The Sittaford Mystery Quotes

“Never part with information unnecessarily. That's my rule,”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Nobody understands the art of living nowadays,... Catching trains, making appointments, fixing times for everything—all nonsense. Get up with the sun I say, have your meals when you feel like it, and never tie yourself to a time or a date. I could teach people how to live if they would listen to me.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“It was so hard to get an idea of people you had never seen. You had to rely on other people's judgment. ... Other people's impressions were no good to you. They might be just as true as yours but you couldn't act on them. You couldn't, as it were, use
another person's angle of attack.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“People don't do things without a reason.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“To cry at will is not an easy accomplishment.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“The Captain's habit of letting off a revolver at real or imaginary cats was a sore trial to his neighbours.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Mr Rycroft said nothing. It was so difficult not to say the wrong thing to Captain Wyatt that it was usually safer not to reply at all.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“I help those who can help themselves.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“In some ways I really think that men are beasts.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“What an awful place to live in England is,... If it isn't snowing or raining or blowing it's misty. And if the sun does shine it's so cold that you can't feel your fingers or toes.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Sloppy crying had never helped anyone yet.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“I suppose that one can, if one has the determination, always get something out of life.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“You won’t tell anyone, will you?’ began Emily, knowing well that of all openings on earth this one is the most certain to provoke interest and sympathy.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“And here Emily began to cry. She had, earlier in the day, announced her intention to Charles Enderby of doing so, but what appalled her so was with what ease the tears came. To cry at will is not an easy accomplishment. There was something much too real about these tears. It frightened her. She mustn’t really give way. Giving way wasn’t the least use to Jim. To be resolute, logical and clear-sighted—these were the qualities that were going to count in this game. Sloppy crying had never helped anyone yet.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“It is fairly safe to say that there were only three topics of conversation at present in Sittaford. One was the murder, one was the escape of the convict, and the other was Miss Emily Trefusis and her cousin. Indeed at a certain moment, four separate conversations were going on with her as their main theme.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Getting soft—that's the curse of the present day.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“I help those who can help themselves”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“I've read some really amazing things in the Daily Wire—things you wouldn't credit if a newspaper didn't print them.'

'Are they any more to be credited on that account?' inquired Mr. Rycroft acidly.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Her voice had that faintly complaining note in it which is about the most annoying sound a human voice can contain.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“A young man in evening dress was standing in the middle of the room. He was good-looking, indeed handsome, if you took no account of the rather weak mouth and the irresolute slant of the eye. He had a haggard, worried look and an air of not having had much sleep of late.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“At that moment the door opened and a young woman walked into the room. She was, as the observant Inspector Narracott noted at once, a very exceptional kind of young woman. She was not strikingly beautiful, but she had a face which was arresting and unusual, a face that having once seen you could not forget. There was about her an atmosphere of common sense, savoir faire, invincible determination and a most tantalizing fascination.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Emily paused. What she really wanted was to engage Mr Enderby as a kind of private sleuth of her own. To go where she told him, to ask the questions she wanted asked, and in general to be a kind of bond slave. But she was aware of the necessity of couching these proposals in terms at once flattering and agreeable. The whole point was that she was to be the boss, but the matter needed managing tactfully.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“She had a lovely voice, liquid and alluring. As she uttered the last sentence a feeling rose in Mr Enderby’s bosom that this lovely helpless girl could depend upon him to the last ditch.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Emily had the kind of personality that soars triumphantly over all obstacles.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Inspector Narracott was a very efficient officer. He had a quiet persistence, a logical mind and a keen attention to detail which brought him success where many another man might have failed. He was a tall man with a quiet manner, rather far-away grey eyes, and a slow soft Devonshire voice.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“But argument and entreaty had no more effect on Major Burnaby than if he were a rock. He was an obstinate man. Once his mind was made up on any point, no power on earth could move him.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“Emily laughed. Bending over she kissed the old lady. ‘Don’t pretend to be an idiot,’ she said. ‘You know perfectly well which it is.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“It’s been going on a long time. I can tell you it’s a difficult thing to go on really liking a man who can do everything just a little bit better than you can. Burnaby was a narrow-minded, small-natured man. He let it get on his nerves.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“It was a crowd of people almost too surprised for words that crowded round Emily Trefusis. Inspector Narracott had led his prisoner from the room. Charles Enderby found his voice first.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery

“The idea that he might not be welcome did not seem to occur to him.”
― Agatha Christie, The Sittaford Mystery