Quote: “Why should I play the hypocrite? Si, si, that is what you do, all of you. The airman who has made a difficult flight, the tennis champion—they look down their noses, they mutter inaudibly that ‘it is nothing.’ But do they really think that themselves? Not for a moment. They would admire the exploit in someone else. So, being reasonable men, they admire it in themselves. But their training prevents them from saying so. Me, I am not like that. The talents that I possess—I would salute them in another. As it happens, in my own particular line, there is no one to touch me. C’est dommage! As it is, I admit freely and without the hypocrisy that I am a great man…. Why should I turn red and stammer and mutter into my chin that really I am very stupid? It would not be true.”
Character: M. Hercule Poirot
Chapter/Story: “The Mystery of the Bagdad Chest”
Book Title/Copyright: The Regatta Mystery, 1932
