Agatha Christie
"Look here," I said, "people like to collect disasters."Collection: Loss
Is there ever any particular spot where one can put one's finger and say, "It all began that day, at such a time and such a place, with such an incident?Collection: Incidents
Lie is more worth living, more full of interest when you are likely to lose it. It shouldn't be, perhaps, but it is. When you're young and strong and healthy, and life stretches ahead of you, living isn't really important at all. It's young people who commit suicide easily, out of despair from love, sometimes from sheer anxiety and worry. But old people know how valuable life is and how interesting. - Jane MarpleCollection: Suicide
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.Collection: Writing
The bereaved had never any doubt about their dear ones' wishes and those wishes usually squared with their own inclinations.Collection: Dear Ones
But no artist, I now realize, can be satisfied with art alone. There is a natural craving for recognition which cannot be gain-said.Collection: Art
You are the patient one, Mademoiselle,' said Poirot to Miss Debenham. She shrugged her shoulders slightly. 'What else can one do?' You are a philosopher, Mademoiselle.' That implies a detached attitude. I think my attitude is more selfish. I have learned to save myself useless emotion.Collection: Attitude
Hate doesn't last. Love does.Collection: Hate
The steamship whose machinery is broken may be brought into port and made fast to the dock. She is safe, but not sound. Repairs may last a long time. Christ designs to make us both safe and sound. Justification gives the first - safety; sanctification gives us the second - soundness.Collection: Safe And Sound
There's no agony like [getting started]. You sit in a room, biting pencils, looking at a typewriter, walking about, or casting yourself down on a sofa, feeling you want to cry your head off.Collection: Typewriters
I, myself, was always recognized . . . as the “slow one” in the family. It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters were without originality. I was . . . an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.Collection: Writing
You know, Emily was a selfish old woman in her way. She was very generous, but she always wanted a return. She never let people forget what she had done for them - and, that way she missed love.Collection: Selfish
Everyone likes talking about himself. - Hercule PoirotCollection: Talking
... evil was, perhaps, necessarily always more impressive than good.Collection: Evil
Things go entirely differently from the way you planned them.Collection: Way
I have wanted . . . to commit a murder myself. I recognized this as the desire of the artist to express himself! . . . But-incongruous as it may seem to some-I was restrained and hampered by my innate sense of justice. The innocent must not suffer.Collection: Artist
And so could you know it if you would only use the brains the good God has given you. Sometimes I really am tempted to believe that by inadvertence, He passed you by.Collection: Believe
The urge to write one's autobiography, so I have been told, overtakes everyone sooner or later.Collection: Writing
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 PoirotCollection: Mean
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 DawesCollection: Wise
What an absurdity to go and bury oneself in South America, where they are always having revolutions.Collection: Travel
I believe, Messieurs, in loyalty---to one's friends and one's family and one's caste.Collection: Loyalty
In my end is my beginning - that's what people are always saying. But what does it mean?Collection: Mean
Three months seems to me quite a reasonable time to complete a book, if one can get right down to it.Collection: Book
Best of an island is once you get there - you can't go any farther...you've come to the end of things.Collection: Islands
No sign, so far, of anything sinister—but I live in hope.Collection: Sinister
The tragedy of life is that people do not change.Collection: People
Never tell all you know—not even to the person you know best.Collection: Persons
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.Collection: Nice
What good is money if it can't buy happiness?Collection: Wealth
It's what's in *yourself* that makes you happy or unhappy.Collection: Crime Novels
A weak man in a corner is more dangerous than a strong man.Collection: Strong
Bitterness leads nowhere. It turns back on itself. It is the eternal cul-de-sac.Collection: Bitterness
Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go.Collection: Taken
Time does not dispose of a question - it only presents it anew in a different guise.Collection: Doe
Time is the best killer.Collection: Killers
If you place your head in a lion's mouth, then you cannot complain one day if he happens to bite it off.Collection: Philosophy
But surely for everything you love you have to pay some price.Collection: Love You
It's not a man's working hours that are important--it's his leisure hours. That's the mistake we all make.Collection: Mistake
Any coincidencce is worth noticing. You can throw it away later if it is only a coincidence.Collection: Noticing You
An appreciative listener is always stimulating.Collection: Appreciative
To win a war is as disasterous as to lose one.Collection: War
Things never come when they are expected.Collection: Expectations
I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about...It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you.Collection: Life
I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself.Collection: Deceiving
Many homicidal lunatics are very quiet, unassuming people. Delightful fellows.Collection: People
Everyone is a potential murderer-in everyone there arises from time to time thewish to kill-though not the will to kill.Collection: Arise
One of the saddest things in life, is the things one remembers.Collection: Reflection
Writing is a great comfort to people like me, who are unsure of themselves and have trouble expressing themselves properly.Collection: Writing