The Labors of Hercules (Hercule Poirot, #27)

by Agatha Christie

Words had become to him a means of obscuring facts—not of revealing them. He was an adept in the art of the useful phrase—that is to say the phrase that falls soothingly on the ear and is quite empty of meaning.

“What fools people are who leave the straight path. A clear conscience—that’s all one needs in life. With that you can face the world and tell everyone who interferes with you to go to the devil!” He felt suddenly very much alive—very strong—very much master of his fate!

it always seems to me that the whole subject matter of the classics is very unsuitable for clergymen. So much incest, and all those statues with nothing on—not

“Not exactly frantic with brains.

Even should Miss Pope unbend graciously to parents, she would still retain that obvious superiority to the rest of the world which is such a powerful asset to a schoolmistress.

her costume was severe but chic. She was competent and omniscient.

No speck of dust, one felt, would have the temerity to deposit itself in such a shrine.

She took disaster as it should be taken, dealing with it competently and thereby reducing it almost to insignificance.

“My remarks are, as always, apt, sound, and to the point.”

One needed the agility of a wild cat, and the will-power of a Napoleon to manage to knit in a crowded tube, but women managed it!