Quotes from Rex Stout

Of course the trouble was that the only way to get something out of your mind is to get something else in it.

There are various reasons for keeping your mouth shut, but the best one is that you have nothing to say.

Proscriptions carried too far lead to nullity.

The last stretch of our walk was along a curving gravel path that wound through lawns, shrubs, trees, and different-shaped patches of bare earth. Living in the country would be more convenient if they would repeal the law against paths that go straight from one place to another place.

If you're so sure violence is inferior technique, you should have seen that exhibition; it was wonderful. They say it works sometimes, but even if it does, how could you depend on anything you got that way? Not to mention that after you had done it a few times any decent garbage can would be ashamed to have you found in it.

When I'm driving I don't see much of anything except the road, for I have the type of mind that gets on a job and stays there until it's time for another one.

Indeed,' I said. That was Nero Wolfe's word, and I never used it except in moments of stress, and it severely annoyed my when I caught myself using it, because when I look in a mirror I prefer to see me as is, with no skin grafted from anybody else's hide, even Nero Wolfe's.

Will she report what she told me?' 'No.' A corner of his mouth twitched. 'That's why I put up with you; you could have answered with fifty words and you did it with one.' 'I've often wondered. Now tell me why I put up with you.' 'That's beyond conjecture. ...

I was at the Manhattan Chess Club watching the tournament. Bobby Fischer won his adjourned game with Weinstein in fifty-eight moves. Larry Evans drew with Kalme and Reshevsky drew with Mednis.

As I stirred I was thinking that if she was hoping for any cooperation from Wolfe it was too bad she had asked for gin, since in his book all gin drinkers were barbarians.

When Stout heard the news of Wodehouse's death in 1975, he expressed his admiration thus: "He always used the right words, and nearly always used them well.

And naturally, for you, as a consequence of the peculiar constitution of the human ego, your point of view is paramount. But your ego is bound to be jostled by other egos, and efforts to counteract the jostling by ignoring it have rarely succeeded. It is frequently advisable, and sometimes necessary, to give a little ground.

No doubt life was hard for him—born with the instincts of a Hitler or Stalin in a country where people are determined to do their own voting.

It takes a gross of at least ten thousand a month to get by.

The ideal human agreement is one in which distinctions of race and color and religion are totally disregarded;

To be broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.

Perhaps you don't know all there is to know about a woman after watching her at an evening of bridge, but you should know more than when you sat down.

We are all vainer of our luck than of our merits.

A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.

I will ride my luck on occasion, but I like to pick the occasion.

Genius is fine for the ignition spark, but to get there someone has to see that the radiator doesn't leak and no tire is flat.

Afraid? I can dodge folly without backing into fear.

The more you put in your brain, the more it will hold -- if you have one.