Agatha Christie Poirot Quotes & Sayings

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

Now we can talk," said Poirot. "When I say that, I mean, really, that I shall talk. — 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

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

A large fierce-looking dog whom Poirot suspected of having mange growled from his position on a moderately comfortable fourth chair. — 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

There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c'est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy! — Agatha Christie

Don't you know, you idiot, that that is what every fool of a woman says about her child?
Miss Bulstrode's thoughts. — Agatha Christie

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

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

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

Ah," said Mr Jesmond, "but Christmas in England is a great institution and I assure you at Kings Lacey you would see it at its best. It's a wonderful old house, you know. Why, one wing of it dates from the fourteenth century."

Again Poirot shivered. The thought of a fourteenth-century English manor house filled him with apprehension. He had suffered too often in the historic country houses of England. He looked round appreciatively at his comfortable modern flat with its radiators and the latest patent devices for excluding any kind of draught.

"In the winter," he said firmly, "I do not leave London. — Agatha Christie

There is no telling what a human character is. Until the test comes. To most of us the test comes early in life. A man is confronted quite soon with the necessity to stand on his own feet, to face dangers and difficulties and to take his own line of dealing with them. It may be the straight way, it may be the crooked way
whichever it is, a man usually learns early just what he is made of. — Agatha Christie

Everyone likes talking about himself. - Hercule Poirot — 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

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

Alas," murmured Poirot to his mustaches, "that one can only eat three times a day ... — Agatha Christie

Life can be very terrible," he said. "One needs much courage."
"To kill oneself? yes, I suppose one does."
"Also to live," said Poirot, "one needs courage. — Agatha Christie

Vous eprouves trop d'emotion, Hastings, It affects your hands and your wits. Is that a way to fold a coat? And regard what you have done to my pyjamas. If the hairwash breaks what will befall them?'
'Good heavens, Poirot,' I cried, 'this is a matter of life and death. What does it matter what happens to our clothes?'
'You have no sense of proportion Hastings. We cannot catch a train earlier than the time that it leaves, and to ruin one's clothes will not be the least helpful in preventing a murder. — Agatha Christie

I think that I have more diplomacy than you give me credit for."
"My friend," besought Poirot, "I implore you, do not enrage yourself! Your help has been of the most invaluable. It is but the extremely beautiful nature that you have, which made me pause."
"Well," I grumbled, a little mollified. "I still think you might have given me a hint. — Agatha Christie

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

My dear Poirot, it's not for me to dictate to you. You have a right to your own opinion, just as I have mine. — Agatha Christie

I was tired of this silly joking about my 'speaking countenance'. I could keep a secret as well as anyone. Poirot had always persisted in the humiliating belief that I am a transparent character and that anyone can read what is passing in my mind. — Agatha Christie

No, my friend, I am not drunk. I have just been to the dentist, and need not return for another six months! Is it not the most beautiful thought?
Poirot — Agatha Christie

I may," said Poirot in a completely unconvinced tone, "be wrong."
Morton smiled. "But that doesn't often happen to you?"
"No. Though I will admit - yes, I am forced to admit - that it has happened to me."
"I must say I'm glad to hear it! To be always right must be sometimes monotonous."
"I do not find it so," Poirot assured him. — 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

No human being should learn from another. Each individual should develop his own powers to the uttermost, not try to imitate those of someone else. I do not wish you to be a second and inferior Poirot. I wish you to be the supreme Hastings. And you are the supreme Hastings. In you, Hastings, I find the normal mind almost perfectly illustrated. — Agatha Christie

That is what I mean. A bath! The receptacle of porcelain, one turns the taps and fills it, one gets in, one gets out and ghoosh - ghoosh - ghoosh, the water goes down the waste pipe!"
"M. Poirot are you quite mad?"
"No, I am extremely sane. — Agatha Christie

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

I am not mad. I am eccentric perhaps
at least certain people say so; but as regards my profession. I am very much as one says, 'all there. — 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

So you think that the coco- mark well what I say, Hastings, the coco- contained strychnine?"
"Of course! That salt on the tray, what else could it have been?"
"It might have been salt." replied Poirot placidly. — Agatha Christie

Oh! Do not excite yourself. Shall I say that he interested me because he was trying to grow a mustache and as yet the result is poor." Poirot stroked his own magnificent mustache tenderly. "It is an art," he murmured, "the growing of the mustache! I have sympathy for all who attempt it. — Agatha Christie

By Jove, Poirot,' I exclaimed, 'did you see that young goddess?' Poirot — Agatha Christie

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

Miss Bulstrode had another faculty which demonstrated her superiority over most other women. She could listen. — Agatha Christie

I should hope, Mr. Poirot, that whatever our feelings, we can keep them in decent control. And we can certainly control our actions. — 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

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

I will not look through keyholes," I interrupted hotly. Poirot closed his eyes. "Very well, then. You will not look through keyholes. You will remain the English gentleman and someone will be killed. — Agatha Christie

A meal should always lie lightly on the estomac," said Poirot. "It should not be so heavy as to paralyze thought. — 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

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

In fact the marriage has been arranged by heaven and Hercule Poirot. All I have to do is to compound a felony. — Agatha Christie

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

There comes to everyone a turning point in their lives, M. Poirot. They stand at the crossroads and have to decide. My profession interests me enormously; it is a sorrow - a very great sorrow - to abandon it. But there are other claims. There is, M. Poirot, the happiness of a human being. — Agatha Christie

You see," he said sadly, "you have no instincts."
"It was intelligence you were requiring just now," I pointed out.
"The two often go together," said Poirot enigmatically. — Agatha Christie

After lunch Poirot begged me to accompany him home. I consented rather stiffly.
"You are annoyed, is it not so?" he asked anxiously, as we walked through the park.
"Not at all," I said coldly.
"That is well. That lifts a great load from my mind."
This was not quite what I had intended. I had hoped that he would have observed the stiffness of my manner. Still, the fervour of his words went towards the appeasing of my just displeasure. I thawed. — Agatha Christie

There's no reason why women shouldn't behave like rational beings," Simon asserted stolidly.
Poirot said drily: "Quite frequently they do. That is even more upsetting! — 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

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

Pas encore. Qa m'amuse."
"Really, Poirot!"
"Yes, my friend. I grow old and childish, do I not? — 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

At all events, let us examine the position from the point of view of murder, not suicide."
"Oh, all right. If you are on the scene, it probably would be murder!"
For a moment Poirot smiled. "I hardly like that remark. — Agatha Christie

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

Who are you? You don't belong to the police?' 'I am better than the police,' said Poirot. He said it without conscious arrogance. It was, to him, a simple statement of fact. — Agatha Christie

Poirot was an extraordinary looking little man. He was hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible. I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound. Yet this quaint dandyfied little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police. As a detective, his flair had been extraordinary, and he had achieved triumphs by unravelling some of the most baffling cases of the day. — Agatha Christie

I gather," he added, "that you've never had much time to study the classics?"
"That is so."
"Pity. Pity. You've missed a lot. Everyone should be made to study the classics, if I had my way."
Poirot shrugged his shoulders.
"Eh bien, I have got on very well without them."
"Got on! Got on? It's not a question of getting on. That's the wrong view all together. The classics aren't a ladder leading to quick success, like a modern correspondence course! It's not a man's working hours that are important
it's his leisure hours. That's the mistake we all make. Take yourself now, you're getting on, you'll be wanting to get out of things, to take things easy
what are you going to do then with your leisure hours? — Agatha Christie

Poirot: Do not allow Hate into your heart, for it will make a home there.
Jackie: If Love cannot live there, Hate works just as well. — Agatha Christie

I've heard that you're the cat's whiskers, M. Poirot."
"Comment? The cat's whiskers? I do not understand."
"Well that you're It."
"Madame, I may or may not have brains - as a matter of fact I have - why pretend? — Agatha Christie

The two words expressed volumes. — 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

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

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

I don't know why dogs always go for postmen, I'm sure," continued our guide.
"It's a matter of reasoning," said Poirot. "The dog, he argues from reason. He is intelligent; he makes his deductions according to his point of view. There are people who may enter a house and there are people who may not - that a dog soon learns. Eh bien, who is the person who most persistently tries to gain admission, rattling on the door twice or three times a day - and who is never by any chance admitted? The postman. Clearly, then, an undesirable guest from the point of view of the master of the house. He is always sent about his business, but he persistently returns and tries again. Then a dog's duty is clear, to aid in driving this undesirable man away, and to bite him if possible. A most reasonable proceeding. — Agatha Christie

We will make them tell us what it is," said Poirot.
"Third degree?" said Colonel Carbury.
"No." Poirot shook his head. "Just ordinary conversation. On the whole, you know, people tell you the truth. Because it is easier! Because it is less strain on the inventive faculties! You can tell one lie - or two lies - or three lies or even four lies - but you cannot lie all the time. And so - the truth becomes plain. — Agatha Christie

I like to see an angry Englishman," said Poirot. "They are very amusing. The more emotional they feel the less command they have of language. — Agatha Christie

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

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 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

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

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

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

One could write a play about such an idea." "It has been done," said Poirot. "But console yourself, Hastings," he added kindly. "Because a theme has been used once, there is no reason why it should not be used again. Compose your drama. — 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

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

I was interested, M. Poirot, in something you said just now. You said that there was evil done everywhere under the sun. It was almost a quotation from Ecclesiastes." He paused and then quoted himself: "Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live. — Agatha Christie

Poirot said "you will find,M.le docteur,if you have much to do with cases of this kind,that they all resemble each other in one thing."
"what is that?" I asked curiously
"everyone concerned in them has something to hide — Agatha Christie

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

Everyone is a potential murderer-in everyone there arises from time to time the wish to kill-though not the will to kill. — 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

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

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

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

In fact,' said Poirot, 'she stabbed him in the dark, not realising that he was dead already, but somehow deduced that he had a watch in his pyjama pocket, took it out, put back the hands blindly and gave it the requisite dent. — Agatha Christie

We had reached Leastways Cottage, and Poirot ushered me upstairs to his own room. He offered me one of the tiny Russian cigarettes he himself occasionally smoked. I was amused to notice that he stowed away the used matches most carefully in a little china pot. My momentary annoyance vanished. — Agatha Christie

Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking."
"An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it. — 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

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

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

You have a great advantage as a writer, Monsieur,' said Poirot. 'You can relieve your feelings by expedient of the printed word. You have the power of the pen over your enemies. — Agatha Christie