Agatha Christie Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 100 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Agatha Christie.
Famous Quotes By Agatha Christie
There are not so many round pegs in square holes one might think. Most people, in spite of what they tell you choose the occupation that they secretly desire. You will hear a man say who works in an office, 'I should like to explore, to rough it in far countries.' But you will find that he likes reading the fiction that deals with that subject, but that he himself prefers the safety and moderate comfort of an office stool. — Agatha Christie
Oh, my friend, have I not said to you all along that I have no proofs. It is one thing to know that a man is guilty, it is quite another matter to prove him so. And, in this case, there is terribly little evidence. That is the whole trouble. — Agatha Christie
She's had a long life of experience in noticing evil, fancying evil, suspecting evil and going forth to do battle with evil. — Agatha Christie
People more often kill those they love than those they hate. Possibly because only the people you love can really make life unendurable to you. — Agatha Christie
Human curiosity. Such a very interesting thing. Think of what we owe to it throughout history. It is said to be usually associated with the cat. Curiosity killed the cat. But I should say really that the Greeks were the inventors of curiosity. — Agatha Christie
It was so hard to get an idea of people you had never seen. You had to rely on other people's judgment ... Other people's impressions were no good to you. They might be just as true as yours but you couldn't act on them. You couldn't, as it were, use
another person's angle of attack. — Agatha Christie
How often have I not heard a perfectly intelligent female says, in the tone of one clinching an argument, 'Edgar says
' And all the time you are perfectly aware that Edgar is a perfect fool. — Agatha Christie
It was due to his tact, to his judgment, to his sympathetic manipulation of human beings that the atmosphere had always been such a happy one ... If there was a change, therefore, the change must be due to the man at the top. — Agatha Christie
And supposing the Coroner's jury returns a verdict of Wilful Murder against Alfred Inglethorp. What becomes of your theories, then?"
"They would not be shaken because twelve stupid men had happened to make a mistake! — Agatha Christie
Mon cher docteur! Do you not think I know the female mentality? The village gossip, it is based always, always on the relations of the sexes. If a man poisons his wife in order to travel to the North Pole or to enjoy the peace of a bachelor existence - it would not interest his fellow-villagers for a minute! — Agatha Christie
Women observe subconsciously a thousand little details, without knowing that they are doing so. Their subconscious mind adds these little things together - and they call the result intuition. — Agatha Christie
I disdained to argue, and entrenched my curiosity behind a rampart of pretended indifference. — Agatha Christie
She was quite a kindly woman. What she said at the last in the kitchen was quite true. 'I didn't want to kill anybody.' What she wanted was a great deal of money that didn't belong to her! And before that desire - (and it had become a kind of obsession - the money was to pay her back for all the suffering life had inflicted on her) - everything else went to the wall. — Agatha Christie
Mademoiselle, I beseech you, do not do what you are doing." "Leave dear Linnet alone, you mean!" "It is deeper than that. Do not open your heart to evil." Her lips fell apart; a look of bewilderment came into her eyes. Poirot went on gravely: "Because - if you do - evil will come ... Yes, very surely evil will come ... It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out. — Agatha Christie
for a minute her good-natured blue eyes were hard and sharp; she was the female fighting for existence - "that — Agatha Christie
Born poor doesn't mean you've got to stay poor. Money's queer. It goes where it's wanted. — Agatha Christie
If I were dead, the first thing you'd do, with the tears streaming down your face, would be to start modelling some damned mourning woman or some figure of grief. — Agatha Christie
Just look, Letty." Miss Blacklock looked. Her eyebrows went up. She threw a quick scrutinizing glance round the table. Then she read the advertisement out loud. "A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m. Friends please accept this, the only intimation. — Agatha Christie
you've no idea of the agony of having your characters taken and made to say things that they never would have said, and do things that they never would have done. And if you protest, all they say is that it's 'good theatre. — Agatha Christie
He wanted her cooperation, her sympathy, her active and intellectual help. He wanted her, not her heart, but her brains, and those material advantages which birth had given her. - Alexandra Farraday — Agatha Christie
In fact the marriage has been arranged by heaven and Hercule Poirot. All I have to do is to compound a felony. — Agatha Christie
Was bad language used?" asked Colonel Melchett.
"It depends on what you call bad language."
"Could you understand it?" I asked.
"Of course I could understand it."
"Then it couldn't have been bad language," I said.
Mrs. Price Ridley looked at me suspiciously.
"A refined lady," I explained, "is naturally unacquainted with bad language. — Agatha Christie
Hercule Poirot addressed himself to the task of keeping his moustaches out of the soup. — Agatha Christie
The Coroner said graciously:
"I have heard of you, M. Poirot," and Poirot made an unsuccessful attempt to look modest. — Agatha Christie
Mr Rycroft said nothing. It was so difficult not to say the wrong thing to Captain Wyatt that it was usually safer not to reply at all. — Agatha Christie
Never tell all you know - not even to the person you know best. — Agatha Christie
Anybody who can belive six impossible things before breakfast wins hands down in this game. — Agatha Christie
My friend, in working upon a case, one does not take into account only the things that are "mentioned". There is no reason to mention many things which may be important. Equally, there is often an excellent reason for not mentioning them. — Agatha Christie
That is the worst of Poirot. Order and Method are his gods. He goes so far as to attribute all his success to them. — Agatha Christie
Let me take this opportunity of thanking you, mother, for all the sacrifices you have made for us — Agatha Christie
Where there is murder, anything can happen. — Agatha Christie
A very correct butler opened the door, with just the right amount of gloom in his bearing. — Agatha Christie
What is a secretary to a millionaire? Nine times out of ten it is a young man who likes living soft. A young man with nice manners and a taste for luxury and no brains and no enterprise, and if there is anything that is a softer job than being secretary to a millionaire it is marrying a rich woman for her money. — Agatha Christie
Many homicidal lunatics are very quiet, unassuming people. Delightful fellows. — Agatha Christie
I don't particularly want to think of your funeral because I'd much prefer to die before you do. But I mean, if I were going to your funeral, at any rate it would be an orgy of grief. I should take a lot of handkerchiefs. — Agatha Christie
Put that in your mustache and smoke it. — Agatha Christie
You've a pretty good nerve," said Ratchett. "Will twenty thousand dollars tempt you?"
It will not."
If you're holding out for more, you won't get it. I know what a thing's worth to me."
I, also M. Ratchett."
What's wrong with my proposition?"
Poirot rose. "If you will forgive me for being personal - I do not like your face, M. Ratchett," he said. — Agatha Christie
What are you doing this afternoon, Griselda?" "My duty," said Griselda. "My duty as the Vicaress. Tea and scandal at four thirty. — Agatha Christie
People who can be very good can be very bad too. — Agatha Christie
At first, I was polite. Really. I said "excuse me," I tried to squeeze through gaps, even apologized for stepping on some toes. What can I say, I'm Canadian. — Agatha Christie
Modern novels. So difficult - all about such unpleasant people, doing such very odd things and not, apparently, even enjoying them. "Sex" as a word had not been mentioned in Miss Marple's young days; but there had been plenty of it - not talked about so much - but enjoyed far more than nowadays, or so it seemed to her. Though usually labelled Sin, she couldn't help feeling that that was preferable to what it seemed to be nowadays - a kind of Duty. — Agatha Christie
One is alone when the last one who remembers is gone. — Agatha Christie
There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands. — Agatha Christie
Tommy, why did they put Maldon Surrey on the telegram?"
"Because Maldon is in Surrey, idiot. — Agatha Christie
And they had no idea that they and many others were automatically pronounced deadly dull solely on that account. Only by the young of course, but then, they would have thought indulgently, young people knew nothing about life. Poor dears, they were always worrying about examinations, or their sex life, or buying some extraordinary clothes, or doing some extraordinary things to their hair to make them more noticeable. — Agatha Christie
Why the worst women should always attract the best men is something hard to fathom! — Agatha Christie
One knows so little. When one knows more it is too late. — Agatha Christie
The man who came into the room did not look as though his name was, or could have ever been, Robinson. It might have been Demetrius, or Isaacstein, or Perenna - though not one or the other in particular. He was not definitely Jewish, nor definitely Greek nor Portugese nor Spanish, nor South American. What did seem highly unlikely was that he was an Englishman called Robinson. — Agatha Christie
A secret de Polichinelle is a secret that everyone can know. For this reason the people who do not know it never hear about it - for if everyone thinks you know a thing, nobody tells you. — Agatha Christie
All I needed was a steady table and a typewriter ... a marble-topped bedroom washstand table made a good place; the dining-room table between meals was also suitable. — Agatha Christie
It is well at any price to have peace in the home. — Agatha Christie
Never go back to a place where you have been happy. Until you do it remains alive for you. If you go back it will be destroyed. — Agatha Christie
Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong. — Agatha Christie
What alchemy there was in human beings. — Agatha Christie
Excuse me, Monsieur Poirot. If you'd like to ask any questions, I'm sure the doctor wouldn't mind.
Of course not. Of course not. Great admirer of yours, Monsieur Poirot. Little gray cells
order and method. I know all about it.
Doctor Roberts — Agatha Christie
The more we learn, the less and less motive we find for suicide? But for murder, we begin to have a surprising collection of motives! — Agatha Christie
To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they may experience at second hand the delights and dangers of adventure.
[author's dedication] — Agatha Christie
I was born to live dangerously. — Agatha Christie
In old days the public didn't really mind much about accuracy, but nowadays readers take it upon themselves to write to authors on every possible occasion, pointing out flaws. — Agatha Christie
Can one build an honest house on dishonest foundation? I do not know. But I do know that I want to try. (Edward Ferrier) — Agatha Christie
She couldn't let the past go and she could never see the future as it really was, only as she imagined it to be. — Agatha Christie
If you must be Sherlock Holmes," she observed, "I'll get you a nice little syringe and a bottle labelled cocaine, but for God's sake leave that violin alone. — Agatha Christie
There is nothing so dangerous for anyone who has something to hide as conversation! ... A human being, Hastings, cannot resist theopportunity to reveal himself and express his personality which conversation gives him. Every time he will give himself away. — Agatha Christie
A lot of additional pain and grief is caused by honesty, remarked Hercule Poirot. — Agatha Christie
As far as it is possible for one upright Christian gentleman to dislike another upright Christian gentleman, Lord Caterham disliked the Hon. George Lomax. — Agatha Christie
You'll be glad too, when the end comes. — Agatha Christie
One of the oddest things in life I think is the things one remembers. — Agatha Christie
The truth is people are an extraordinary mixture of heroism and cowardice. — Agatha Christie
That's the curious part about speaking the truth. No one does believe it. — Agatha Christie
It is odd how, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial. — Agatha Christie
I mean, what can you say about how you write your books? What I mean is, first you've got to think of something, and then when you've thought of it you've got to force yourself to sit down and write it. That's all." ~ Mrs. Oliver — Agatha Christie
Of course, if you've made up your mind about it, you'll find an answer to everything. — Agatha Christie
Curious thing, rooms. Tell you quite a lot about the people who live in them. — Agatha Christie
To rush into explanations is always a sign of weakness. — Agatha Christie
Nowadays, no one believes in evil. It is considered, at most, a mere negation of good. Evil, people say, is done by those who know no better - who are undeveloped - who are to be pitied rather than blamed. But, M. Poirot, evil is real! It is a fact! I believe in Evil as I believe in Good. It exists! It is powerful! It walks the earth!' He stopped. His breath was coming fast. He wiped his forehead with his handkerchief and looked suddenly apologetic. 'I'm sorry. I got carried away. — Agatha Christie
Truth is seldom romantic. — Agatha Christie
You're very young ... you haven't got to that yet. But it does come! The blessed relief when you know that you've done with it all - that you haven't got to carry the burden any longer. You'll feel that too someday ... — Agatha Christie
One always has hope for human nature — Agatha Christie
Enemies! People these days don't have enemies! Not English people! — Agatha Christie
Women are fiends-absolute fiends. — Agatha Christie
He belonged to that inarticulate order of young Englishmen who dislike any form of emotion, and who find it peculiarly hard to explain their mental processes in words. — Agatha Christie
Do you know this part of the world well? — Agatha Christie
It is a grief to Sir Gervase, yes, that he has no son to inherit his name? — Agatha Christie
I congratulate you on having such a unique and beautiful problem. — Agatha Christie
Nobody shall drive us away," I said. "We're going to be happy here." We said it like a challenge to fate. — Agatha Christie
A man travels fastest who travels alone. — Agatha Christie
There is nothing so terrible as to live in an atmosphere of suspicion - to see eyes watching you and the love in them changing to fear - nothing so terrible as to suspect those near and dear to you - It is poisonous - a miasma. — Agatha Christie
Discussions of death and such matters do more to unlock the human tongue than any other subject. — Agatha Christie
Your criminal is someone who wants to be important, but who never will be important, because he'll always be less than a man. — Agatha Christie
If only-if only, Hastings, you would part your hair in the middle instead of at the side! What a difference it would make to the symmetry of your appearance. And your moustache. If you must have a moustache, let it be a real moustache-a thing of beauty such as mine. — Agatha Christie
white moustache trembling — Agatha Christie
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. — Agatha Christie
Whether he acted rightly or not, I have never been sure. It was the future of a child that was at stake. A child, he felt, ought to be given the benefit of a doubt. — Agatha Christie