Agatha Christie quotes:

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.

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

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

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.

Tea! Bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea!

There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will.

Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.

Never do anything yourself that others can do for you.

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.

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.

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.

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

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

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.

One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood.

The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves they don't give a damn.

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

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.

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.

Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them.

Many years ago, when I was once saying sadly to Max it was a pity I couldn't have taken up archaeology when I was a girl, so as to be more knowledgeable on the subject, he said, 'Don't you realize that at this moment you know more about prehistoric pottery than any woman in England?'

I loved her- I always loved her- no matter what she was-I wanted her safe- not shut up- a prisoner for life, eating her heart out. And we did keep her safe- for many years Phillip Stark

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."

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."

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

too much safety is abhorrent to the nature of a human being.

I married an archeologist because the older I grow, the more he appreciates me.

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."

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

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.

Bad temper is its own safety valve. He who can bark does not bite.

I don't go in for being sorry for people. For one thing it's insulting. One is only sorry for people if they are sorry for themselves. Self-pity is the biggest stumbling block in our world today. ~Jessop

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Surfing is like that. You are either vigorously cursing or else you are idiotically pleased with yourself.

Juliet singles out Romeo. Desdemona claims Othello. They have no doubts, the young, no fear, no pride.

The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes.

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.

That was what, ultimately, war did to you. It was not the physical dangers--the mines at sea, the bombs from the air, the crisp ping of a rifle bullet as you drove over a desert track. No, it was the spiritual danger of learning how much easier life was if you ceased to think.

Everything that has existed, lingers in the Eternity.

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.

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.

I just woke up feeling happy this morning. You know those days when everything in the world seems right.

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 often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalise. Generalisations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate.

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.

These little grey cells. It is up to them.

It is the brain, the little gray cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within--not without." ~ Poirot

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]

In conversation, points arise! If a human being converses much, it is impossible for him to avoid the truth! (Hercule Poirot)

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)

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

You want beauty,' said Hercules Poirot. 'Beauty at any price. For me, it is truth. I want always truth.

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

My remarks are, as always, apt, sound, and to the point. (Hercule Poirot)

Everyone likes talking about himself. - Hercule Poirot

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.

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

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.

Now I am old-fashioned. A woman, I consider, should be womanly. I have no patience with the modern neurotic girl who jazzes from morning to night, smokes like a chimney, and uses language which would make a billingsgate fishwoman blush!

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.

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

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.

There is no greater mistake in life than seeing things or hearing them at the wrong time.

To feel admiration for a man all through one's married life would, I think, be excessively tedious.

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.

One does see so much evil in a village,' murmured Miss Marple in an explanatory voice.

Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don't realise it. - Miss Marple

A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world.

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.

Writers are diffident creatures -- they need encouragement.

The whole thing was like a nine-month ocean voyage to which you never got acclimatized.

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?

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

Do you know my friend that each one of us is a dark mystery, a maze of conflicting passions and desire and aptitudes?

Difficulties are made to be overcome ~ Miss Felicity Lemon, Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Plymouth Express

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 like all those quiet people, when they do lose their tempers they lose them with a vengeance.

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 always think loyalty's such a tiresome virtue.

Yes, it was dangerous, but we are not put into this world, Mr. Burton, to avoid danger when an important fellow creature's life is at stake. You understand me?

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

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 that anyone can read what is passing in my mind.

I suppose without curiosity a man would be a tortoise. Very comfortable life, a tortoise has. Goes to sleep all winter and doesn't eat anything more than grass as far as I know, to live all the summer. Not an interesting life perhaps, but a very peaceful one.

Where do one's fears come from? Where do they shape themselves? Where do they hide before coming out into the open?

Why didn't they ask the Evans?

Ah, but my dear sir, the why must never be obvious. That is the whole point.

Eh bien, then, you are crazy, or appear crazy or you think you are crazy, and possibly you may be crazy.

But when you say crazy, that describes very well what the general appearance may be to ordinary, everyday people.

Aku benci melihat orang yang merasa puas diri. Hal itu membangkitkan semua naluri jahatku.

Kebencian bisa membuat orang jadi buta-- ya jadi buta. Tapi orang buta pun mungkin bisa menikam tepat di jantung.

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.

I am all that there is of the most real.

In case, I would prefer to say, that some circumstances should strike me in a different light to the one in which it struck you. Human reactions vary and so does human experience.~Hercule Poirot

If Hori were to die, I should not forget! Hori is a song in my heart for ever... That means-that there is no more death...

The truth must be quite plain, if one could just clear away the litter.

You don't appreciate a faithful husband when you've got one,' said Tommy.'All my friends tell me you never know with husbands,' said Tuppance.'You have the wrong kind of friends,' said Tommy.

I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays and have things arranged for them that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas.

To know when to use the truth is the essence of successful deception

Besides a burial service is rather lovely. Makes you feel uplifted, the grief is real. It makes you feel awful but it does something to you. I mean, it works it out like perspiration.

Everybody said, "Follow your heart". I did, it got broken

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

One knows so little. When one knows more it is too late.

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.

I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash.

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.

The guard looked from one to the other. His mind was soon made up. His training led him to despise foreigners, and to respect and admire well-dressed gentleman who travelled first class.

What good is money if it can't buy happiness?

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.

What good is money if it can't buy happiness~?

It's what's in *yourself* that makes you happy or unhappy.

There comes to everyone a turning point in their lives, M. Poirot. They stand at the crossroads and have to decide. My profession interests me enormously; it is a sorrow - a very great sorrow - to abandon it. But there are other claims. There is, M. Poirot, the happiness of a human being.

My flute, M. Poirot, is my oldest companion. When everything else fails, music remains.

One little Indian left all alone, he went out and hanged himself and then there were none.

HC: You think I shall differently tomorrow? [about suicide]J: People do.HC: Yes, perhaps. If you're doing things in a mood of hot despair. But when it's cold despair, it's different. I've nothing to live for, you see.~Hilary Craven; Jessop