The Secret of Chimneys Quotes

“What a lot of funny people it does take to make a world.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“When I want to get anywhere, I usually do.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“I wouldn't go so far as to say I've got a plan. But I've got an idea. It's a very useful thing sometimes, an idea. - Superintendent Battle”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“No woman respects a man when he's doing a thing thoroughly badly.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“As far as it is possible for one upright Christian gentleman to dislike another upright Christian gentleman, Lord Caterham disliked the Hon. George Lomax.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“But, mind you, very few people would understand that point of view. Most people, you see, haven't got any imagination”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“Hence King’s Messengers and all that. In medieval days you gave a fellow a signet ring as a sort of open sesame. ‘The King’s Ring! Pass, my lord!’ And usually it was the other fellow who had stolen it. I always wonder why some bright lad never hit on the expedient of copying the ring—making a dozen or so, and selling them at a hundred ducats apiece. They seem to have had no initiative in the Middle Ages.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“But that's the worst of these attractive young women with affectionate dispositions. They'll say anything, and they mean absolutely nothing by it.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“I'm the kind of person who marries enthusiastically if they marry at all.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“Never display emotion.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“Oh, Lord,” muttered Anthony, “what a lot of funny people it does take to make a world.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“I was brought up to a trade, you know,’ continued Anthony.

‘And you abandoned it?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why?’

‘A matter of principle.’

‘Oh!’

‘You’re a very unusual woman,’ said Anthony suddenly, turning and looking at her.

‘Why?’

‘You can refrain from asking questions.’

‘You mean that I haven’t asked you what your trade was?’

‘Just that.’

Again they walked on in silence. They were nearing the house now, passing close by the scented sweetness of the rose garden.

‘You understand well enough, I dare say,’ said Anthony, breaking the silence. ‘You know when a man’s in love with you. I don’t suppose you care a hang for me—or for anyone else—but, by God, I’d like to make you care.’

‘Do you think you could?’ asked Virginia, in a low voice.

‘Probably not, but I’d have a damned good try.’

‘Are you sorry you ever met me?’ she said suddenly.

‘Lord no. It’s the red signal again. When I first saw you—that day in Pont Street, I knew I was up against something that was going to hurt like fun. Your face did that to me—just your face. There’s magic in you from head to foot—some women are like that, but I’ve never known a woman who had so much of it as you have. You’ll marry someone respectable and prosperous, I suppose, and I shall return to my disreputable life, but I’ll kiss you once before I go—I swear I will.’

‘You can’t do it now,’ said Virginia softly. ‘Superintendent Battle is watching us out of the library window.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“There’s always a way out,” said Anthony gloomily. “I’ve a theory that one can always get anything one wants if one will pay the price. And do you know what the price is, nine times out of ten? Compromise”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“Put not your trust in princes or politicians, as the saying goes.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“morganatic”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“Mind you, I still believe in democracy. But you’ve got to force it on people with a strong hand—ram it down their throats. Men don’t want to be brothers—they may some day, but they don’t now. My final belief in the Brotherhood of Man died the day I arrived in London last week, when I observed the people standing in a Tube train resolutely refuse to move up and make room for those who entered. You won’t turn people into angels by appealing to their better natures just yet awhile—but by judicious force you can coerce them into behaving more or less decently to one another to go on with. I still believe in the Brotherhood of Man, but it’s not coming yet awhile. Say another ten thousand years or so. It’s no good being impatient. Evolution is a slow process.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“You see, the majority of people are always wondering what the neighbours will think. But tramps and aristocrats don’t—they just do the first thing that comes into their heads, and they don’t bother to think what anyone thinks of them. I’m not meaning just the idle rich, the people who give big parties, and so on, I mean those that have had it born and bred in them for generations that nobody else’s opinion counts but their own. I’ve always found the upper classes the same—fearless, truthful and sometimes extraordinarily foolish.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“It’s a very useful thing sometimes, an idea.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“It looks like a hand," he remarked. "But if you say so, I'm quite prepared to admit that it's a Cubist picture of Sunset at the North Pole.”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys

“me to be actually a member of the house”
― Agatha Christie, The Secret of Chimneys