Ayesha > Ayesha's Quotes

“The image of a wood has appeared often enough in English verse. It has indeed appeared so often that it has gathered a good deal of verse into itself; so that it has become a great forest where, with long leagues of changing green between them, strange episodes of poetry have taken place. Thus in one part there are lovers of a midsummer night, or by day a duke and his followers, and in another men behind branches so that the wood seems moving, and in another a girl separated from her two lordly young brothers, and in another a poet listening to a nightingale but rather dreaming richly of the grand art than there exploring it, and there are other inhabitants, belonging even more closely to the wood, dryads, fairies, an enchanter's rout. The forest itself has different names in different tongues- Westermain, Arden, Birnam, Broceliande; and in places there are separate trees named, such as that on the outskirts against which a young Northern poet saw a spectral wanderer leaning, or, in the unexplored centre of which only rumours reach even poetry, Igdrasil of one myth, or the Trees of Knowledge and Life of another. So that indeed the whole earth seems to become this one enormous forest, and our longest and most stable civilizations are only clearings in the midst of it.”
― Charles Williams, The Figure of Beatrice: A Study in Dante

“An hour's conversation on literature between two ardent minds with a common devotion to a neglected poet is a miraculous road to intimacy.”
― Charles Williams, War in Heaven

“The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse.”
― Charles Walter Stansby Williams, War in Heaven

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
― Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock

“Great minds are always feared by lesser minds.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“The more you know, the more you know you don't know.”
― Aristotle

“Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking."
"An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.”
― Agatha Christie, Peril at End House

“You gave too much rein to your imagination. Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master. The simplest explanation is always the most likely.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“Ten little Indian boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little Indian boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little Indian boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little Indian boys walking in the Zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Indian boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one.
One little Indian boy left all alone; He went and hanged himself and then there were none.”
― Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None

“One of the saddest things in life, is the things one remembers.”
― Agatha Christie

“Sometimes I feel sure he is as mad as a hatter and then, just as he is at his maddest, I find there is a method in his madness.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“Mr. Satterthwaite looked cheered.

Suddenly an idea struck him. His jaw fell.

"My goodness," he cried, "I've only just realized it! That rascal, with his poisoned cocktail! Anyone might have drunk it! It might have been me!"

"There is an even more terrible possibility that you have not considered," said Poirot.

"Eh?"

"It might have been me," said Hercule Poirot.”
― Agatha Christie, Three Act Tragedy

“Words, madmoiselle, are only the outer clothing of ideas.”
― Agatha Christie, The A.B.C. Murders

“The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

“As a matter of fact it wouldn’t be safe to tell any man the truth about his wife! Funnily enough, I’d trust most women with the truth about their husbands. Women can accept the fact that a man is a rotter, a swindler, a drug taker, a confirmed liar, and a general swine, without batting an eyelash, and without its impairing their affection for the brute in the least. Women are wonderful realists.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia

“To every problem, there is a most simple solution.”
― Agatha Christie, The Clocks

“The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.”
― Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

“If you are to be Hercule Poirot, you must think of everything.”
― Agatha Christie

“Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“Everybody always knows something," said Adam, "even if it's something they don't know they know.”
― Agatha Christie, Cat Among the Pigeons

“Everyone is a potential murderer-in everyone there arises from time to time the wish to kill-though not the will to kill.”
― Agatha Christie, Curtain

“Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“It's like all those quiet people, when they do lose their tempers they lose them with a vengeance.”
― Agatha Christie, The A.B.C. Murders

“An appreciative listener is always stimulating.”
― Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“No, my friend, I am not drunk. I have just been to the dentist, and need not return for another six months! Is it not the most beautiful thought?
--Poirot”
― Agatha Christie, One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

“Hercule Poirot: I am an imbecile. I see only half of the picture.
Miss Lemon: I don't even see that.”
― Agatha Christie

“It is completely unimportant. That is why it is so interesting.”
― Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

“It is the brain, the little gray cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within--not without." ~ Poirot”
― Agatha Christie

“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.”
― Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile