, there is a most simple solution.

You do think you know about everything," said her husband.
I do," said Tuppence.

Words are such uncertain things, they so often sound well but mean the opposite of what one thinks they do.

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

An appreciative listener is always stimulating.

Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go.

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.

When you find that people are not telling you the truth---look out!

Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.