'It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you,' cried the Inspector, with the magnificent fair play of the British criminal law.

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.

London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.

When the impossible has been eliminated, all that remains no matter how improbable is possible.

When one is silent, those around speak even more, my lord.

The more he smiled, the more I wanted to hate him, and yet it was the very thing that made hating him impossible.

The person who does not plan his life is basically planning to fail.

Since life is an ever evolving process, one should flow in this process and discover how to actualize and expand oneself.

Prayer is not a check request asking for things from God. It is a deposit slip - a way of depositing God's character into our bankrupt souls.

I have almost no capacity for worship. What I have is the knowledge that it is my duty to worship and worship only what I believe to be true.” May 19, 1962

Sometimes you lose a battle. But mischief always wins the war

In order to love life, I must love living and live love like losing it would look like I have no life left to live.

When I went to Hong Kong, I knew at once I wanted to write a story set there.

Patch grief with proverbs.