200+ Quotes & Sayings By Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of all time. Her work has been translated into over 70 languages, selling more than 200 million copies worldwide. She is best known for her twelve detective novels featuring Hercule Poirot, the master detective who was portrayed by David Suchet in the television adaptation of Agatha Christie's Poirot. The books have been filmed many times, most recently starring David Suchet and Dame Edna Everage Read more

She was the first female President of the Royal Society of Literature, awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University, and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

It is a curious thought, but it is only when...
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It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them. Agatha Christie
I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely...
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I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing. Agatha Christie
To every problem, there is a most simple solution.
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To every problem, there is a most simple solution. Agatha Christie
Poirot,
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Poirot, " I said. "I have been thinking."" An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it. Agatha Christie
No, my friend, I am not drunk. I have just...
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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
If you place your head in a lion's mouth, then...
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If you place your head in a lion's mouth, then you cannot complain one day if he happens to bite it off. Agatha Christie
Where do one's fears come from? Where do they shape...
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Where do one's fears come from? Where do they shape themselves? Where do they hide before coming out into the open? Agatha Christie
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Do you believe in the value of truth, my dear, or don’t you?”“ Of course I believe in the truth, ” said Rhoda, staring.“ Yes, you say that, but perhaps you haven’t thought about it. The truth hurts sometimes — and destroys one’s illusions.”“ I’d rather have it all the same.” said Rhoda. “So would I. But I don’t know that we’re wise.” Mrs. Oliver; Rhoda Dawes Agatha Christie
The truth must be quite plain, if one could just...
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The truth must be quite plain, if one could just clear away the litter. Agatha Christie
What good is money if it can't buy happiness?
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What good is money if it can't buy happiness? Agatha Christie
One always has hope for human nature
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One always has hope for human nature Agatha Christie
We are ready to despair too soon, we are ready...
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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
When you're in the middle of a nightmare, something ordinary...
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When you're in the middle of a nightmare, something ordinary is the only hope. Anyway, ordinary things are the best. I've always thought so. Agatha Christie
In the midst of life, we are in death.
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In the midst of life, we are in death. Agatha Christie
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Death, mademoiselle, unfortunately creates a prejudice. A prejudice in favour of the deceased. I heard what you said just now to my friend Hastings. ‘A nice bright girl with no men friends.’ You said that in mockery of the newspapers. And it is very true–when a young girl is dead, that is the kind of thing that is said. She was bright. She was happy. She was sweet-tempered. She had not a care in the world. She had no undesirable acquaintances. There is a great charity always to the dead. Do you know what I should like this minute? I should like to find someone who knew Elizabeth Barnard and who does not know she is dead! Then, perhaps, I should hear what is useful to me–the truth. Agatha Christie
Death was for-the other people.
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Death was for-the other people. Agatha Christie
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And yet, " said Poirot, "suppose an accident-"" Ah, no, my friend-"" From your point of view it would be regrettable, I agree. But nevertheless let us just for one moment suppose it. Then, perhaps, all these here are linked together - by death. Agatha Christie
The best time for planning a book is while you're...
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The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. Agatha Christie
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There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you're writing, and aren't writing particularly well. Agatha Christie
Un archeologo è il miglior marito che una donna possa...
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Un archeologo è il miglior marito che una donna possa avere: più lei diventa vecchia, più lui s'interessa a lei. Agatha Christie
One knows so little. When one knows more it is...
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One knows so little. When one knows more it is too late. Agatha Christie
In fact there is only your own instinct? Not instinct,...
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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
I suppose it is because nearly all children go to...
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I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays and have things arranged for them that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas. Agatha Christie
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The truth is, that one doesn't really know anything about anybody. Not even the people who are nearest to you...'' Isn't that going a little too far--exaggerating too much?'' I don't think it is. When you think of people, it is in the image you have made of them for yourself. Agatha Christie
No one human being knows the full truth about another...
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No one human being knows the full truth about another human being. Not even one's nearest and dearest. Agatha Christie
Use that fluff of yours you call a brain.
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Use that fluff of yours you call a brain. Agatha Christie
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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
You don't appreciate a faithful husband when you've got one,...
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You don't appreciate a faithful husband when you've got one, ' said Tommy.'All my friends tell me you never know with husbands, ' said Tuppance.'You have the wrong kind of friends, ' said Tommy. Agatha Christie
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It is clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying, and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down. Agatha Christie
One little Indian left all alone, he went out and...
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One little Indian left all alone, he went out and hanged himself and then there were none. Agatha Christie
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Liking is more important than loving. It lasts. I want what is between us to last, Luke. I don't want us just to love each other and marry and get tired of each other and then want to marry some one else."" Oh! my dear Love, I know. You want reality. So do I. What's between us will last for ever because it's founded on reality. Agatha Christie
There! Now we're friends!
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There! Now we're friends! " declared the minx. "Say you're sorry about my sister -""I am desolated! "" That's a good boy! Agatha Christie
You would hate people if you were like me… If...
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You would hate people if you were like me… If you weren’t wanted. Agatha Christie
E: When one has at last reached freedom, can one...
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E: When one has at last reached freedom, can one even contemplate going back? H C: But if it is not possible to go back, or to choose to go back, then it is not freedom! ~ Ericsson; Hilary Craven Agatha Christie
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I often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalise. Generalisations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate. Agatha Christie
A man when he is making up to anybody can...
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A man when he is making up to anybody can be cordial and gallant and full of little attentions and altogether charming. But when a man is really in love he can't help looking like a sheep. Agatha Christie
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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
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Bottled, was he?" Said Colonel Bantry, with an Englishman's sympathy for alcoholic excess. "Oh, well, can't judge a fellow by what he does when he's drunk? When I was at Cambridge, I remember I put a certain utensil - well - well, nevermind. Agatha Christie
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A statesman in these days has a difficult task. He has to pursue the policy he deems advantageous to his country, but he has at the same time to recognize the force of popular feeling. Popular feeling is very often sentimental, muddleheaded, and eminently unsound, but it cannot be disregarded for all that. Agatha Christie
How well you express it! That is exactly the curse...
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How well you express it! That is exactly the curse of a politician's life. He has to bow to the country's feeling, however dangerous and foolhardy he knows it to be. Agatha Christie
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I will only ask you to believe one thing. I have faith in myself. I believe that I am the man to guide England through the days of crisis that I see coming. If I did not honestly believe that I am needed by my country to steer the ship of state, I would not have done what I have done--made the best of both worlds--saved myself from disaster by a clever trick.'' My lord, if you could not make the best of both worlds, you could not be a politician. . Agatha Christie
There are questions that you don't ask because you're afraid...
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There are questions that you don't ask because you're afraid of the answers to them. Agatha Christie
Women were very queer. Unexpectedly cruel and unexpectedly kind.
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Women were very queer. Unexpectedly cruel and unexpectedly kind. Agatha Christie
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I am pointing to you that under these conditions--mental strain, physical malaise--it is highly probable that dislikes that were before merely mild and disagreements that were trivial might suddenly assume a more serious note. The result of pretending to be a more amiable, a more forgiving, a more high-minded person than one really is, has sooner or later the effect of causing one to behave as a more disagreeable, a more ruthless and an altogether more unpleasant person than is actually the case! If you dam the stream of natural behavior, mon ami, sooner or later the dam bursts and cataclysm occurs. Agatha Christie
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The only clue to what is in people's minds is in their behavior. If a man behaves strangely, oddly, is not himself-- Then you suspect him? No. That is just what I mean. A man whose mind is evil and whose intentions are evil is conscious of that fact and he knows that he must conceal it all costs. He dare not, therefore, afford any unusual behavior. Agatha Christie
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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
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In my opinion, the state of mind of a community is always directly due to the influence of the man at the top. Agatha Christie
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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
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The evidence of history is against you. The contemporary historian never writes such a true history as the historian of a later generation. It is a question of getting the true perspective, of seeing things in proportion. Agatha Christie
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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
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Why do you decry the world we live in? There are good people in it. Isn't muddle a better breeding ground for kindliness and individuality than a world order that's imposed, a world order that may be right today and wrong tomorrow? I would rather have a world of kindly, faulty, human beings, than a world of superior robots who've said goodbye to pity and understanding and sympathy. Agatha Christie
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But it is not always the people who say most who do most. Agatha Christie
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An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her. Agatha Christie
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Women can accept the fact that a man is a rotter, a swindler, a drug taker, a confirmed liar, and a general swine, without batting an eyelash, and without its impairing their affection for the brute in the least. Women are wonderful realists. Agatha Christie
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The amount of women you hear say, "If Donald–or Arthur–or whatever his name was–had only lived." And I sometimes think but if he had, he'd have been a stout, unromantic, short-tempered, middle-aged husband as likely as not. Agatha Christie
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My flute, M. Poirot, is my oldest companion. When everything else fails, music remains. Agatha Christie
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Money, money, money! I think about money morning, noon and night! I dare say it's mercenary of me, but there it is Agatha Christie
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If you care for money too much, it is only the money you see, everything else is in shadow. Agatha Christie
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Everything is possible, isn't it? The world soon teaches one that! Agatha Christie
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... suppose if something very terrible had happened, so terrible as to be almost unbearable, one might get like that. One might run away from reality into a half world of one's own and then, of course, after a time, one wouldn't be able to get back... Agatha Christie
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This was genius at close quarters, and genius had that something above normal in it that was a great strain upon the ordinary mind and feeling. All five were different from each other, yet each had that curious quality of burning intensity, the single-mindedness of purpose that made such a terrifying impression. She did not know whether it were a quality of brain or rather a quality of outlook, of intensity. But each of them, she thought, was in his or her way a passionate idealist. . Agatha Christie
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Why harrow oneself by looking on the worst side?... Because it is sometimes necessary. Agatha Christie
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Such nice people, the Hillingdons, though she's not really very easy to know, is she? I mean, she's always very pleasant and all that, but one never seems to get to know her better.' Miss Marple agreed thoughtfully. 'One never knows what she is thinking.'' Perhaps that is just as well.'' I beg your pardon?'' Oh nothing really, only that I've always had the feeling that perhaps her thoughts might be rather disconcerting. Agatha Christie
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The popular view that a child forgets easily is not an accurate one. Many people go right through life in the grip of an idea which has been impressed on them in very tender years. Agatha Christie
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More children suffer from interference than from noninterference. Agatha Christie
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Child's evidence is always the best evidence there is. I'd rely on it every time. No good in court, of course. Children can't stand being asked direct questions. They mumble or else look idiotic and say they don't know. They're at their best when they're showing off. Agatha Christie
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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. Agatha Christie
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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
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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
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Sensationalism dies quickly, fear is long-lived. Agatha Christie
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What a queer topsy turvy world it was. It used to be the man who went to the wars, the woman who stayed at home. But here the positions were reversed. Agatha Christie
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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
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But I know human nature, my friend, and I tell you that, suddenly confronted with the possibility of being tried for murder, the most innocent person will lose his head and do the most absurd things. Agatha Christie
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I am not one to rely upon the expert procedure. It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash. Agatha Christie
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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. Agatha Christie
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All Egypt is obsessed with death! And do you know why, Renisenb? Because we have eyes in our bodies, but none in our minds. We cannot conceive of a life other than this one - of a life after death. We can visualize only a continuation of what we know. We have no real belief in a God. Agatha Christie
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After all, perhaps dirt isn't really so unhealthy as one is brought up to believe. Agatha Christie
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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 shou Agatha Christie
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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
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The two words expressed volumes. Agatha Christie
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Speech is the deadliest of revealers.' - Hercule Poirot, Cards on the Table Agatha Christie
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Who can tell? It may be that there must always be growth - and that if one does not grow kinder and wiser and greater, then the growth must be the other way, fostering the evil things. Or it may be that the life they all led was too shut in, too folded back upon itself - without breadth or vision. Or it may be that, like a disease of crops, it is contagious, that first one and then another is sickened. Agatha Christie
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What can I say at seventy-five? "Thank God for my good life, and for all the love that has been given to me. Agatha Christie
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I mean that success has come early. And that is dangerous. Always dangerous. Agatha Christie
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… one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back — that the essence of life is going forward. Life is really a One Way Street. Agatha Christie
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Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody. Agatha Christie
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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
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The longer the time that has elapsed, the more things fall into proportion. One sees them in their true relationship to one another. Agatha Christie
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Besides a burial service is rather lovely. Makes you feel uplifted, the grief is real. It makes you feel awful but it does something to you. I mean, it works it out like perspiration. Agatha Christie
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Somehow, the more I get older, and the more I see of people and sadness and illness and everything, the sorrier I get for everyone. Agatha Christie
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Murder can sometimes seem justified, but it is murder all the same. You are truthful and clear-minded--face the truth, mademoiselle! Your friend died in the last resort, because she had not the courage to live. We may sympathize with her. We may pity her. But the fact remains--the act was hers--not another. Agatha Christie
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Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong. Agatha Christie
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But when a man is really in love he can't help looking like a sheep. Now whenever that young man looked he looked like a sheep I take back all is this morning. It is genuine. Agatha Christie
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Never worry about what you say to a man. They're so conceited that they never believe you mean it if it's unflattering.”- Caroline to Ursual. Agatha Christie
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A man in drink can be like a ravening wolf. Agatha Christie
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A man in love is a sorry spectacle. Agatha Christie
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When a man's neck's in danger, he doesn't stop to think too much about sentiment. Agatha Christie
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Young men are sadly degenerate nowadays. Agatha Christie
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One can't do anything without a man. Men know so much, and are able to get information in so many ways that are simply impossible to women. Agatha Christie
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.. Good gracious, Jerry, you'll probably have to marry the girl.' Joanna was half serious, half laughing. It was at that moment that I made a very important discovery.' Damn it all, ' I said. 'I don't mind if I do. In fact - I should like it.' A very funny expression came over Joanna's face. She got up and said dryly, as she went toward the door, 'Yes, I've known that for some time..' She left me standing, glass in hand, aghast at my new discovery. Agatha Christie