# Hercule Poirot's best lines (from Agatha Christie's novels)

The little grey cells, order and method, and "I permitted you to deceive yourself": the most quoted lines of Hercule Poirot as Agatha Christie wrote them, from Styles to Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.

- 62 votes · 13 items
- Apr 27, 2021 · dealhunter_queenstown
- https://even.best/en/l/5055/hercule-poirot-s-best-lines-from-agatha-christie-s-novels

## Top 13

1. **Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend.** (7 · ▲7 ▼0) — The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920).
2. **I did not deceive you, mon ami. At most, I permitted you to deceive yourself.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920).
3. **I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928).
4. **Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master. The simplest explanation is always the most likely.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920).
5. **Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will… your soul is revealed by your actions.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — The ABC Murders (1936).
6. **"This affair must all be unravelled from within." He tapped his forehead. "These little grey cells."** (4 · ▲6 ▼2) — The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920).
7. **Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory — let the theory go.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920).
8. **The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it.** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926).
9. **The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Murder on the Orient Express (1934).
10. **It is the psychology I seek, not the fingerprint or the cigarette ash.** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Murder on the Orient Express (1934).
11. **There is no such thing as muddle — obscurity, yes — but muddle can exist only in a disorderly brain.** (2 · ▲3 ▼1) — Death in the Clouds (1935).
12. **If one approaches a problem with order and method there should be no difficulty in solving it — none whatever.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Death in the Clouds (1935).
13. **Method and order, they are everything.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Death on the Nile (1937).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.