S.S. Van Dine > Quotes

“We all do things in a certain individual way, according to our temperaments.
Every human act — no matter how large or how small— is a direct expression of
a man's personality, and bears the inevitable impress of his nature.”
― S.S. van Dine

“We're all servants. Some to our fellow men. Some to our vices.”
― S.S. Van Dine, Philo Vance 12 Novels Complete Bundle

“Your mind is so typical, Markham. It works on the principle that what you don’t know isn’t knowledge, and that, since you don’t understand a thing, there is no explanation.”
― S.S. Van Dine, The Benson Murder Case

“Don't be confoundedly moral, old thing. Every one's a murderer at heart. The person who has never felt a passionate hankering to kill some one is without emotions. And do you think it's ethics or theology that stays the average person away from homicide? Dear no! It's lack of courage—the fear of being found out, or haunted, or cursed with remorse. Observe with what delight the people en masse—to wit, the state—put men to death and then gloat over it in the newspapers. Nations declare war against one another on the slightest provocation, so they can with immunity, vent their lust for slaughter.”
― S.S Van Dine

“Crimes possess all the basic factors of a work of art—approach, conception, technique, imagination, attack, method, and organization”
― S.S. Van Dine, The Benson Murder Case

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Van Dine S.S > Quotes > Quotable Quote


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“You'll mail me your new address, Dick?" she called back.
"I'll be sending you picture post-cards from Cocos Island. I hope you'll like that, Dick."
A smile of understanding passed between the two.”
― S. S. Van Dine

“But society is ignorant and venomous, devoid of any trace of insight or understanding. It exalts knavery, and worships stupidity. It crucifies the intelligent, and puts the diseased in dungeons.”
― S.S. Van Dine, The Greene Murder Case

“Have you ever stopped to think how much of the world's disturbance is caused by butlers being able to see through keyholes?”
― S.S. Van Dine, Philo Vance 12 Novels Complete Bundle

“There simply must be a corpse in a detective novel, and the deader the corpse the better.”
― S.S. Van Dine

“Redman;”
― S.S. Van Dine, The Garden Murder Case

“Naturally,” Vance replied, “—since it’s an irrelevant factor in most crimes. Every one of us, my dear chap, has just as good a motive for killing at least a score of men as the motives which actuate ninety-nine crimes out of a hundred. And, when anyone is murdered, there are dozens of innocent people who had just as strong a motive for doing it as had the actual murderer. Really, y’ know, the fact that a man has a motive is no evidence whatever that he’s guilty—such motives are too universal a possession of the human race. Suspecting a man of murder because he has a motive is like suspecting a man of running away with another man’s wife because he has two legs.”
― S.S. Van Dine, The Benson Murder Case

“Indra, with his thunderbolt, slew the dragon of drought. Trita, the son of Aptya, also slew a tri-headed dragon named Visvarupa. And there's the story of Keresaspa who slew the dragon Srvra and for whom Zarathustra intervened. Saam, the vassal of Minucihr, met many a dragon, but his great battle was with the one that haunted the river Kashaf. Then”
― S.S. Van Dine, Philo Vance 12 Novels Complete Bundle

“You'll mail me your new address, Dick?" she called back.
"I'll be sending you picture post-cards from Cocos Island. I hope you'll like that, Dick."
A smile of understanding passed between the two.”
― S. S. Van Dine