Quotes from Rex Stout

If she got the fifty grand and picked a college that wasn't too far away, I might drop in after she had been there a while to see what effect she was having. It was a cinch that she would have more effect on it than it would have on her.

A man named Olin Miller has said, "Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.

Mr. Cramer is constantly leaping at the throat of evil and finding himself holding on for dear life to the tip of its tail.

Indeed." Wolfe wiggled a finger at him. "Have you eaten terrapin stewed with butter and chicken broth and sherry?

Since the phone conversation was none of my business, I stood and listened to it, and gathered that someone named Philip had better put in an appearance by five o'clock or else.

death doth not heal, it amputates. Those

By that time I would have been chewing on a railroad spike if I had had one, and Wolfe was working hard trying to be serene. Between nine-thirty and ten-thirty he made four trips to the bookshelves, trying different ones, setting a record.

The fat was in the fire, and the problem was dodging the spatters.

Satisfactory, Archie,' he muttered. Frankly, I wish I could make my heart quit doing an extra thump when Wolfe says satisfactory, Archie. It's childish.

That's right," he said, "I must remember that, not to get excited. Everybody is very thoughtful. They put you in uniform and teach you what every young man ought to know, and take you across the ocean into the middle of hell, bombs, bullets, shells, flame-throwers, your friends die right against you and bleed down your neck, and after two years of that they bring you home and turn you loose and tell you now remember don't get excited.

habeas corpus ad subjiciendum.

True, it is bad to stab a man in the back, but when one is in a hurry the niceties must sometimes be overlooked.

He was like the mule in the story that kept running into trees; he wasn't blind, he was just so mad he didn't give a damn.

Courtesy is one's own affair, but decency is a debt to life. You

Death is not a joke.

I do not ordinarily hunt for a cave in the middle of the biggest excitement and most intense action, but this seemed to hit me in a new spot or something, and anyhow there I was, trying to arrange my mind. Or maybe my feelings. All I knew was that something inside of me needed a little arranging.

Labels are for the things men make, not for men.

finally left the worst of the happy throng behind and made it to the Methodist grub-tent, having passed by the Baptists with the snooty feeling of a man-about-town who is in the know.

Few of us have enough wisdom for justice, or enough leisure for humanity.

a man owes it to his eyes to let them rest on attractive objects when there are any around.

No doctor should assume responsibility for the health of one he loves or one he hates.

skepticism is a good watchdog if you know when to take the leash off.

Sometimes it's things that take the joy out of life, like a blowout when you're hitting sixty or a button coming off of a shirt when you're in a hurry, but usually it's people.

I invite trouble only when I'm paid for it.