Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.

—Agatha Christie

About Agatha Christie

Portrait of Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Mallowan, Lady Mallowan (née Miller, 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), usually known by her first married name, Agatha Christie, was an English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short-story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot (with the novel...

More quotations from Agatha Christie

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention - invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.

—Agatha Christie

Curious things, habits. People themselves never knew they had them.

—Agatha Christie

I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming... suddenly you find - at the age of 50, say - that a whole new life has opened before you.

—Agatha Christie

If I had kept all these things neatly sorted and filed and labelled, it would save me a lot of trouble. However, it is a pleasure sometimes, when looking vaguely through a pile of old note-books to find something scribbled down, as: Possible plot—do it yourself—girl and not really sister—August— with a kind of sketch of a plot. What it's all about I can't remember now; but it often stimulates me, if not to write that identical plot, at least to write something else.

—Agatha Christie in An Autobiography

writing organization piles plot

It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.

—Agatha Christie in An Autobiography

love ridiculousness

More quotations tagged with “war”

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

war money greed infinity

I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war, . . . suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own.

—Philip Caputo

war ignorance learning youth loss illusion

The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war.

war age fatherhood military

Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies.

—W. L. George

war love hate enemies allies

I have a friend who has devoted most of his adult life to resisting the madness of war through actions of justice and peace. He . . . lives in poverty so as to stay below the taxation level. . . . The money he "should" have given the government over the years he has donated to peace-and-justice projects. Does he have any results to show for his efforts? Has he been effective? Hardly — at least, not by the normal calculus. His years of commitment to peacemaking have been years of steady increase in wars and rumors of wars. So how does he stay healthy and sane? How does he maintain a commitment to this sort of active life? "I have never asked myself if I was being effective," he says, "but only if I was being faithful." He judges his action not by the results it gets, but by its fidelity to his own calling and identity.

—Parker J. Palmer

justice war peace identity poverty government faith calling