Hercule Poirot's Christmas Quotes

“It is the quietest and meekest people who are often capable of the most sudden and unexpected violence for the reason that when their control does snap, it goes entirely.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“In conversation, points arise! If a human being converses much, it is impossible for him to avoid the truth!”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c'est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy!”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“I believe the present matters --- not the past! The past must go. If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it. We see it in exaggerated terms --- a false perspective.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Pilar said soberly: "The world is very cruel to women. They must do what they can for themselves - while they are young. When they are old and ugly no one will help them.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“I believe the present matters - not the past! The past must go. If we seek to keep the past alive, we end, I think, by distorting it. We see it in exaggerated terms - a false perspective.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“He said, and there was a wistful note in his voice: ‘It is true that your moustache is superb…Tell me, do you use for it a special pomade?’
‘Pomade? Good lord, no!’
‘What do you use?’
‘Use? Nothing at all. It—it just grows.’
Poirot sighed.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“I am pointing to you that under these conditions--mental strain, physical malaise--it is highly probable that dislikes that were before merely mild and disagreements that were trivial might suddenly assume a more serious note. The result of pretending to be a more amiable, a more forgiving, a more high-minded person than one really is, has sooner or later the effect of causing one to behave as a more disagreeable, a more ruthless and an altogether more unpleasant person than is actually the case!
If you dam the stream of natural behavior, mon ami, sooner or later the dam bursts and cataclysm occurs.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“I know enough of life to know that you can never judge any case on its outside merits.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“But all the same, it is true what I say--artificial conditions bring about their natural reaction.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“And families now, families who have been separated throughout the year, assemble once more together. Now under these conditions, my friend, you must admit that there will occur a great amount of strain. People who do not feel amiable are putting great pressure on themselves to appear amiable! There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c'est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Marriage is an extraordinary thing—and I doubt if any outsider—even a child of the marriage—has the right to judge.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Ah, but you must have a Christmas uncomplicated by murder.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Hercule Poirot stared hard at Superintendent Sugden’s moustache. Its luxuriance seemed to fascinate him.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Mon cher, everyone lies—in parts like the egg of the English curate. It is profitable to separate the harmless lies from the vital ones.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“And families now, families who have been separated throughout the year, assemble once more together. Now under these conditions, my friend, you must admit that there will occur a great amount of strain. People who do not feel amiable are putting great pressure on themselves to appear amiable! There is at Christmastime a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c’est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy!”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Everyone must die! That is so, is it not? If it comes quickly from the sky—bouff—like that, it is as well as any other way. One is alive for a time—yes, and then one is dead. That is what happens in this world.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“It is the quietest and meekest people who are often capable of the most sudden and unexpected violence for the reason that when their control does snap, it does so entirely!”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Do you mean to tell me, Superintendent, that this is one of those damned cases you get in detective stories where a man is killed in a locked room by some apparently supernatural agency.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“It is so unkind--' 'Perhaps. But sometimes a compulsion comes over one to speak the truth!”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Take what you like and pay for it, says God.
(Spanish proverb)”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Si tratamos de mantener vivo el pasado, acabamos desfigurándolo.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“In Spain we have a proverb. It is like this: “Take what you like and pay for it, says God.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“The world, I always think, is as you yourself make it.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“As pessoas mais caladas e submissas são muitas vezes capazes da violência mais repentina e inesperada, pois quando perdem o controle, elas o perdem por inteiro!”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“In Spain we have a proverb. It is like this: Take what you like and pay for it, says God.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Comprendo que ha tenido que hacer las veces de madre de su marido, cuando su mayor deseo hubiera sido ser simplemente su esposa.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“Lydia said sharply: “No. Evil is not only in ones mind — evil exists. You seem to have no consciousness of the evilness in the world. I have. I can feel it.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“—Creo en el presente (…). No en el pasado. El pasado debe olvidarse. Si tratamos de mantener vivo el pasado, acabamos desfigurándolo. Lo vemos en términos exagerados, desde una falsa perspectiva.
—Puedo recordar perfectamente todos los invidentes y palabras de aquellos días (…).
—Sí, pero no debieras recordarlos. No es natural. Estás aplicando a aquellos días el juicio de un niño, en vez de mirarlos con los ojos de un hombre.”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas

“The result of pretending to be a more amiable, a more forgiving, a more high-minded person than one really is, has sooner or later the effect of causing one to behave as a more disagreeable, a more ruthless and an altogether more unpleasant person than is actually the case! If you dam the stream of natural behaviour, mon ami, sooner or later the dam bursts and a cataclysm occurs!”
― Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas