The Clocks Quotes

“It is clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying, and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“To every problem, there is a most simple solution.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“One gets infected, it is true, by the style of a work that one has been reading.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Inside, it was clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“He’s not dead. But I have a feeling he’s bored. That’s worse.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“I think you are wise. You haven't got what it takes for this job. You are like Rosemary's father. He couldn't understand Lenin's dictum: 'Away with softness.'"
I thought of Hercule Poirot's words.
"I'm content," I said, "to be human...."
We sat there in silence, each of use convinced that the other's point of view was wrong.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“I looked at her. Sheila was my girl--the girl I wanted--and wanted for keeps. But it wasn't any use having illusions about her. Sheila was a liar and probably always would be a liar. It was her way of fighting for survival--the quick easy glib denial. It was a child's weapon--and she'd probably never got out of using it. If I wanted Sheila, I must accept her as she was--be at hand to prop up the weak places. We've all got our weak places. Mine were different from Sheila's, but they were there.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Edna restored the toffee to the centre of her tongue and sucking pleasurably, resumed her typing of Naked Love by Armand Levine. Its painstaking eroticism left her uninterested--as indeed it did most of Mr. Levine's readers, in spite of his efforts. He was a notable example of the fact that nothing can be duller than dull pornography.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“What an absurdity to go and bury oneself in South America, where they are always having revolutions.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Me and my old man went on a coach trip to Switzerland and Italy once and it was a whole hour further on there. Must be something to do with this Common Market. I don't hold with the Common Market and nor does Mr. Curtain. England's good enough for me.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Inspector Hardcastle walked in manfully. Unfortunately for him he was one of those men who have cat allergy. As usually happens on these occasions all the cats immediately made for him. One jumped on his knee, another rubbed affectionately against his trousers. Detective Inspector Hardcastle, who was a brave man, set his lips and endured.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“... but the unlikely happened more often than one would be disposed to believe.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” he murmured lovingly, and even uttered reverently the one word, “Maître!” “Sherlock Holmes?” I asked. “Ah, non, non, not Sherlock Holmes! It is the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that I salute. These tales of Sherlock Holmes are in reality farfetched, full of fallacies and most artificially contrived. But the art of the writing—ah, that is entirely different. The pleasure of the language, the creation above all of that magnificent character, Dr. Watson. Ah, that was indeed a triumph.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“-'Why must it be simple?'
' Because it appears so complex. If it has necessarily to appear complex, it must be simple. You comprehend that?”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“I have read also," he said, "some of the early works of Mrs.Ariadne Oliver. She is by way of being a friend of mine,and of yours, I think. I do not wholly approve of her works, mind you. The happenings in them are highly improbable. The long arm of coincidence is far too freely employed. And being young at the time, she was foolish enough to make her detective a Finn, and it is clear that she knows nothing about Finns or Finland except possibly the works of Sibelius.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“there was a girl who discovered the body.” “What did she do when she discovered it?” “Screamed.” “Very nice too,”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“What are all these people, by the way?” “They’re people whose gardens verge on or touch the garden of the house where the murder was committed.” “Sounds like a French exercise,” said Beck. “Where is the dead body of my uncle? In the garden of the cousin of my aunt. What about Number 19 itself?” “A blind woman, a former school teacher, lives there. She works in an institute for the blind and she’s been thoroughly investigated by the local police.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“He’s got a wife,” I said. “Quite a nice wife, and two obstreperous children—boys.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Always going off somewhere. Dams, you know. I’m not swearing, my dear,” he assured his wife. “I mean jobs to do with the building of dams, or else it’s oil or pipelines or something like that.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“She looked anaemic, and had all the airs of an invalid who accepts her invalidism with a certain amount of enjoyment.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“What’s his name?” “Hercule Poirot.” “I’ve heard of him. I thought he was dead.” “He’s not dead. But I have a feeling he’s bored. That’s worse.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“When you’ve got it into your head that a fellow is a thoroughly good chap, it doesn’t occur to you that he mightn’t be.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“It seemed unnecessary for her to have had a premonition at all.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Modesty was certainly not Hercule
Poirot's strong point.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Always keep your money in your hands and then you'll be sure you've got it! I've seen too many girls and women make fools of themselves.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Ah, non, non, not Sherlock Holmes! It is the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, that I salute. These tales of Sherlock Holmes are in reality farfetched, full of fallacies and most artificially contrived. But the art of the writing ah, that is entirely different.
The pleasure of the language, the creation above all of that magnificent character, Dr. Watson. Ah, that was indeed a triumph.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Miss Waterhouse was tall, angular, and the kind of woman with no nonsense about her who is extremely intolerant of nonsense in others.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“It was necessary to sidle since precariously arranged books impinged more and more every day on the passageway from the street. Inside, it was clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down. The distance between bookshelves was so narrow that you could only get along with great difficulty. There were piles of books perched on every shelf or table. On a stool in a corner, hemmed in by books, was an old man in a pork-pie hat with a large flat face like a stuffed fish.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“gazing over the heads of the crowd with that complete disdain for the human race that is the special prerogative of cats and camels.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“Don’t worry,” I said. (Surely the most fatuous words in the English or any other language”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks