The Complete Miss Marple Collection Quotes

“It’s curious,” I said slowly. “Miss Marple was saying this evening that that note was all wrong.” “Confound the woman, she couldn’t know more about it if she had committed the murder herself.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“The new world was the same as the old. The houses were different, the streets were called Closes, the clothes were different, the voices were different, but the human beings were the same as they always had been. And though using slightly different phraseology, the subjects of conversation were the same.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Human nature, dear, is very much the same everywhere. It is more difficult to observe it closely in a city, that is all.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“The breaking of a piece of bad news nearly always sets up a defence reaction. It numbs the recipient. They are unable—at first—to take it in. Full realization takes a little time.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“It is a pity that I am such a shocking housekeeper,” said my wife, with a tinge of genuine regret in her voice. I was inclined to agree with her. My wife’s name is Griselda—a highly suitable name for a parson’s wife. But there the suitability ends. She is not in the least meek.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“These women all lose their heads over a good-looking clergyman. You hear of it over and over again.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Everyone’s life has a tempo. Ruth’s was presto whereas Miss Marple’s was content to be adagio.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“I often wonder why the whole world is so prone to generalize. Generalizations are seldom if ever true and are usually utterly inaccurate. I”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“felt rather remorseful when he had gone for not liking him better. These irrational likes and dislikes that one takes to people are, I am sure, very unChristian.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“In the end she gave in—but unfortunately ten days before they were to have been married she ran away with the chauffeur!”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Those quiet ones are often the worst. Jane Marple always says so.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Young people belong to their generation. We may think they’re unwise in many of their doings, but we have to accept their decisions.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Sanders was hanged,” said Miss Marple crisply. “And a good job too. I have never regretted my part in bringing that man to justice. I’ve no patience with modern humanitarian scruples about capital punishment.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“I have had too much experience of life to believe in the infallibility of doctors. Some of them are clever men and some of them are not, and half the time the best of them don’t know what is the matter with you. I have no truck with doctors and their medicines myself.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“I regard St. Mary Mead,” he said authoritatively, “as a stagnant pool.” He looked at us, prepared for resentment at his statement, but somewhat, I think, to his chagrin, no one displayed annoyance. “That is really not a very good simile, dear Raymond,” said Miss Marple briskly. “Nothing, I believe, is so full of life under the microscope as a drop of water from a stagnant pool.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Mrs. Dane Calthrop is a very remarkable woman, you know. She’s nearly always right.” “It makes her rather alarming,” I said. “Sincerity has that effect,” said Miss Marple.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Fear—in a lunatic brain….”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“You bet it does. Do you like detective stories? I do. I read them all, and I’ve got autographs from Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie and Dickson Carr and H. C. Bailey. Will the murder be in the papers?”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Most peculiar, the way people danced nowadays. Flinging themselves about, seeming quite contorted. Oh well, young people must enjoy—”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Well, perhaps you did,” said Miss Marple. “I suppose it was a break in the monotony. What play were you acting in?” “Smith.” “Oh, yes. That’s one of Mr. Somerset Maugham’s, isn’t it? All his are very clever, I think. I’ve seen them nearly all.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Everyone made encouraging but slightly hypocritical noises. Colonel Bantry, Mrs. Bantry, Sir Henry Clithering, Dr. Lloyd and old Miss Marple were one and all convinced that Jane’s “friend” was Jane herself. She would have been quite incapable of remembering or taking an interest in anything affecting anyone else. “My friend,” went on Jane, “(I won’t mention her name) was an actress—a very well-known actress.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“But I came to it at last through pursuing the rule I have just mentioned. And I was forced to recognize this: That every army and every navy and every police force has a certain number of traitors within its ranks, much as we hate to admit the idea.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Yes, so it appears. But you can look at the thing from another angle. Fräulein Greta was his niece and a very lovely girl, but the War has shown us time and again that brother can turn against sister, or father against son and so on, and the loveliest and gentlest of young girls did some of the most amazing things.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Sir Henry Clithering, ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard, sat silent, twisting his moustache—or rather stroking it—and half smiling, as though at some inward thought that amused him. “Sir Henry,” said Mrs. Bantry at last. “If you don’t say something I shall scream. Are there a lot of crimes that go unpunished, or are there not?”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“We don’t get much in the creepy line—and still less in the criminal line—in St. Mary Mead, you know, Miss Helier,” said Dr. Lloyd. “You surprise me,” said Sir Henry Clithering. The ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard turned to Miss Marple. “I always understood from our friend here that St. Mary Mead is a positive hotbed of crime and vice.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“That is where you make a mistake, dear,” said Miss Marple. “Everybody is very much alike, really. But fortunately, perhaps, they don’t realize it.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Now, as I expect you know, there is nothing more cruel than talk, and there is nothing more difficult to combat. When people say things behind your back there is nothing you can refute or deny, and the rumours go on growing and growing, and no one can stop them. I was quite certain of one thing: Mabel was quite incapable of poisoning anyone.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“It is about ten or fifteen years ago now, and happily it is all over and done with, and everyone has forgotten about it. People’s memories are very short—a lucky thing, I always think.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“Now, you are laughing at me, my dears,” said Miss Marple placidly. “You think that because I have lived in this out-of-the-way spot all my life I am not likely to have had any very interesting experiences.” “God forbid that I should ever regard village life as peaceful and uneventful,” said Raymond with fervour. “Not after the horrible revelations we have heard from you! The cosmopolitan world seems a mild and peaceful place compared with St. Mary Mead.”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection

“One would know better nowadays,” he said, “owing to the prevalence of detective fiction. Every street boy knows that a body must be left where it is found. But in these days we had not the same knowledge, and accordingly we carried the body”
― Agatha Christie, The Complete Miss Marple Collection