Quotes from The Secret Adversary

Agatha Christie ·  268 pages

Rating: (29.4K votes)


“Never tell all you know—not even to the person you know best.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they may experience at second hand the delights and dangers of adventure.

[author's dedication]”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“A great many men are mad, and no one knows it. They do not know it themselves”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“Youth is a failing only too
easily outgrown.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“That's the curious part about speaking the truth. No one does believe it.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary



“Marriage is called all sorts of things, a haven, and a refuge, and a crowning glory, and a state of bondage, and lots more. But do you know what I think it is?'

'What?'

'A sport!'

'And a damned good sport too,' said Tommy.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“Money, money, money! I think about money morning, noon and night! I dare say it's mercenary of me, but there it is”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“I've always jumped on sentiment—and here I am being more sentimental than anybody. What idiots girls are! I've always thought so. I suppose I shall sleep with his photograph under my pillow, and dream about him all night. It's dreadful to feel you've been false to your principles.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“My dear Boris, can you not take a joke?" "Was it a joke?”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“Don't be offended because I think you're young. Youth is a failing only too easily outgrown.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary



“But one thing is certain, he is the master criminal of this age. He controls a marvellous organization. Most of the Peace propaganda during the war was originated and financed by him.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“¡Qué tontas somos las mujeres! Siempre lo he pensado. Supongo que ahora dormiré con su retrato debajo de la almohada y soñaré toda la noche con él. Es terrible ver que una no es fiel a sus principio.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“No," said Tuppence thoughtfully, "he didn't believe it. That's the curious part about speaking the truth. No one does believe it.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


“Two young adventurers for hire. Willing to do anything, go anywhere. Pay must be good. No reasonable offer refused.”
― Agatha Christie, quote from The Secret Adversary


About the author

Agatha Christie
Born place: in Torquay, Devon, England, The United Kingdom
Born date September 15, 1890
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Popular quotes

“imagination; it’s their own world, the world of their daily life, and it’s our loss that so many of us grow out of it. Probably this group here tonight is the least grown-out-of-it group that could be gathered together in one place, simply by the nature of our work. We, too, can understand how Alice could walk through the mirror into the country on the other side; how often have our children almost done this themselves? And we all understand princesses, of course. Haven’t we all been badly bruised by peas? And what about the princess who spat forth toads and snakes whenever she opened her mouth to speak, and the other whose lips issued forth pieces of pure gold? We all have had days when everything we’ve said has seemed to turn to toads. The days of gold, alas, don’t come nearly as often. What a child doesn’t realize until he is grown is that in responding to fantasy, fairy tale, and myth he is responding to what Erich Fromm calls the one universal language, the one and only language in the world that cuts across all barriers of time, place, race, and culture. Many Newbery books are from this realm, beginning with Dr. Dolittle; books on Hindu myth, Chinese folklore, the life of Buddha, tales of American Indians, books that lead our children beyond all boundaries and into the one language of all mankind.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, quote from The Wrinkle in Time Quintet - Digest Size Boxed Set


“Liberty in cyberspace will not come from the absence of the state. Liberty there, as anywhere, will come from a state of a certain kind. We build a world where freedom can flourish not by removing from society any self-conscious control, but by setting it in a place where a particular kind of self-conscious control survives. We build liberty as our founders did, by setting society upon a certain constitution.”
― Lawrence Lessig, quote from Code: Version 2.0


“But I can tell you this,” he continued. “The white witch doesn’t feel things the way we do, do you understand? She’s all ice. That is her whole point.”

A palace of ice and a heart to match. “I don’t understand. Why would people go looking for her? Why would they want to go with her?”

Ben sat back. He looked at Hazel searchingly, sadly. His shoulders rose and fell. “Sometimes,” he said slowly, “it seems like it would be easier to give yourself to the ice.”
― Anne Ursu, quote from Breadcrumbs


“Are we not to call Christ ours because we have not made him but only received him? Again, if we are the makers of things that are called ours, then we must have made our eyes, we must have made our hands, we must have made our feet, unless eyes, hands and feet are not to be called ours.”
― Martin Luther, quote from The Bondage of the Will


“Mosques are plenty, churches are plenty, graveyards are plenty, but morals and whiskey are scarce. The Koran does not permit Mohammedans to drink. Their natural instincts do not permit them to be moral. They say the Sultan has eight hundred wives. This almost amounts to bigamy. It makes our cheeks burn with shame to see such a thing permitted here in Turkey. We do not mind it so much in Salt Lake, however.”
― Mark Twain, quote from The Innocents Abroad


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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.

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