One does see so much evil in a village,' murmured Miss Marple in an explanatory voice.

I, myself, was always recognized . . . as the “slow one” in the family. It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters were without originality. I was . . . an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.

There's too much tendency to attribute to God the evils that man does of his own free will.

The past is the father of the present.

It is completely unimportant. That is why it is so interesting.

It often seems to me that's all detective work is, wiping out your false starts and beginning again." Yes, it is very true, that. And it is just what some people will not do. They conceive a certain theory, and everything has to fit into that theory. If one little fact will not fit it, they throw it aside. But it is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant.

Words, mademoiselle, are only the outer clothing of ideas.