Quotes from Erle Stanley Gardner

I'm a librarian," she said, "employed in the San Molinas library. For various reasons, I have never married. My position gives me at once an opportunity to cultivate a taste for the best in literature, and to learn something of character. I have nothing in common with the younger set who find alcoholic stimulation the necessary prerequisite to any attempt at conversation or enjoyment.

However, as a true scientist, Dr. Ford is utterly indifferent to public praise on the one hand, or public criticism on the other. He only wants to satisfy his own conscience. What people may then say or think is of no concern.

Lots of lawyers don't like circumstantial evidence. I do. I've never had any quarrel with the evidence of circumstances. My quarrel is with the habit of giving events the obvious, careless interpretation. I dislike sloppy thinking.

hit her where she least expects to be hit. There's only one way to fight, and that's to win. Never attack where the other man is expecting it, when the other man is expecting it. That's where he's prepared his strongest defense.

Angeles in the plain-clothes division

a man who was tall in a gangling, loose-jointed way, with a static, vacuous grin seeming to betoken a continuous attempt to placate and mollify a world which somehow kept him on the defensive.

The only reason I collect good money for what I do, is because I've demonstrated my ability to do it. If the taxpayers didn't give you your salary check every month until you'd delivered results, you might have to go hungry a few months,—unless you showed more intelligence than you're showing on this case.

Believe me, Paul, when you're in a jam the truth is the only thing solid enough and substantial enough to rely on.

Perry Mason's hand dropped to her shoulder, patted it reassuringly. It was the impersonal gesture of the protective male.

frequent spells of "ailing," during which there seemed to be nothing particularly wrong save a psychic maladjustment seeking a physical manifestation.

I'm not naturally tough. I've learned to be tough through rubbing elbows with the police.

as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial.

The department has its own ideas of what constitutes justice. If we could uncover some evidence which would bolster the D.A's case, that would be justice. If we uncovered some evidence that wouldn't ... well, you know how it is.

I didn't ask for much money, Mr. Mason, only enough to get by on. I figured that the world owed me a living.

She flowed across that office with the rippling, effortless progress of a cylinder of jelly sliding off a tilted plate.

You can't have understanding without empathy, and you can't have empathy without losing money.

Don't ever fool yourself that facts don't fit, if you get the right explanation. They're just like jigsaw puzzles—when you get them right, they're all going to fit together.

Once a man forms an opinion, he starts interpreting facts in the light of that belief. He ceases to be an impartial judge of facts.

was always trying to improve the appearance of the package, because he knew that the goods inside were rotten.

I always use the word 'houses of prostitution' in talking to Edith, Mrs. Cool." "I don't. I call 'em whorehouses," Bertha said acidly. "It's easier to say. It's more expressive, and it leaves no room for doubt.

Personally, I wouldn't have a man who was true to me, not that I'd want him to flaunt his affairs in my face or to the neighborhood, but a man who doesn't step out once in a while isn't worth the powder and shot to blow him to hell.

people," he said, "try to put on a poker face when they are in a panic and when they try to put on a poker face they look sulky.

I'm going to tell you something about myself. I pay my own way as I go through the world, and I want the privilege of living my own life. I left North Mesa because I couldn't do just that. I have my own code, my own creed, and my own ideas. I try to be true to them, all of them. I hate hypocrisy. I like fair play. I want to live my own life in my own way, and I'm willing to let other people live their lives in their way.

He can't get along without having someone pat him on the back and tell him he's doing all right, that he's a wonderful young man, and all that stuff.