I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.

Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong.

Once I went professionally to an archaeological expedition-and I learnt something there. In the course of an excavation, when something comes up out of the ground, everything is cleared away very carefully all around it. You take away the loose earth, and you scrape here and there with a knife until finally your object is there, all alone, ready to be drawn and photographed with no extraneous matter confusing it. That is what I have been seeking to do-clear away the extraneous matter so that we can see the truth-the naked shining truth.

What's wrong with my proposition?" Poirot rose. "If you will forgive me for being personal-I do not like your face, M. Ratchett.

In my end is my beginning - that's what people are always saying. But what does it mean?

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.

One knows so little. When one knows more it is too late.