Patricia Wentworth Quotes

One cannot withdraw from the life of the community. Injury to one member of it cannot fail to be the concern of all.

Anyone who pretends not to be interested in money is either a fool or a knave.

Things you can't understand are always the hardest to bear. To know why is the first step to consolation.

there are virtues which are very well in the abstract, but which, encountered in the flesh, can be a source of extreme irritation.

It is the man who is sure of himself who disregards the opinion of the world. To be sure is to have power.

The fact is, people who don't have any misfortunes are very irritating to their neighbours. No opportunities for popping in with condolences and new-laid eggs. No visits to the afflicted. No opportunities for the milk of human kindness to flow. Naturally it doesn't.

Take things as they come. Take things as they are. What does it matter? There's one end to everything.

I used to do miserably in English literature, which I thought was a sign of moral turpitude. As I look back on it, I think it was rather to my credit. The notion of actually putting writers' words into other words is quite ridiculous because why bother if writers mean what they mean, and if they don't, why read them? There is, I suppose, a case for studying literary works in depth, but I don't quite know what 'in depth' means unless you read a paragraph over and over again.

it isn't good tactics to ask for something that you know will be refused.

Most of the things one worries about never happen.

When there is too much to say it is easier to say nothing at all.

It is always better to say too little than too much.

When you've just made the most complete fool of yourself, you feel the need of a specially high horse to ride.

There is a country proverb which says, 'If you don't trouble trouble - trouble won't trouble you.

if you cannot get what you want, common sense suggests that you should put your mind to wanting what you can get.

Husbands and wives quarrel a lot more than anyone thinks, and it's oftener about little things than big ones.

Once a suggestion has entered the general atmosphere of human thought, it is very difficult to neutralise it.

happy people have got something to give to the world.

Any road is bound to arrive somewhere if you follow it far enough

A lie that is half a truth is ever the hardest to fight.

Nobody likes to be accused of a virtue.

The fact is, for most of us, what happens to ourselves is so much more important than what happens to other people that the smallest mote in our own eye will prevent us from being unduly harrowed by someone else's beam.

Too much information can be as disconcerting as too little.

It's surprising how soon you can get used to having money. It's much easier than getting used to not having it.

Money's a very serious thing - especially when you haven't got any.