Agatha Quotes & Sayings

Unless you are good at guessing, it is not much use being a detective. — Agatha Christie

A ridiculous-looking little man. The sort of little man one could never take seriously. — Agatha Christie

Getting soft - that's the curse of the present day. — Agatha Christie

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. — Agatha Christie

[A]rtificial conditions bring about their natural reaction. — Agatha Christie

Agatha, what do you see when you look in the mirror?"
"I don't look in mirrors."
"Why is that?"
"Because horses and hogs don't sit around ogling their reflections! — Soman Chainani

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. — Agatha Christie

Evidence of identification was given by the husband, and the only other evidence was medical. Heather Badcock had died as a result of four grains of hy-ethyl-dexyl-barbo-quinde-lorytate, or, let us be frank, some such name. — Agatha Christie

I always take abroad with me one really good soft pillow
to me it makes all the difference between comfort and misery. — Agatha Christie

The great thing in these cases is to keep an absolutely open mind. Most crimes, you see, are so absurdly simple. — Agatha Christie

The expected has happened, and when the expected happens, it always causes me emotion. — Agatha Christie

With thought, all problems can be resolved. — Agatha Christie

Marriage is called all sorts of things, a haven, and a refuge, and a crowning glory, and a state of bondage, and lots more. But do you know what I think it is?'
'What?'
'A sport!'
'And a damned good sport too,' said Tommy. — Agatha Christie

The post on her left was occupied by Mr. Erskine of Treadley, an old gentleman of considerable charm and culture, who had fallen, however, into bad habits of silence, having, as he explained once to Lady Agatha, said everything that he had to say before he was thirty. — Oscar Wilde

I said, life will not pass her by. Strange and exciting events will surround her. You've only got to look at her to know it. — Agatha Christie

As for Nigel, she had no wish to burden him with useless remorse even if a note from her would have achieved that object ... "Poor old Hilary," he would say, "bad luck"
and it might be that, secretly, he would be rather relieved. Because she guessed that she was, slightly, on Nigel's conscience, and he was a man who wished to feel comfortable with himself. — Agatha Christie

There are many things not called poison which can kill a man, — Agatha Christie

Any woman can fool a man if she wants to and if he's in love with her. — Agatha Christie

You travel life has the aspect of a dream. It is something outside the normal, yet you are in it. It is peopled with characters you have never seen before and in all probability will never see again. It brings occasional homesickness, and loneliness, and pangs of longing ... But you are like the Vikings who have gone into a world of adventure, and home is not home until you return. — Agatha Christie

The things she said seemed to have very little relation to the last thing she had said a minute before. She was the sort of person, Tommy thought, who might know a great deal more than she chose to reveal. — Agatha Christie

Writers are diffident creatures
they need encouragement. — Agatha Christie

It is the courage, the insistence, the ruthless force of youth. — Agatha Christie

We are ready to despair too soon, we are ready to say, 'What's the good of doing anything?' Hope is the virtue we should cultivate most in this present day and age. — Agatha Christie

People should be interested in books, not their authors. — Agatha Christie

Well, people are like that too. THey create a false door - to deceive. If they are conscious of weakness, of inefficiency, they make an imposing door of self-assertion, of bluster, of overwhelming authority - and, after a time, they get to believe in it themselves. They think, and everybody thinks, that they are like that. But behind that door, Renisenb, is bare rock... And so when reality comes and touches them with the feather of truth - their true self reasserts itself. — Agatha Christie

Eager watch was
kept for the first appearance of the legendary creature in the village, and it may be said that as far as
appearances went Basil Blake was all that could be asked for. Little by little, however, the real facts
leaked out. Basil Blake was not a film star, not even a film actor. He was a very junior person, rejoicing
in the position of about fifteenth in the list of those responsible for set decorations at Lenville Studios,
headquarters of British New Era Films. The village maidens lost interest and the ruling class of censorious
spinsters took exception to Basil Blake's way of life. — Agatha Christie

The mind is confused? Is it not so? Take time, mon ami. You are agitated; you are excited - it is but natural. Presently, when we are calmer, we will arrange the facts, neatly, each in his proper place. We will examine - and reject. Those of importance we will put on one side; those of no importance, pouf! blow them away! — Agatha Christie

Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty.' But the reader's plate is full — Agatha Christie

[Agatha Christie] is fond of quoting the witty wife who once said, 'an archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she gets, the more interested he is in her.
Christie's husband, Max Mallowan, was an archaeologist. — Nigel Dennis

A brave new world. There isn't anything really like that, is there?"
"You don't believe in it?"
"Do you?"
"There is always a brave new world," said Poirot, "but only, you know, for very special people. The lucky ones. The ones who carry the making of that world within themselves. — Agatha Christie

There was only one thing about his own appearance which really pleased Hercule Poirot, and that was the profusion of his moustaches, and the way they responded to grooming and treatment and trimming. They were magnificent. He knew of nobody else who had any moustache half as good. — Agatha Christie

Sheila's about the only young girl in this place and she naturally assumes that she ought to have it all her own way with the young things in trousers. Naturally it annoys her when a woman, who in her view is middle-aged and who has already two husbands to her credit, comes along and licks her on her own ground. [...] No, I think it's age daring to defeat youth that annoys her so much! — Agatha Christie

Take the Pyramids. Great blocks of useless masonry, put up to minister to the egoism of a despotic bloated king. Think of the sweated masses who toiled to build them and died doing it. It makes me sick to think of the suffering and torture they represent."

Mrs. Allerton said cheerfully: "You'd rather have no Pyramids, no Parthenon, no beautiful tombs or temples - just the solid satisfaction of knowing that people got three meals a day and died in their beds."

The young man directed his scowl in her direction. "I think human beings matter more than stones. — Agatha Christie

He said at last, when Miss Gilchrist had twittered into silence: — Agatha Christie

Mistress Agatha Brown, she was Church of England, but she just done gone to the Catholics. And it seems they don't hold with places like 3½, not even when they're decently run. — Ian Fleming

Now, where were we?" he said. "Oh, yes. We were about to have some honest conversation. Roadkill, are you in love with Hawk?"
Roadkill sighed and asked plaintively, "Can't we just go back to prison? — Agatha Bird

I'm not often bored,' I assured her. Life's not long enough for that. — Agatha Christie

You do not comprehend. It is not the victim who concerns me so much. It is the effect on the character of the slayer."
"What about war?"
"In war you do not exercise the right of private judgement. That is what is so dangerous. Once a man is imbued with the idea that he knows who ought to be allowed to live and who ought not - then he is halfway to becoming the most dangerous killer there is - the arrogant killer who kills not for profit - but for an idea. He has usurped the functions of le bon Dieu. — Agatha Christie

You don't stop being in love with anyone because you get old. People like Derek and Deborah think you do. They can't imagine anyone who isn't young being in love. — Agatha Christie

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 — Agatha Christie

I have a certain experience of the way people tell lies. — Agatha Christie

You are, madame, so perfectly armoured, so completely sure of yourself.'

'Now I wonder, if I am to take that as a compliment?'

'It is, perhaps, a warning--not to treat life with arrogance. — Agatha Christie

Yes," said Miss Marple. "The children of Lucifer are often beautiful - And as we know, they flourish like the green bay tree. — 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 have always admired the Esquimaux (Eskimos). One fine day a delicious meal is cooked for dear old mother, and then she goes walking away over the ice, and doesn't come back. — Agatha Christie

He laughs best who laughs at the end. — Agatha Christie

Yes, yes, I know. Life is like a train, Mademoiselle. It goes on. And it is a good thing that that is so." "Why?" "Because the train gets to its journey's end at last, and there is a proverb about that in your language, Mademoiselle." " 'Journeys end in lovers meeting.' " Lenox laughed. "That is not going to be true for me." "Yes - yes, it is true. You are young, younger than you yourself know. Trust the train, Mademoiselle, for it is le bon Dieu who drives it. — Agatha Christie

It was borne in upon her audience that the outside of Jane's charming head was distinctly superior to the inside. — Agatha Christie

I really cannot understand the point of what you're saying. Really,' said Clotilde, looking at her. 'What a very extraordinary person you are. What sort of a woman are you? Why are you talking like this? Who are you?'
Miss Marple pulled down the mass of pink wool that encircled her head, a pink wool scarf of the same kind that she had once worn in the West Indies.
'One of my names,' she said, 'is Nemesis.'
'Nemesis? And what does that mean?'
'I think you know,' said Miss Marple. 'You are a very well educated woman. Nemesis is long delayed sometimes, but it comes in the end. — Agatha Christie

As long as Mary can't cook and has those awful manners - well, we're safe, nobody else would have her. I perceived that my wife's methods of housekeeping were not so entirely haphazard as I had imagined. A certain amount of reasoning underlay them. Whether it was worthwhile having a maid at the price of her not being able to cook, and having a habit of throwing dishes and remarks at one with the same disconcerting abruptness, was a debatable matter. — Agatha Christie

Down the steep track into the village a car was coming. A car so fantastically powerful, so superlatively beautiful that it had all the nature of an apparition. — Agatha Christie

These women all lose their heads over a good-looking clergyman. You hear of it over and over again. — Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie never wrote books that just started with a dead body, and a 'Let's find out who the murderer is', which is kind of mysterious but not that mysterious. She always started with, 'How can this thing be happening; isn't it strange?' — Sophie Hannah

You know what girls are
they go to these queer parties in studios where the young men have funny ties and they come home and talk a lot of nonsense. — Agatha Christie

Women, however charming, have this disadvantage: they distract the mind from food! — Agatha Christie

They tried to be too clever
and that was their undoing. — Agatha Christie

Agatha looked into the wolf's eyes. "I don't want to die,"
for the first time, his sneer softened.
"I didn't either. — Soman Chainani

Doctors can do almost anything nowadays, can't they, unless they kill you while they're trying to cure you. — Agatha Christie

In fact there is only your own instinct?
Not instinct, Hastings. Instinct is a bad word. It is my knowledge-my experience-that tells me that something about that letter is wrong- — Agatha Christie

Miss Marple always sees everything. Gardening is as good as a smoke screen, and the habit of observing birds through powerful glasses can always be turned to account. — Agatha Christie

Sophie: "For the Create-A-Tale Competition, your story ended with Snow White eaten by vultures and Cinderella drowning her-self in a tub."
Agatha: "I thought it was a better ending. — Soman Chainani

dangerously polite. — Agatha Christie

They are never really dead, these super criminals — Agatha Christie

Will you be so kind, Mademoiselle, as to write down your permanent address on this piece of paper?' She complied. Her writing was clear and legible. — Agatha Christie

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. — Agatha Christie

There is no such thing as a really calm sea. Always, always, there is motion. — Agatha Christie

But seriously Poirot, what a hobby! Compare that to
" his voice sank to an appreciative purr
"an easy chair in front of a wood fire in a long low room lined with books
must be a long room
not a square one. Books all round one. A glass of port
and a book open in your hand. Time rolls back as you read. — Agatha Christie

A weak man in a corner is more dangerous than a strong man. (Inspector Miller) — Agatha Christie

He rose, placed another small log on the fire, sat back down in his armchair, and opened his book.
"What are you reading?" Reggie asked.
"On a wild night like this? Agatha Christie, of course. I still feel compelled to see if Hercule Poirot's 'little gray cells' will do their job one more time. It seems to often inspire my own brain, however inferior it might be to the diminutive Belgian's. — David Baldacci

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

I have trespassed upon your time too long. I will take my departure with a thousand thanks for your amibility.
Not at all. I wish you would have had a bannana.
You are most amiable — Agatha Christie

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. — Agatha Christie

You're a man milliner, Poirot. I never notice what people have on."
"You should join a nudist colony — Agatha Christie

Assumptions are dangerous things. — Agatha Christie

I have made it a habit," said Miss Marple. "To be careful?" "I should not put it exactly like that, but I have made a point of being always ready to disbelieve as well as believe anything that is told to me. — Agatha Christie

People bicker so and have such rows. Even if they're fond of each other, they still seem to have rows and not to mind a bit whether they have them in public or not. — Agatha Christie

Of course, if you've made up your mind about it, you'll find an answer to everything. — Agatha Christie

Money ... is always the great clue to what is happening in the world. — 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

I suppose next time I come home I shall find you wearing false moustaches - or are you doing so now?'
Poirot winced. His moustaches had always been his sensitive point. He was inordinately proud of them. My words touched him on the raw.
'No, no, indeed, mon ami. That day, I pray the good God, is still far off. The false moustaches! Quelle Horreur!'
He tugged at them vigorously to assure me of their genuine character.
'Well, they are very luxuriant still,' I said.
'N'est-ce pas? Never, in the whole of London, have I seen a pair of moustaches to equal mine.'
A good job too, I thought privately. — Agatha Christie

It is a profound belief of mine that if you can induce a person to talk to you for long enough, on any subject whatever! sooner or later they will give themselves away. — Agatha Christie

People don't do things without a reason. — Agatha Christie

A great man always knows better than to explain unless an explanation is demanded. To rush into explanations and excuses is always a sign of weakness. — Agatha Christie

Death was temporary, lasting only long enough to provoke a laugh from kids in pajamas sitting cross-legged in front of the TV set, gorging themselves on handfuls of Froot Loops. — Agatha Christie

True to the precepts handed down to her by her mother and grandmother - to wit: that a true lady can neither be shocked nor surprised - Miss Marple merely raised her eyebrows and shook her head, — Agatha Christie

... Some people, under a nervous and self-effacing manner, conceal a great deal of vanity and self-satisfaction. — Agatha Christie

How tedious is retirement! You cannot imagine to yourself the monotony with which day comes after day. — Agatha Christie

Thursday started badly. Two of the ladies of my parish elected to quarrel about the church decorations. I was called in to adjudicate between two middle-aged ladies, each of whom was literally trembling with rage. If it had not been so painful, it would have been quite an interesting physical phenomenon. — Agatha Christie

Gently Agatha touched her face in the mirror, glowing from inside.
A face no one recognized because it was so happy.
There could be no turning back now. The bread crumbs on the dark trail were gone. Instead, she had the truth to guide her. A truth greater than any magic.
I've been beautiful all along. — Soman Chainani

It's astonishing in this world how things don't turn out at all the way you expect them to. — Agatha Christie

It is really a hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are. — Agatha Christie

These little grey cells. It is up to them. — Agatha Christie

I, too, believe in the force of superstition, one of the greatest forces the world has ever known. — Agatha Christie

And proceeding to follow the example of the devil in quoting Scripture for his own ends I added: She looketh to the ways of her household ... . — Agatha Christie

I hate mourning," she said. "It always smells of moth balls because it's been laid up somewhere." "You don't need to go on wearing mourning. It's only to go to the funeral in," said Tommy. "Oh no, I know that. In a minute or two I'm going to go up and put on a scarlet jersey just to cheer things up. You can make me another White Lady." "Really, Tuppence, I had no idea that funerals would bring out this party feeling. — Agatha Christie

The real excitement of being a girl - of being, that is, a woman in embryo - was that life was such a wonderful gamble. You didn't know what was going to happen to you. That was what made being a woman so exciting. No worry about what you should be or do - Biology would decide. You were waiting for The Man, and when the man came, he would change your entire life, you can say what you like, that is an exciting point of view to hold at the threshold of life. — Agatha Christie

With method and logic one can accomplish anything! — Agatha Christie

You regard it as impossible that a sinner should be struck down by the wrath of God! I do not! — Agatha Christie

Poirot, watching him, felt suddenly a doubt
an uncomfortable twinge. Was there, here, something that he had missed? Some richness of the spirit? Sadness crept over him. Yes, he should have become acquainted with the classics. Long ago. Now, alas, it was too late ... — Agatha Christie

Things never come when they are expected. — Agatha Christie