Image: Agatha Christie plaque -Torre Abbey.jpg: Violetriga derivative work: F l a n k e r, CC BY-SA 3.0
41 quotes
English mystery and detective writer (1890–1976)
“People more often kill those they love than those they hate. Possibly because only the people you love can really make life unendurable to you.”
"Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go."
on Science
"Authors were shy, unsociable creatures, atoning for their lack of social aptitude by inventing their own companions and conversations."
on Writing
"I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself."
on Truth
"Sometimes what you think is an end is only a beginning. And that wouldn't do at all."
on Life
"To know when to use the truth is the essence of successful deception"
"...But even then you have to reckon with a criminal's chief vice.''What is that?'' Conceit. A criminal never believes that his crime can fail."
"The great thing in these cases is to keep an absolutely open mind. Most crimes, you see, are so absurdly simple."
on Wisdom
"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."
on Hope
"A great many men are mad, and no one knows it. They do not know it themselves"
on Mental Health
"All life is a jest, Imhotep - and it is death who laughs last. Do you not hear it at every feast? Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die."
"To rush into explanations is always a sign of weakness."
"In an English village, you turn over a stone and have no idea what will crawl out.Miss Marple"
on Curiosity
"Use your little grey cells mon ami" (Hercule Poirot in 'The Mysterious Affair At Styles')"
"One mustn't refuse the unusual, if it is offered to one."
"Evil never goes unpunished, Monsieur. But the punishment is sometimes secret."
"When you find that people are not telling you the truth---look out!"
"Discussions of death and such matters do more to unlock the human tongue than any other subject."
on Death
"I suppose, like most young people nowadays, boredom is what you dread most in the world, and yet, I can assure you, there are worse things."
"Thought is yours only. Nobody can alter or influence the use you mean to make of it."
on Knowledge
"The eye is diverted from the real business, it is caught by the spectacular action that means nothing--nothing at all."
on Critical Thinking
