“I really cannot understand the point of what you're saying. Really,' said Clotilde, looking at her. 'What a very extraordinary person you are. What sort of a woman are you? Why are you talking like this? Who are you?'
Miss Marple pulled down the mass of pink wool that encircled her head, a pink wool scarf of the same kind that she had once worn in the West Indies.
'One of my names,' she said, 'is Nemesis.'
'Nemesis? And what does that mean?'
'I think you know,' said Miss Marple. 'You are a very well educated woman. Nemesis is long delayed sometimes, but it comes in the end.”
“Any coincidencce is worth noticing. You can throw it away later if it is only a coincidence.”
“I know when a couple are really in love with each other. And by that I do not mean just sexually attracted. There is too much talk about sex, too much attention is paid to it. I do not mean that anything about sex is wrong. That is nonsense. But sex cannot take the place of love, it goes with love, but cannot succeed by itself.”
“Very unfortunately, she had no husband. She had never had a husband, and therefore did not kill a husband.”
“Accuracy is more a male quality than a female one. - Jane Marple”
“I know he'll probably always be like it, but I love him. I may be able to help him and I may not. But I'll take that risk.”
“Who was there to guard youth from pain and death - youth who could not, who had never been able to, guard itself? Did they know too little? Or was it that they knew too much, and therefore thought they knew it all?”
“There is too much talk about sex, too much attention is paid to it. I do not mean that anything about sex is wrong. That is nonsense. But sex cannot take the place of love, it goes with love but it cannot succeed by itself. To love means the words of the marriage service. For better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. That is what you take on if you love and wish to marry.”
“you prefer to continue knitting, that is your decision. If you prefer to serve the cause of justice, I hope that you may at least find it interesting. Let justice roll down like waters. And righteousness like an everlasting stream. Amos.”
“They wish not to become adult—not to have to accept our kind of responsibility. And yet like all children, they want to be thought grown up, and free to do what they think are grown up things. And that leads sometimes to tragedy and sometimes to the aftermath of tragedy.”
“So many things are difficult,” said Miss Marple. It was a useful phrase which she used often.”
“To-tre dager senere mottok frøken Marple et brev med ettermiddagsposten. Hun tok det opp, og som vanlig snudde hun det, kikket på poststempelet og håndskriften, kom til at det ikke var en regning og åpnet konvolutten.”
“I have made it a habit,” said Miss Marple. “To be careful?” “I should not put it exactly like that, but I have made a point of being always ready to disbelieve as well as believe anything that is told to me.”
“Ah, I see you are an actress, Miss Marple, as well as an avenger.”
“It has just happened that I have found myself in the vicinity of murder rather more often than would seem normal.”
“I hoped for the best,' said Miss Marple. 'One cannot go through life without attracting certain risks if they are necessary.”
“Oh well," said Miss Marple, "it's just perseverance, isn't it, that leads to things.”
“Hay muchas viejas cotillas y todas son muy parecidas. Por supuesto, no me distingo de ninguna de las otras. Una vieja cotilla como tantas otras, y eso, desde luego, es un excelente disfraz. Me pregunto si voy por el camino correcto. Algunas veces sé cómo son las personas. Me refiero a que sé cómo son las personas, porque me recuerdan a otras que he conocido, así que deduzco algunos de sus defectos y algunas de sus virtudes. Sé de qué pie cojean las personas, Eso no se me discute.”
“One does not like to make definite assertions unless one has a little more definite knowledge.”
“Well, if you do sense evil, tell me. I shall be glad to know.”
“Surely,” said Miss Marple, aghast at an idea that had come into her mind, “there can’t be a bond of ruthlessness between us?” Was she, Jane Marple—could she ever be—ruthless? “D’you know,” said Miss Marple to herself, “it’s extraordinary, I never thought about it before. I believe, you know, I could be ruthless….”
“Behind every picture hides the true story. You just have to be willing to look.”
“You’re like my wife.”
“Because I’m not sleeping with you either?”
“. . . the three adventurers were overcome by that delicious weariness which suddenly overtakes on at the end of an outdoor day.”
“Vengeance is mine saith the Lord but this morning He's going to fucking well have to share.”
“This is perhaps one of the most important things I learned during this investigation: We see what we believe, and not just the contrary; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.”
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