They Came to Baghdad Quotes

“Of course she did not like the police,” said Marcus. “Nobody likes the police. I do not like the police. But I have to stand well with them because of my hotel.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“He’s very nice,” said Mrs. Clayton, “but not quite quite, you know. Hasn’t got any idea of culture.” Richard found his room exceedingly comfortable, and his appreciation of Mrs. Clayton as a hostess rose still higher.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“...vanity was a strangely blinding quality. Vanity was the Achilles heel.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“You get mad, perhaps, if you try and act the part of God. They always say humility is a Christian virtue—now I see why. Humility is what keeps you sane and a human being….”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“Though I know I tell an awful lot of lies, I wouldn't really like to do anything that was dishonest.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“Two men were advancing towards the car along the cross track. One man carried a short wooden bench on his back, the other a big wooden object about the size of an upright piano. Richard hailed them, they greeted him with every sign of pleasure. Richard produced cigarettes and a cheerful party spirit seemed to be developing. Then Richard turned to her. “Fond of the cinema? Then you shall see a performance.” He spoke to the two men and they smiled with pleasure. They set up the bench and motioned to Victoria and Richard to sit on it. Then they set up the round contrivance on a stand of some kind. It had two eye-holes in it and as she looked at it, Victoria cried: “It’s like things on piers. What the butler saw.” “That’s it,” said Richard. “It’s a primitive form of same.” Victoria applied her eyes to the glass-fronted peephole, one man began slowly to turn a crank or handle, and the other began a monotonous kind of chant. “What is he saying?” Victoria asked. Richard translated as the singsong chant continued: “Draw near and prepare yourself for much wonder and delight. Prepare to behold the wonders of antiquity.” A crudely coloured picture of Negroes reaping wheat swam into Victoria’s gaze. “Fellahin in America,” announced Richard, translating. Then came: “The wife of the great Shah of the Western world,” and the Empress Eugénie simpered and fingered a long ringlet. A picture of the King’s Palace in Montenegro, another of the Great Exhibition. An odd and varied collection of pictures followed each other, all completely unrelated and sometimes announced in the strangest terms. The Prince Consort, Disraeli, Norwegian Fjords and Skaters in Switzerland completed this strange glimpse of olden far-off days. The showman ended his exposition with the following words: “And so we bring to you the wonders and marvels of antiquity in other lands and far-off places. Let your donation be generous to match the marvels you have seen, for all these things are true.” It was over. Victoria beamed with delight. “That really was marvellous!” she said. “I wouldn’t have believed it.” The proprietors of the travelling cinema were smiling proudly. Victoria got up from the bench and Richard who was sitting on the other end of it was thrown to the ground in a somewhat undignified posture. Victoria apologized but was not ill pleased. Richard rewarded the cinema men and with courteous farewells and expressions of concern for each other’s welfare, and invoking the blessing of God on each other, they parted company. Richard and Victoria got into the car again and the men trudged away into the desert. “Where are they going?” asked Victoria. “They travel all over the country. I met them first in Transjordan coming up the road from the Dead Sea to Amman. Actually they’re bound now for Kerbela, going of course by unfrequented routes so as to give shows in remote villages.” “Perhaps someone will give them a lift?”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“Zabluda da silom možete ljudskom rodu da nametnete blagostanje jedna je od najopasnijih koje postoje. Oni koji su tu samo da bi napunili džepove ne mogu mnogo da naude - puka pohlepa na kraju sama sebi dođe glave. Ali vera u ljude višeg nivoa, u nadljude koji treba da vladaju slabijim ostatkom čovečanstva, to je, Viktorija, najopasnije od svih uverenja. Jer kad kažete "Ja nisam kao drugi" , tada gubite dve najvrednije tekovine kojima smo ikada težili - ravnopravnost i osećaj pripadnosti”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“so where was Anna Scheele? She asked: ‘You really haven’t the”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“Those who are out only to line their own pockets can do little harm—mere greed defeats its own ends. But the belief in a superstratum of human beings—in Supermen to rule the rest of the decadent world—that, Victoria, is the most evil of all beliefs. For when you say, “I am not as other men”—you have lost the two most valuable qualities we have ever tried to attain: humility and brotherhood.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“You seem to be a sensible young woman and I don’t suppose you’ve thought much about world politics which is just as well, because as Hamlet very wisely remarked, ‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“Men were always so superior about women that any slip she did make would be treated less as a suspicious circumstance than as a proof of how ridiculously addlepated all women were!”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“I know everybody says there’s going to be another war sooner or later,” said Victoria. “Exactly,” said Mr. Dakin. “Why does everybody say so, Victoria?” She frowned. “Why, because Russia—the Communists—America—” she stopped.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“What they want is, I fear, the betterment of the world! The delusion that by force you can impose the Millennium on the human race is one of the most dangerous delusions in existence.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad

“The afternoon at the Pyramids was duly enjoyable. Victoria, though reasonably fond of
children, might have enjoyed it more without Mrs. Kitchin’s offspring. Children when sight‐
seeing is in progress are apt to be somewhat of a handicap. The youngest child became so
fretful that the two women returned earlier from the expedition than they had meant to
do.”
― Agatha Christie, They Came to Baghdad