Quotes from Agatha Christie

If you confront anyone who has lied with the truth, he will usually admit it - often out of sheer surprise. It is only necessary to guess right to produce your effect.

It's like all those quiet people, when they do lose their tempers they lose them with a vengeance.

I don't know. I don't know at all. And that's what's frightening the life out of me. To have no idea....

Everyone is a potential murderer-in everyone there arises from time to time the wish to kill-though not the will to kill.

It is the brain, the little gray cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within--not without." ~ Poirot

There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you're writing, and aren't writing particularly well.

As life goes on it becomes tiring to keep up the character you invented for yourself, and so you relapse into individuality and become more like yourself everyday.

An appreciative listener is always stimulating.

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.

If you are to be Hercule Poirot, you must think of everything.

Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them. [Witness for the Prosecution, also published in The Hound of Death and Other Stories.]

But I know human nature, my friend, and I tell you that, suddenly confronted with the possibility of being tried for murder, the most innocent person will lose his head and do the most absurd things.

I often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalise. Generalisations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate.

To rush into explanations is always a sign of weakness.

One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is to have a happy childhood.

When you find that people are not telling you the truth---look out!

Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions.

Words are such uncertain things, they so often sound well but mean the opposite of what one thinks they do.

Tea! Bless ordinary everyday afternoon tea!

To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they may experience at second hand the delights and dangers of adventure. [author's dedication]

You've a pretty good nerve," said Ratchett. "Will twenty thousand dollars tempt you?" It will not." If you're holding out for more, you won't get it. I know what a thing's worth to me." I, also M. Ratchett." What's wrong with my proposition?" Poirot rose. "If you will forgive me for being personal - I do not like your face, M. Ratchett," he said.

I'm sorry, but I do hate this differentiation between the sexes. 'The modern girl has a thoroughly businesslike attitude to life' That sort of thing. It's not a bit true! Some girls are businesslike and some aren't. Some men are sentimental and muddle-headed, others are clear-headed and logical. There are just different types of brains.

At my time of life, one knows that the worst is usually true.

Hercule Poirot: I am an imbecile. I see only half of the picture. Miss Lemon: I don't even see that.