Subject: Cruelty
Quote: “I have made a life’s study of the strange things that go on in the human mind. It is no good turning one’s face only to the fairer side of life. Below the decencies and conventions of everyday life, there lies a vast reservoir of strange things—as, for instance, delight in cruelty for its own sake. But when you have found that, there is something deeper still—the desire, profound and pitiful, to be appreciated. If that is thwarted, if through an unpleasing personality a human being is unable to get the response it needs, it turns to other methods—it must be felt—it must count—and so to innumerable strange perversions. The habit of cruelty, like any other habit, can be cultivated, can take hold of one—“
Character: Dr. Gerard
Chapter/Story: 10
Book Title/Copyright: Appointment with Death, 1937
Subject: Evil
Quote: “[O]nce the heart is opened to evil—evil blossoms like poppies amongst the corn.”
Character: Hori
Chapter/Story: 23--II
Book Title/Copyright: Death Comes as the End, 1944
Quote: “I have made a life’s study of the strange things that go on in the human mind. It is no good turning one’s face only to the fairer side of life. Below the decencies and conventions of everyday life, there lies a vast reservoir of strange things—as, for instance, delight in cruelty for its own sake. But when you have found that, there is something deeper still—the desire, profound and pitiful, to be appreciated. If that is thwarted, if through an unpleasing personality a human being is unable to get the response it needs, it turns to other methods—it must be felt—it must count—and so to innumerable strange perversions. The habit of cruelty, like any other habit, can be cultivated, can take hold of one—“
Character: Dr. Gerard
Chapter/Story: 10
Book Title/Copyright: Appointment with Death, 1937
Subject: Evil
Quote: “[O]nce the heart is opened to evil—evil blossoms like poppies amongst the corn.”
Character: Hori
Chapter/Story: 23--II
Book Title/Copyright: Death Comes as the End, 1944
Subject: Evil
Quote: It came to me suddenly that evil was, perhaps, necessarily always more impressive than good. It
had to make a show! It had to startle and challenge! It was instability attacking stability. And in the end…stability will always win. Stability can survive the triteness of Good Fairy Diamond; the flat voice, the rhymed couplet, even the irrelevant vocal statement of “There’s a winding road runs down the hill, To the olde world town I love.” All very poor weapons it would seem, and yet those weapons would inevitably prevail. The staircase, and the descending cast in order of seniority, with Good Fairy Diamond, practicing the Christian virtue of humility and not seeking to be first (or in this case, last) but arriving about halfway through the procession, side by side with her late opponent, now seen to be no longer the snarling Demon King breathing fire and brimstone, but just a man dressed up in red tights.
Character: Mark Easterbrook
Chapter/Story: 1—Mark Easterbrook’s Narrative
Book Title/Copyright: The Pale Horse, 1961
Quote: It came to me suddenly that evil was, perhaps, necessarily always more impressive than good. It
had to make a show! It had to startle and challenge! It was instability attacking stability. And in the end…stability will always win. Stability can survive the triteness of Good Fairy Diamond; the flat voice, the rhymed couplet, even the irrelevant vocal statement of “There’s a winding road runs down the hill, To the olde world town I love.” All very poor weapons it would seem, and yet those weapons would inevitably prevail. The staircase, and the descending cast in order of seniority, with Good Fairy Diamond, practicing the Christian virtue of humility and not seeking to be first (or in this case, last) but arriving about halfway through the procession, side by side with her late opponent, now seen to be no longer the snarling Demon King breathing fire and brimstone, but just a man dressed up in red tights.
Character: Mark Easterbrook
Chapter/Story: 1—Mark Easterbrook’s Narrative
Book Title/Copyright: The Pale Horse, 1961
Subject: Evil
Quote: “Evil is not something superhuman, it’s something less than human. Your criminal is someone who wants to be important, but who never will be important, because he’ll always be less than a man.”
Character: Detective-Inspector Lejeune
Chapter/Story: 24—Mark Easterbrook’s Narrative
Book Title/Copyright: The Pale Horse, 1961
Quote: “Evil is not something superhuman, it’s something less than human. Your criminal is someone who wants to be important, but who never will be important, because he’ll always be less than a man.”
Character: Detective-Inspector Lejeune
Chapter/Story: 24—Mark Easterbrook’s Narrative
Book Title/Copyright: The Pale Horse, 1961
Subject: Wickedness
Quote: “The wickedness was never there—not in the sense it was supposed to be. No fantastic trafficking with the Devil, no black and evil splendour. Just parlour tricks done for money—and human life of no account. That’s real wickedness. Nothing grand or big—just petty and contemptible.”
Character: Mrs. Dane Calthrop
Chapter/Story: 25—Mark Easterbrook’s Narrative
Book Title/Copyright: The Pale Horse, 1961
Quote: “The wickedness was never there—not in the sense it was supposed to be. No fantastic trafficking with the Devil, no black and evil splendour. Just parlour tricks done for money—and human life of no account. That’s real wickedness. Nothing grand or big—just petty and contemptible.”
Character: Mrs. Dane Calthrop
Chapter/Story: 25—Mark Easterbrook’s Narrative
Book Title/Copyright: The Pale Horse, 1961
Subject: Evil
Quote: “More Chinese monkeys,” he muttered to his sergeant as he put down the receiver. “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The trouble is that everyone who’s had anything to do with this girl has been far too nice—if you get my meaning. Too many nice people who don’t know anything about evil. Not like my old lady [Miss Marple]…. She’s had a long life of experience in noticing evil, fancying evil, suspecting evil and going forth to do battle with evil.”
Character: Chief Inspector Davy
Chapter/Story: 22
Book Title/Copyright: At Bertram’s Hotel, 1965
