Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17) QUOTES

1 " I'm sorry, but I do hate this differentiation between the sexes. 'The modern girl has a thoroughly businesslike attitude to life' That sort of thing. It's not a bit true! Some girls are businesslike and some aren't. Some men are sentimental and muddle-headed, others are clear-headed and logical. There are just different types of brains. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

2 " I believe at least in one of the chief tenets of the Christian faith--contentment with a lowly place. I am a doctor and I know that ambition--the desire to succeed--to have power--leads to most ills of the human soul. If the desire is realized it leads to arrogance, violence and final satiety; and if it is denied--ah! if it is denied--let all the asylums for the insane rise up and give their testimony! The are filled with human beings who were unable to face being mediocre, insignificant, ineffective and who therefore created for themselves ways of escape from reality so to be shut off from life itself forever. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

3 " The illusion that freedom is the prerogative of one’s own particular race is fairly widespread. Dr Gerard was wiser. He knew that no race, no country and no individual could be described as free. But he also knew that there were different degrees of bondage. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

4 " They have been in prison so long that, if the prison door stands open, they would no longer notice! "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

5 " The illusion that freedom is the prerogative of one's own particular race is fairly widespread. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

6 " Poirot sa: - Offerets moralske karakter har intet med saken å gjøre. Et menneske som har gjort noe så uhyrlig som å ta et annet menneskes liv, kan ikke få lov til å gå løs i samfunnet. Det sier jeg, Hercule Poirot, og det er min uforgripelige mening. Nå og alltid. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

7 " We will make them tell us what it is," said Poirot.
"Third degree?" said Colonel Carbury.
"No." Poirot shook his head. "Just ordinary conversation. On the whole, you know, people tell you the truth. Because it is easier! Because it is less strain on the inventive faculties! You can tell one lie - or two lies - or three lies or even four lies - but you cannot lie all the time. And so - the truth becomes plain. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

8 " I feel that if I could sweep all this away . . . all the buildings and the sects and the fierce squabbling churches . . . that I might see Christ's quiet figure riding into Jerusalem on a donkey--and believe in him. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

9 " Wardress in a prison,was she, that old hippopotamus? That is significant, perhaps."
Sarah said:
"You mean that that is the cause of her tyranny? It is the habit of her former profession."
Gerard shook his head.
"No, that is approaching it from the wrong angle. There is some deep underlying compulsion. She does not love tyranny because she has been a wardress. Let us rather say that she became a wardress because she loved tyranny. In my theory it was a secret desire for power over other human beings that led her to adopt that profession."
His face was very grave.
"There are such strange things buried down in the unconscious. A lust for power - a lust for cruelty - a savage desire to tear and rend - all the inheritance of our past racial memories...They are all there, Miss King, all the cruelty and savagery and lust...We shut the door on them and deny them conscious life, but sometimes - they are too strong."
Sarah shivered. "I know."
Gerard continued: "We see it all around us today - in political creeds, in the conduct of nations. A reaction from humanitarianism - from pity - from brotherly good-will. The creeds sound well sometimes - a wise régime - a beneficent government - but imposed by force - resting on a basis of cruelty and fear. They are opening the door, these apostles of violence, they are letting up the old savagery, the old delight in cruelty for its own sake! Oh, it is difficult - Man is an animal very delicately balanced. He has one prime necessity - to survive. To advance too quickly is as fatal as to lag behind. He must survive! He must, perhaps, retain some of the old savagery, but he must not - no definitely he must not - deify it! "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

10 " The moral character of the victim has nothing to do with it! A human being who has exercised the right of private judgment and taken the life of another human being is not safe to exist amongst the community. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

11 " Sarah King looked long and searchingly at Hercule Poirot. She noted the egg-shaped head, the gigantic moustaches, the dandified appearance and the suspicious blackness of hair. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

12 " His smile continued as he remembered a story he had once heard concerning Anthony Trollope the novelist. Trollope was crossing the Atlantic at the time and had overheard two fellow passengers discussing the last published installment of one of his novels. ‘Very good,’ one man had declared. ‘But he ought to kill off that tiresome old woman.’ With a broad smile the novelist had addressed them: ‘Gentlemen, I am much obliged to you! I will go and kill her immediately! "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

13 " There was no self-consciousness in Sarah's manner. There was, indeed, no self-consciousness in her attitude to life. She was interested in humanity and was of a friendly though impatient disposition.
"What made you speak to him?" asked Gerard.
Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "Why not? I often speak to people traveling.
I'm interested in people-in what they do and think and feel. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

14 " The desire, profound and pitiful, to be appreciated. If that is thwarted, if through an unpleasing personality a human being is unable to get the response it needs, it turns to other methods—it must be felt—it must count—and so to innumerable strange perversions. The habit of cruelty, like any other habit, can be cultivated, can take hold of one— "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

15 " Kematian malah bisa berarti kehidupan yang lebih berarti. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

16 " Lady Westholme, who, being a true politician, had no sense of humour, "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)

17 " They turned me out of one place today because I had on a sleeveless dress,’ she said ruefully. ‘Apparently the Almighty doesn’t like my arms in spite of having made them. "

― Agatha Christie , Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #17)