Eh bien, then, you are crazy, or appear crazy or you think you are crazy, and possibly you may be crazy.
To marry and have children, that is the common lot of women. Only one woman in a hundred – more, in a thousand, can make for herself a name and position as you have done.
It is the brain, the little grey cells” – he topped his forehead – “on which one must rely. The senses mislead.
I help those who can help themselves.
Coffee, then, Madame. You need some stimulant.
I mean that success has come early. And that is dangerous. Always dangerous.
A woman would know all right about her own husband.
Now there has been a rearrangement of the kaleidoscope.
If you care for money too much, it is only the money you see, everything else is in shadow.
I felt a distinct pleasure in passing on my own discomfiture.
People who ought to die of shock and exposure don’t die of shock and exposure, et cetera, et cetera. The human frame is tougher than one can imagine possible. Moreover, in my experience, a physical shock is more often fatal than a mental shock.
There was a moment’s stupefied silence. Japp, who was the least surprised of any of us, was the first to speak.
When people ask “Do you put real people in your books?” the answer is that, for me, it is quite impossible to write about anyone I know, or have ever spoken to, or indeed have even heard about! For some reason, it kills them for me stone dead.
Where there is murder, anything can happen.
Character, mon cher, does not stand still. It can gather strength. It can also deteriorate. What a person really is, is only apparent when the test comes – that is, the moment when you stand or fall on your own feet.
They’re like children, really. Only children are far more logical which makes it difficult sometimes with them. But these people are illogical, they want to be reassured by your telling them what they want to believe. Then they’re quite happy again for a bit.
Everything is simple, if you arrange the facts methodically.
I’ve got a very nice staff here. People with patience, you know, and good temper, and not too brainy, because if you have people who are brainy, they are bound to be very impatient.
Servants must be treated with the utmost courtesy. They are doing skilled work which you could not possibly do yourself without long training. And remember they cannot answer back. You must always be polite to people whose position forbids them to be rude to you. If you are impolite, they will despise you, and rightly, because you have not acted like a lady.
The sons of rich men are proverbially wild.