In fact,′ said Poirot, ’she stabbed him in the dark, not realising that he was dead already, but somehow deduced that he had a watch in his pyjama pocket, took it out, put back the hands blindly and gave it the requisite dent.
There you are, Ariadne,” said Robin. “The whole plot of your next novel presented to you. All you’ll have to do is work in a few false clues, and – of course – do the actual writing.
When a man’s neck’s in danger, he doesn’t stop to think too much about sentiment.
That is the worst of Poirot. Order and Method are his gods. He goes so far as to attribute all his success to them.
He was not fond of young people in herds. He thought them uninteresting and crude.
Now, as I expect you know, there is nothing more cruel than talk, and there is nothing more difficult to combat. When people say things behind your back there is nothing you can refute or deny, and the rumours go on growing and growing, and no one can stop them.
So many things are difficult,” said Miss Marple. It was a useful phrase which she used often.
Murder – the wish to do murder – is something quite different. It – how shall I say? – it defies God.
Natural affection is one thing,” said Miss Ramsbottom, “and I hope I’ve got as much of it as anyone. But I won’t stand for wickedness. Wickedness has to be destroyed.
I’ve been in love once and if I felt it coming on again I tell you I’d emigrate.
In fact the marriage has been arranged by heaven and Hercule Poirot. All I have to do is to compound a felony.
Yes, I like that – loyalty, I mean. It’s out of fashion nowadays. She’s an odd character, that girl – proud, reserved, stubborn, and terribly warm-hearted underneath, I fancy.
Where am I myself, the whole man, the true man? Where am I with God’s mark upon my brow?
What I wanted, frankly, was someone who would argue me out of the things that I was thinking.
First, you have to think and think and think and think; then you have to force yourself to write it down.
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.
An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her.
Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.
There’s too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will.
There’s nothing so dangerous for anyone who has something to hide as conversation.