Cards on the Table Quotes

“He played the part of the devil too successfully. But he was not the devil. Au fond, he was a stupid man. And so - he died."
"Because he was stupid?"
"It is the sin that is never forgiven and always punished, madame.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Do you believe in the value of truth, my dear, or don’t you?”

“Of course I believe in the truth,” said Rhoda, staring.

“Yes, you say that, but perhaps you haven’t thought about it. The truth hurts sometimes – and destroys one’s illusions.”

“I’d rather have it all the same.” said Rhoda.

“So would I. But I don’t know that we’re wise.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Oh, my dear friend, it is impossible not to give oneself away - unless one never opens one's mouth! Speech is the deadliest of revealers.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“You do not comprehend. It is not the victim who concerns me so much. It is the effect on the character of the slayer."
"What about war?"
"In war you do not exercise the right of private judgement. That is what is so dangerous. Once a man is imbued with the idea that he knows who ought to be allowed to live and who ought not - then he is halfway to becoming the most dangerous killer there is - the arrogant killer who kills not for profit - but for an idea. He has usurped the functions of le bon Dieu.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“I have always disapproved of murder.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“There is the natural liar...Always says the thing that sounds best.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Hercule Poirot spread out his hands in his most foreign manner.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“I can admire the perfect murderer--I can also admire a tiger-- that splendid tawny-striped beast. But I will admire him from outside his cage. I will not go inside.
That is to say, not unless it is my duty to do so. For you see, Mr. Shaitana, the tiger might spring. . . .”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Man is an unoriginal animal," said Hercule Poirot”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“As a matter of fact I don’t care two pins about accuracy. Who is accurate? Nobody nowadays. If a reporter writes that a beautiful girl of twenty-two dies by turning on the gas after looking out over the sea and kissing her favourite Labrador, Bob, goodbye, does anybody make a fuss because the girl was twenty-six, the room faced inland, and the dog was a Sealyham terrier called Bonnie? If a journalist can do that sort of thing I don’t see that it matters if I mix up police ranks and say a revolver when I mean an automatic and a dictograph when I mean a phonograph, and use a poison that just allows you to gasp one dying sentence and no more. What really matters is plenty of bodies! If the thing’s getting a little dull, some more blood cheers it up. Somebody is going to tell something – and then they’re killed first! That always goes down well. It comes in all my books – camouflaged different ways of course. And people like untraceable poisons, and idiotic police inspectors and girls tied up in cellars with sewer gas or water pouring in (such a troublesome way of killing anyone really) and a hero who can dispose of anything from three to seven villains singlehanded.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“But I don't doubt it will be essentially the same type of crime. The details may be different, but the essentials underlying them will be the same. It's odd, but a criminal gives himself away every time by that. Man is an unoriginal animal," said Hercule Poirot.
"Women," said Mrs. Oliver, " are capable of infinite variation. I should never commit the same type of murder twice running."
"Don't you ever write the same plot twice running?" asked Battle.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Every one's got their own ways of working. I know that. I give my inspectors a free hand always. Every one's got to find out for themselves what method suits them best.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Excuse me, Monsieur Poirot. If you'd like to ask any questions, I'm sure the doctor wouldn't mind.

Of course not. Of course not. Great admirer of yours, Monsieur Poirot. Little gray cells -- order and method. I know all about it.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Shaitana was a man who prided himself on his Mephistophelian attitude to life. He was a man of great vanity. He was also a stupid man-that's why he is dead.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“He has neither what I call the outward vision (seeing details all around you what is called an observant person) nor the inner vision--concentration, the focusing of the mind on one object. He has a purposefully limited vision. He sees only what blends and harmonises with the bent of his mind.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Tea Interlude”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“The caught murderer is necessarily one of the failures. He is second-rate.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“I'm not the head of Scotland Yard," said Mrs. Oliver, retreating from dangerous ground. "I'm a private individual -"

"Oh, you're not that," said Rhoda, confusedly complimentary.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Secret Service, I suppose," said Mrs. Oliver. "You can't tell me so, I know, but he wouldn't have been asked otherwise this evening. The four murderers and the four sleuths - Scotland Yard. Secret Service. Private. Fiction. A clever idea.”
― Agatha Christie , Cards on the Table

“إن الحياة تجربة شاقة .. ولسوف تعرفين هذه الحقيقة حين تصلين إلى مثل سني ..إن الحياة تتطلب شجاعة وصبرا..ومتى وصل الإنسان إلى نهاية الرحلة فإنه لا يتمالك من أن يسأل: هل تساوي الحياة كل هذا..؟”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Anne’s awfully sensitive,’ said Rhoda. ‘And she’s bad about—well, facing things. If anything’s upset her, she’d just rather not talk about it,”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“He was a man of whom nearly everybody was a little afraid. Why this last was so can hardly be stated in definite words. There was a feeling, perhaps, that he knew a little too much about everybody. And there was a feeling, too, that his sense of humor was a curious one.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“insanın en büyük düşmanı dilidir.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“That is Mrs Oliver,’ said Poirot. ‘The one who wrote The Body in the Library?”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Oh,” said Rhoda, a little taken aback. “Because it must. It must be wonderful just to sit down and write off a whole book.” “It doesn’t happen exactly like that,” said Mrs. Oliver. “One actually has to think, you know. And thinking is always a bore. And you have to plan things. And then one gets stuck every now and then, and you feel you’ll never get out of the mess—but you do! Writing’s not particularly enjoyable. It’s hard work like everything else.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Life is a difficult business,’ said Mrs Lorrimer. ‘You’ll know that when you come to my age. It needs infinite courage and a lot of endurance. And in the end one wonders: “Was it worth while?”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“Well, you see, I’m not really terribly interested in crime. I don’t think women are: it’s always men who read detective stories.”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“As well as be killed one way as another. The moment you begin being careful of yourself adopting as your motto, Safety First, you might as well be dead in my opinion,”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“They won’t know. Who’s to tell them? Nobody knows but you.” It was the second time she had said those words. At this second repetition her voice changed a little”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table

“She returned that intent gaze quietly and without any nervousness. He said at last:”
― Agatha Christie, Cards on the Table