Quotes from The Big Four

Agatha Christie ·  272 pages

Rating: (23.9K votes)


“He laughs best who laughs at the end.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four


“He dragged me back - just in time. A tree had crashed down on to the side walk, just missing us. Poirot stared at it, pale and upset.
"It was a near thing that! But clumsy, all the same - for I had no suspicion - at least hardly any suspicion. Yes, but for my quick eyes, the eyes of a cat, Hercule Poirot might now be crushed out of existence - a terrible calamity for the world. And you, too, mon ami - though that would not be such a national catastrophe."
"Thank you," I said coldly.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four


“You surprise me, Hastings. Do you not know that all celebrated detectives have brothers who would be even more celebrated than they are were it not for constitutional indolence?”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four


“If one man does not make a move, the other must, and by permitting the adversary to make the attack one learns something about him.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four


“Poirot was standing in the larder in a dramtic attitude. In his hand he was brandishing a leg of mutton.
'My dear Poirot! What is the matter? have you gone mad?'
'Regard i pray you this mutton! But regard it closely!”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four



“You must remember, too," he added, "that we deal with no ordinary criminal, but with the second greatest brain in the world." I forbore to pander to his conceit by asking the obvious question.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four


“My good Japp, is it possible that you throw the mud in my eyes? I know well enough that it is the Chinaman you suspect. But you are so artful. You want me to help you—and yet you drag the red kipper across the trail.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four


“Ya sé, Hastings,que tiene una imaginación de lo más fértil, pero le ruego que la mantenga dentro de los límites.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four


“Only in England is the coffee so atrocious,’ he remarked. ‘On the continent, they understand how important it is for the digestion that it should be properly made.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Big Four


About the author

Agatha Christie
Born place: in Torquay, Devon, England, The United Kingdom
Born date September 15, 1890
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“But why always think the worst of people? What would she be doing to herself if she adopted that attitude to life? It was better to think the best and be wrong than to think the worst and be wrong.”
― Mary Balogh, quote from Slightly Dangerous


“For Golden it was hard not to think that there might be something wrong about a household in which the dog was wearing underwear and the children weren't.”
― Brady Udall, quote from The Lonely Polygamist


“I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can’t be judged by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgements can make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only response to pain.

Perhaps most important, I learned that everyone has a story – of dreams and nightmares, hope and heartache, love and loss, courage and fear, sacrifice and selfishness. All my life I’ve been interested in other people’s stories. I wanted to know them, understand them, feel them. When I grew up into politics, I always felt the main point of my work was to people a chance to have better stories. - Page 15, Paragraph 5, ‘My Life’ by Bill Clinton. –Hard cover version-”
― Bill Clinton, quote from My Life


“He did not know what love was. And he did not know what good it was. But he knew he carried with him, a scabrous spot of rot, of contagion, for which there was no cure. Rage would not cure it. Indulgence made it worse, flamed it, made it grow like cancer. And it had ruined his life. Not now, not in this moment. Long before. The world had seemed a good and liveable place. Brutal, yes. but there was a certain joy in that. The brutality on the football fields, in the tonks, was celebration. Men were maimed without malice, sometimes--often even--in friendship. Lonely, yes. Running was lonely. Sweat was lonely. The pain of preparation was lonely. There's no way to share a pulled hamstring with somebody else. There's no way to farm out part of a twisted knee. But who in god's name ever assumed otherwise? Once you know that it was all bearable”
― Harry Crews, quote from A Feast of Snakes


“A free man must be able to endure it when his fellow men act and live otherwise than he considers proper. He must free himself from the habit, just as soon as something does not please him, of calling for the police.”
― Ludwig von Mises, quote from Liberalism: The Classical Tradition


Interesting books

Dead Is the New Black
(10.3K)
Dead Is the New Blac...
by Marlene Perez
Sacred Hunger
(5.4K)
Sacred Hunger
by Barry Unsworth
Heaven
(18.9K)
Heaven
by V.C. Andrews
Trust in Me
(30K)
Trust in Me
by J. Lynn
The Radetzky March
(5.2K)
The Radetzky March
by Joseph Roth
The Overcoat and Other Short Stories
(8.7K)
The Overcoat and Oth...
by Nikolai Gogol

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.