Fer-de-Lance Quotes

“[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“You know what my boss says? He says that skepticism is a good watchdog if you know when to take the leash off.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“To pronounce French properly you must have within you a deep antipathy, not to say scorn, for some of the most sacred of the Anglo-Saxon prejudices.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“As long as I live I'll never forget the time he had a bank president pinched, or rather I did, on no evidence whatever except that the fountain pen on his desk was dry. I was never so relieved in my life as when the guy shot himself an hour later.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“but I had long since learned from Wolfe that the corner the light doesn’t reach is the one the dime rolled to.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“I have just been explaining to Mr. Anderson that the ingenious theory of the Barstow case which he is trying to embrace is an offense to truth and an outrage on justice, and since I cherish the one and am on speaking terms with the other, it is my duty to demonstrate to him its inadequacy.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“Third, I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“...it is our good fortune that the exigencies of birth and training furnish all of us with the opportunities for snobbery.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“... nature has arranged that when you overcome a given inertia the resulting momentum is proportionate. If I were to begin borrowing money I would end by devising means of persuading the Secretary of the Treasury to lend me the gold reserve.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“You are so engrossed in the fact that you are oblivious to its environment”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“To pronounce French properly you must have within you a deep antipathy, not to say scorn, for some of the most sacred of the Anglo-Saxon prejudices. In some manner you manage without that scorn, I do not quite know how. Yes, fer-de-lance. Bothrops atrox. Except for the bushmaster, it is the most dreaded of all the vipers.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“pronounce French properly you must have within you a deep antipathy, not to say scorn, for some of the most sacred of the Anglo-Saxon prejudices. In some manner you manage without that scorn, I do not quite know how. Yes, fer-de-lance. Bothrops atrox. Except for the bushmaster, it is the most dreaded of all the vipers.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“No, Archie. It is always wiser, where there is a choice, to trust to inertia. It is the greatest force in the world.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“Instead I’ll answer your question. I shall not see Mr. Anderson for three reasons: first, being still in bed I am undressed and in an ugly temper. Second, you can do our business with him just as well. Third, I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action. Go. At once.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“Wolfe was as nice as pie that evening. I got home in time to eat dinner with him. He wouldn’t let me say anything about White Plains until the meal was over; in fact, there wasn’t any conversation to speak of about anything, for he had the radio going. He was accustomed to say that this was the perfect era for the sedentary man; formerly such a man could satisfy any amount of curiosity regarding bygone times by sitting down with Gibbon or Ranke or Tacitus or Greene but if he wanted to meet his contemporaries he had to take to the highways, whereas the man of today, tiring for the moment of Galba or Vitellius, had only to turn on the radio and resume his chair.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“No. You misunderstand me. I mean it's too bad that you are dealing with me. I am perhaps the only man on this hemisphere whom your courage and wit cannot defeat, and by incredibly bad luck you find yourself confronted by me. I am sorry; but just as you have assumed a task suitable for your abilities, I have found one congenial for mine.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“I grinned at him. 'You're a skeptic, Mike. You know what my boss says? He says that skepticism is a good watchdog if you know when to take the leash off.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“He looked worried but amused, as if someone had just told him a funny story but he had a toothache.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“There is no danger in me to the innocent.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“Good day, Miss Fiore. I have paid you a rare compliment; I have assumed that you mean what you say.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“I grinned at him. 'That's a help. What else did you read?'

'A few interesting things. Many tiresome ones.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“... he went on to say―not for the first time for that either―that he would not insult me by acknowledging my flattery, since if it was sincere I was a fool and if it was calculated I was a knave.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“Must I again remind you, Archie, of the reaction you would have got if you had asked Velasquez to explain why Aesop's hand was resting inside his robe instead of hanging by his side? Must I again demonstrate that while it is permissible to request the scientist to lead you back over his footprints, a similar request of the artist is nonsense, since he, like the lark or the eagle, has made none? Do you need to be told again that I am an artist?”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“When I'm driving I don't see much of anything except the road, for I have the type of mind that gets on a job and stays there until it's time for another one.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“burst”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“calm.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“The corner the light doesn’t reach is the one the dime rolled to.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“Tell Fritz there will be guests at lunch. What do boys of that age eat?” “They eat everything.” “Tell Fritz to have that.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance

“but I knew from long experience that you never knew when you were going to run up against someone with as many feet as a centipede and all of them reluctant.”
― Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance