Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot Quotes & Sayings

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

Hercule Poirot: I am an imbecile. I see only half of the picture.
Miss Lemon: I don't even see that. — Agatha Christie

Man is an unoriginal animal, said Hercule Poirot — Agatha Christie

Fellow has the wrong clothes and all that. French chap-or Belgian. Queer fellow, but he's got the goods all right. — Agatha Christie

I like to inquire into everything. Hercule Poirot is a good dog. The good dog follows the scent, and if, regrettably, there is no scent to follow, he noses around - seeking always something that is not very nice. — Agatha Christie

I, Hercule Poirot, am not amused. — Agatha Christie

Rest assured," said Hercule Poirot. "I am the best! — Agatha Christie

I have no pity for myself either. So let it be Veronal. But I wish Hercule Poirot had never retired from work and come here to grow vegetable marrows. — Agatha Christie

wanted to know." "It's better not to know. It's better never to know. Better to leave things as they are. Not push and pry and poke." "You want beauty," said Hercule Poirot. "Beauty at any price. For me, it is truth I want. Always truth." Michael — Agatha Christie

It is the quietest and meekest people who are often capable of the most sudden and unexpected violences for the reason that when their control does snap, it goes entirely. (Hercule Poirot) — Agatha Christie

Ahh it rejoices the heart. Nothing here offends the eye"
~Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie) — Agatha Christie

But it is not everything in life that has its ticket, so much. There are things that are not for sale. — Agatha Christie

What are you doing, Poirot?"
"I dissect rucksacks. It is very interesting. — Agatha Christie

I demand of you a thousand pardons, monsieur. I am without defence. For some months now I cultivate the marrows. This morning suddenly I enrage myself with these marrows. I send them to promenade themselves - alas! not only mentally but physically. I seize the biggest. I hurl him over the wall. Monsieur, I am ashamed. I prostrate myself. — Agatha Christie

[About Poirot] The flamboyant moustaches, the sartorial elegance, the white spats and the pointed patent leather shoes all filled this insular young man with distinct misgivings. — Agatha Christie

What you do not understand is that there are things that cannot be bought. — Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot spread out his hands in his most foreign manner. — Agatha Christie

Everyone likes talking about himself. - Hercule Poirot — Agatha Christie

You might start a new religion yourself, with the creed: 'There is no one so clever as Hercule Poirot, Amen, D. C. Repeat ad lib.'! — Agatha Christie

But when you say crazy, that describes very well what the general appearance may be to ordinary, everyday people. — Agatha Christie

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

Poirot was standing in the larder in a dramtic attitude. In his hand he was brandishing a leg of mutton.
'My dear Poirot! What is the matter? have you gone mad?'
'Regard i pray you this mutton! But regard it closely! — Agatha Christie

Mon ami,' said Poirot with dignity, 'when I commit a murder it will not be with the arrow poison of the South American Indians. — Agatha Christie

Guy Carpenter frowned and came into the drawing room through the window. He had a long face like a horse, he was pale and looked rather supercilious. His manner was pompous. Hercule Poirot found him unattractive. — Agatha Christie

I should have known when I first saw that picture. For it is a very remarkable picture. It is the picture of a murderess painted by her victim-it is the picture of a girl watching her lover dies. — Agatha Christie

I don't want to write about it at all.
I want, you see, to think about it as little as possible. Hercule Poirot was dead - and with him died a good part of Arthur Hastings. — Agatha Christie

If you've lost, you've lost. — Agatha Christie

My remarks are, as always, apt, sound, and to the point. (Hercule Poirot) — 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

Hercule Poirot was sitting at the breakfast table. At his right hand was a steaming cup — Agatha Christie

Ah, but life is like that! It does not permit you to arrange and order it as you will. It will not permit you to escape emotion, to live by the intellect and by reason! You cannot say, 'I will feel so much and no more.' Life, Mr. Welman, whatever else it is, is not reasonable. [Hercule Poirot] — Agatha Christie

But I don't doubt it will be essentially the same type of crime. The details may be different, but the essentials underlying them will be the same. It's odd, but a criminal gives himself away every time by that. Man is an unoriginal animal," said Hercule Poirot.
"Women," said Mrs. Oliver, " are capable of infinite variation. I should never commit the same type of murder twice running."
"Don't you ever write the same plot twice running?" asked Battle. — Agatha Christie

It is romantic, yes,' agreed Hercule Poirot. 'It is peaceful. The sun shines. The sea is blue. But you forget, Miss Brewster, there is evil everywhere under the sun'. — Agatha Christie

In conversation, points arise! If a human being converses much, it is impossible for him to avoid the truth! (Hercule Poirot) — Agatha Christie

I suffer," said Hercule Poirot to himself in acute self-pity. "Yes, I suffer. — Agatha Christie

Doctors, I find, have a very materialistic outlook. The spiritual seems to be strangely hidden from them. They pin their faith on Science - but what I say is... what is Science - what can it do?"
There seemed, to Hercule Poirot, to be no answer to the question other than a meticulous and painstaking description embracing Pasteur, Lister, Humphrey Davy's safety lamp - the convenience of electricity in the home and several hundred other kindred items. But that, naturally, was not the answer Mrs Lionel Cloade wanted. — Agatha Christie

And then?"
"And then," said Poirot. "We will talk! Je vous assure, Hastings - there is nothing so dangerous for anyone who has something to hide as conversation! Speech, so a wise old Frenchman said to me once, is an invention of man's to prevent him from thinking. It is also an infallible means of discovering that which he wishes to hide. A human being, Hastings, cannot resist the opportunity to reveal himself and express his personality which conversation gives him. Every time he will give himself away."
"What do you expect Cust to tell you?"
Hercule Poirot smiled.
"A lie," he said. "And by it, I shall know the truth! — Agatha Christie

And suddenly, with a terrific shock, with that feeling as of blurring on a cinematograph screen before the picture comes to focus, Hercule Poirot realized that this artificially set scene had a point of reality ... — Agatha Christie

It takes more than a printed notice to keep you from reality ... We've only one life to live. — Agatha Christie

He was a man of whom nearly everybody was a little afraid. Why this last was so can hardly be stated in definite words. There was a feeling, perhaps, that he knew a little too much about everybody. And there was a feeling, too, that his sense of humor was a curious one. — 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

For somewhere," said Poirot to himself, indulging in an absolute riot of mixed metaphors, "there is in the hay a needle, and among the sleeping dogs there is one on whom I shall put my foot, and by shooting the arrows into the air, one will come down and hit a glass house! — Agatha Christie

Eh bien, then, you are crazy, or appear crazy or you think you are crazy, and possibly you may be crazy. — Agatha Christie

It is the sex angle that sells stories, that makes news. give people scandal allied to sex and it appeals far more than any mere political chicanery or fraud. (Hercule Poirot) — Agatha Christie

I am all that there is of the most real. — 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

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

If you are to be Hercule Poirot, you must think of everything. — Agatha Christie

Oh please tell me we're not doing the Poirot thing again - the suspects in the library with the candlestick or whatever'.
Max looked at him [DCI Cotton]. 'Fruitcake in this case. And what would you prefer? A car chase? It's the most efficient way to flush out a killer, as Dame Agatha Christie well knew. — G.M. Malliet

A lot of additional pain and grief is caused by honesty, remarked Hercule Poirot. — Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot stared hard at Superintendent Sugden's moustache. Its luxuriance seemed to fascinate him. — Agatha Christie

But Aunt Maureen makes smashing omelettes." Julia Upjohn.
"She makes smashing omelettes." Poirot's voice was happy. He sighed.
"Then Hercule Poirot has not lived in vain, he said. It was I who taught your Aunt Maureen to make an omelette. — Agatha Christie

The two words expressed volumes. — Agatha Christie

The dog hunts rabbits. Hercule Poirot hunts murderers. — Agatha Christie

Why, he's Hercule Poirot! You know who I mean - the private detective. They say he's done the most wonderful things - just like detectives do in books. — Agatha Christie

How absurd to call youth the time of happiness - youth, the time of greatest vulnerability! - Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile — Agatha Christie

He dragged me back - just in time. A tree had crashed down on to the side walk, just missing us. Poirot stared at it, pale and upset.
"It was a near thing that! But clumsy, all the same - for I had no suspicion - at least hardly any suspicion. Yes, but for my quick eyes, the eyes of a cat, Hercule Poirot might now be crushed out of existence - a terrible calamity for the world. And you, too, mon ami - though that would not be such a national catastrophe."
"Thank you," I said coldly. — Agatha Christie

You want beauty," said Hercule Poirot. "Beauty at any price. For me, it is truth I want. Always truth. — Agatha Christie

Your idea of a woman is someone who gets on a chair and shrieks if she sees a mouse. That's all prehistoric. — Agatha Christie

Speech is the deadliest of revealers.' - Hercule Poirot, Cards on the Table — Agatha Christie

The Coroner said graciously:
"I have heard of you, M. Poirot," and Poirot made an unsuccessful attempt to look modest. — Agatha Christie

You tell your lies and you think nobody knows. But there are two people who know. Yes- two people. One is le bon Dieu - and the other is Hercule Poirot — Agatha Christie

In case, I would prefer to say, that some circumstances should strike me in a different light to the one in which it struck you. Human reactions vary and so does human experience.

~Hercule Poirot — Agatha Christie

I think you are wise. You haven't got what it takes for this job. You are like Rosemary's father. He couldn't understand Lenin's dictum: 'Away with softness.'"
I thought of Hercule Poirot's words.
"I'm content," I said, "to be human ... "
We sat there in silence, each of use convinced that the other's point of view was wrong. — Agatha Christie

Ah, but my dear sir, the why must never be obvious. That is the whole point. — Agatha Christie

Sensationalism dies quickly, fear is long-lived. — Agatha Christie

Trains are relentless things, aren't they, Monsieur Poirot? People are murdered and die, but they go on just the same. I am talking nonsense, but you know what I mean."
"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."
"'Journey's 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."
The whistle of the engine came again.
"Trust the train, Mademoiselle," murmured Poirot again. "And trust Hercule Poirot. He knows. — Agatha Christie

It is the brain, the little gray cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within--not without." ~ Poirot — Agatha Christie

Mr. Satterthwaite looked cheered.
Suddenly an idea struck him. His jaw fell.
"My goodness," he cried, "I've only just realized it! That rascal, with his poisoned cocktail! Anyone might have drunk it! It might have been me!"
"There is an even more terrible possibility that you have not considered," said Poirot.
"Eh?"
"It might have been me," said Hercule Poirot. — Agatha Christie

I find most of the human race extraordinarily repulsive. They probably reciprocate this feeling. — 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

At the small table, sitting very upright, was one of the ugliest old ladies he had ever seen. It was an ugliness of distinction - it fascinated rather than repelled. — Agatha Christie

I enrage myself with an imbecile. I say, 'I would like to kick him.' Instead I kick the table. I say, 'This table, it is the imbecile, I kick him so. — Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot addressed himself to the task of keeping his moustaches out of the soup. — Agatha Christie

One must always proceed with method. I made an error of judgment asking you that question. Toeach man his own knowledge. You could tell me the details of the patient's physical appearance- nothing there would escape you. If I wanted information about the papers on the desk, Mr. Raymond would have noticed anything there was to see. To find out about the fire, I must ask the man whose business is to observe such things. - Detective Hercule Poirot to Doctor Sheppard — Agatha Christie