In an Empire where rats ruled, he was the king of the rats.
I objected vigorously to this unsporting proposal. I recognized in it the disastrous effects of matrimony. How often have I not heard a perfectly intelligent female say, in the tone of one clinching an argument, “Edgar says – ” And all the time you are perfectly aware that Edgar is a perfect fool. Suzanne, by reason of her married state, was yearning to lean upon some man or other.
A man who has shot lions in large quantities has an unfair advantage over other men.
Dieu! It is that in this country you treat the affairs gastronomic with a criminal indifference.
And how do you know that these fine begonias are not of equal importance?
I have had a long experience in the compilation of statistics. From that experience I can assure you that in 87% of cases dishonesty does not pay.
I daresay people have liked murderers,” said Tuppence very reasonably. “It’s like swindlers and confidence tricksmen who always look so honest and seem so honest. I daresay murderers all seem very nice and particularly softhearted. That sort of thing.
You know, Maureen, I seem to have seen that name somewhere.” “Home Perm, perhaps. He looks like a hairdresser.” Poirot winced.
How often is tittle tattle, as you call it, true! And I think if, as I say, they really examined the facts they would find that it was true nine times out of ten! That’s really just what makes people so annoyed about it.
And a lot of fandangle it usually is,” said Mrs. Burch. “Forms to fill in, and a lot of impertinent questions as shouldn’t be asked of any decent body.
Even the most sober of us is liable to have his head turned by success.
Only to those who don’t know you–who are taken in by your delusive appearance of meekness and decorum.’ ‘I like your long words.’ ‘All out of crossword puzzles.’ ‘So educative.
If you disperse energy in speech, it doesn’t leave you too much over for action.
There is no greater mistake in life than seeing things or hearing them at the wrong time. Shakespeare is ruined for most people by having been made to learn it at school; you should see Shakespeare as it was written to be seen, played on the stage. There you can appreciate it quite young, long before you take in the beauty of the words and of the poetry.
No,” said Tuppence thoughtfully, “he didn’t believe it. That’s the curious part about speaking the truth. No one does believe it.
Women were all the same. They promised to burn things and then didn’t.
If you look into somebody’s soul by accident, you feel a bit embarrassed about cashing in.
One does not like to make definite assertions unless one has a little more definite knowledge.
Beauty is perhaps a dangerous possession,’ I said.
Men are so superior about their Latin,” said Mrs. Blair. “But all the same I notice that when you ask them to translate inscriptions in old churches, they can never do it! They hem and haw, and get out of it somehow.