Quotes from Rex Stout

Wolfe still paid no attention to me. As a matter of fact, I didn't expect him to, since he was busy taking exercise. He had recently got the impression he weighed too much- which was about the same as if the Atlantic Ocean had decided it was too wet...

the Anglo-Saxon theory of the treatment of emotions and desserts: freeze them and hide them in your belly. She

I never try to do any deep thinking while I'm driving; the thinking gets you nowhere and the driving might get you where you would rather not be;

I was sorry I had missed it because talk by those two is always worth hearing. You get good examples of how much a man can say in a few words and also of how little he can say in a lot of words.

over the place, and this way he would get a

Manifestly, sir, either your mental processes are badly constipated or you think mine are.

I made a note to quit trying to understand women and start trying to understand men.

When I am expected at a certain hour it's nearly always Lily who comes, I think on account of some kind of a notion she has about a maid admitting a man who has a key. I have never tried to dope it. Other people's notions are none of my business unless they get in the way.

STUDY IN SCARLET (ILLUSTRATED COLLECTOR'S

Freedom is too precious collateral for any fee. We

one of my favorite rules is never to let a woman start an argument about what she said or what I said. You

I dropped the book on the table, stretched for a good yawn, went and opened the window and stood there looking down on the street long enough to let the sharp cold air make me feel like blankets and hopped for the hay.

But if and when I find myself up a tree with a circle of man-eating tigers crouching on the ground below, and a squad of beavers starting to gnaw at the trunk of the tree, the sight of Saul approaching would be absolutely beautiful. I have never seen him fazed.

He announced aggressively, 'I want to see Archie Goodwin.' 'You are.' 'I are what?' 'Seeing Archie Goodwin. Who am I seeing?' 'Oh, a wise guy.' We were off to a bad start, but we got it straightened out that he meant that I was a wise guy, not that I was seeing one...

For nine months of the year Inspector Cramer of Homicide, big and broad and turning gray, looked the part well enough, but in the summertime the heat kept his face so red that he was a little gaudy.

Loyalty is a very fine thing, but it shouldn't be allowed to get the bit between its teeth. I

I can dodge folly without backing into fear. - Nero Wolfe in "The Doorbell Rang

Go to hell, I'm reading. ~Archie Goodwin

please?" "Ridiculous," he said curtly

The subconscious is not a grave; it's a cistern.

Wolfe's head moved. 'You've seen that play, Archie?' 'Yes, sir. I would say a quarter to ten, maybe twenty to." 'Have you seen it, Saul?' 'Yes, sir. Twenty to ten.' 'You know that?' 'Yes, sir. Just my habit of noticing things.' 'Don't disparage it. The more you put in a brain, the more it will hold--if you have one...

off—it was a hot night. We got back after midnight." "In your car?" "No, Helen Weltz had let us take hers. She has a Jaguar." My brows went up, and I spoke. "A Jaguar," I told Wolfe

I had heard of this Frisbie, an Assistant District Attorney, but had never seen him. I observed, when he entered, that I hadn't missed much. He was the window-dummy type—high collar, clothes pressed very nice, and embalmed stiff and cold. The only thing you could tell from his eyes was that his self-esteem almost hurt him.

Measure your mind's height by the shade it casts, Robert Browning.