There is something about conscious tact that is very irritating.

It had come about ex­act­ly in the way things hap­pened in books.

Everybody always knows something," said Adam, "even if it's something they don't know they know.

Beastly things, teeth. Give us trouble from the cradle to the grave.

Never go back to a place where you have been happy. Until you do it remains alive for you. If you go back it will be destroyed.

You are the patient one, Mademoiselle,' said Poirot to Miss Debenham. She shrugged her shoulders slightly. 'What else can one do?' You are a philosopher, Mademoiselle.' That implies a detached attitude. I think my attitude is more selfish. I have learned to save myself useless emotion.

"I think you're begging the question," said Haydock, "and I can see looming ahead one of those terrible exercises in probability where six men have white hats and six men have black hats and you have to work it out by mathematics how likely it is that the hats will get mixed up and in what proportion. If you start thinking about things like that, you would go round the bend. Let me assure you of that!"