Quotes from Patricia Wentworth

A good many established writers seem to have the feeling that some day they are going to be found out, revealed as frauds.

It is the man who is sure of himself who disregards the opinion of the world. To be sure is to have power.

One cannot withdraw from the life of the community. Injury to one member of it cannot fail to be the concern of all.

You can't do such a lot and do it all so well and have much time left for the ordinary human feelings.

My dear father always said that when everybody had a telephone nobody would have any manners, because there wouldn't be time for them. And of course he was perfectly right.

A lie that is half a truth is ever the hardest to fight.

There's a general consensus of opinion that people in love are apt to look silly -- except to each other.

Love and a cold cannot be hid. It is, I believe, a Spanish proverb.

Children want one thing at a time, and want that one thing passionately.

Her name is Maud Silver. Louisa says she has solved many difficult cases besides being an extremely expert knitter.

Henry, for heaven's sake! You can't propose when I'm fainting!

The fact is, for most of us, what happens to ourselves is so much more important than what happens to other people that the smallest mote in our own eye will prevent us from being unduly harrowed by someone else's beam.

She was a little bit of a thing with a light untidy fluff of hair and a nose which went pink in moments of emotion. It was pink now and it quivered. She dabbed aimlessly at her hair and three of the remaining pins fell out. William stooped to pick them up, and wished he hadn't. He said he thought he would go to bed, and went.

I think it is right that you should know I am here in the capacity of a private enquiry agent. If she had announced that she was there in the capacity of a Fairy Godmother or of First Murderer, she could hardly have surprised him more. In fact, the Fairy Godmother would have seemed quite appropriate by comparison.

She was music, poetry, and the enchantment which lies just over the edge of thought.

I told you she had an inconsequent mind. That's putting it much too mildly. When it comes to anything like evidence, she hasn't really got a mind at all - she just dives into a sort of lumber-room and brings out odds and ends.

I shall want heaps and heaps of tea. The blow has driven me to drink.

She moved like clouds, like water, like anything lovely and effortless and free.

East, west, home's best.' The words rang in his mind. There wasn't any place like the one where the world had come alive to you, where you knew every stick and stone, every man, woman and child, where you could look around you and know that the men of your blood had had their

Mary didn't know just what prompted her answer. She was the most candid of women, but you don't tell a man everything where another woman is concerned.

and thought how embarrassing Mabel's girlish enthusiasms had become. To look 60 and behave as if you were 16 was a social tragedy.

There are moments when everyone in the world is the friend of your heart and you must share its joy.

Fancy going out into the world under the impression that you can always have your own way! Would anything be more likely to lead to disaster?

Obstinacy is an impediment to the free exercise of thought. It paralyses the intelligence. Conclusions based upon preconceived ideas are valueless.