Quotes About Character

Colonel Race was not good at small talk and might indeed have posed as the model of a strong silent man so beloved by an earlier generation of novelists.

If you will forgive me for being personal—I do not like your face, M. Ratchett,' Poirot said.

Race nodded. He had only met George's wife once. He had thought her a singularly lovely nitwit—but certainly not a melancholic type.

Here again, she was amazingly clever. Without make-up of any kind, her features seemed to dissolve suddenly and re-form themselves into those of a famous politician, or a well-known actress, or a society beauty. In each character she gave a short typical speech. These speeches, by the way, were remarkably clever. They seemed to hit off every weakness of the subject selected.

I should have kept him to the end," said Mrs. Oliver. "In a book, I mean," she added apologetically. "Real life's a bit different," said Battle. "I know," said Mrs. Oliver. "Badly constructed.

People are like that—not quite bad or quite good. I don't suppose I'm particularly straight myself—I have been because there hasn't been any temptation to be otherwise. But what I have got is plenty of courage and I'm loyal!

Mrs. Dane Calthrop, on the other hand, was quite terrifyingly on the spot. I have perhaps purposely put off mentioning her, because I was from the first a little afraid of her. She was a woman of character and of almost Olympian knowledge. She was not in the least the typical vicar's wife?but that, as I set it down, makes me ask myself, what do I know of vicars' wives?

I should have kept him to the end," said Mrs. Oliver. "In a book, I mean," she added apologetically. "Real life's a bit different," said Battle.

I fancied - of course it may have been only my fancy - that he looked slightly ill at ease. The company in which he found himself was, so I could imagine, little to his liking. He was a strictly conservative and somewhat reactionary young man - the kind of character to have stepped out of the Middle Ages by some regrettable mistake. His infatuation for the extremely modern Jane Wilkinson was one of those anachronistic jokes that Nature so loves to play.

My husband's a very good man," she said. "Besides being the vicar, I mean. And that makes things difficult sometimes. Good people, you see, don't really understand evil." She paused and then said with a kind of brisk efficiency, "I think it had better be me.

Yet he had a certain charm of manner, and I fancied that, if one really knew him well, one could have a deep affection for him.

You know, Mrs. Dacres is quite my idea of a murderess—so hard and remorseless." "She's ever so hard—and she's got a wicked temper!

Her qualities were all excellent qualities, but sometimes Edward wished that she had more faults and less virtues. It was her virtues that drove him to desperate deeds.

I admired Elsa Greer because she had guts, because she could fight, because she stood up to her tormentors and never quailed! But I admired Caroline Crale because she didn't fight, because she retreated into her world of half lights and shadows. She was never defeated because she never gave battle.

She's just the type—sexually unattractive, innately respectable. In my book, The Barren Vine—" Colonel Race interrupted tactfully:

There's a general belief that athletes aren't overburdened by brains (not at all true by the way), but I can't believe Nevile Strange is a complete moron.

Lady Veronica was not an unknown hazard. She was a charming woman [..] and very delightful when she was, as they put it herself - but unfortunately at unpredictable intervals, she was not herself. Her husband, Major Carlton-Sandways coped fairly well.

Poirot drew himself up in an important manner.

Chi è molto buono con gli altri sa anche essere molto crudele.

I think, Madame, that your strength is in your will—not in your arm.

There are doubtless certain unworldly people who are indifferent to money. I myself have never met one.

What I say is a gentleman's a gentleman even if he does drive a tractor.

Whether they try to hinder or to help, they necessarily reveal their type of mind.

It's second nature to make the best of yourself. I'd made a point of that at school and onwards, boasted about things a bit, said a few things stretching the truth a bit I wasn't ashamed of it. Uriah something his name was, always going about being humble and rubbing his hands, and actually planning and scheming behind that humility. I didn't want to be like that." -Mike Rogers Endless Night by Agatha Christie