- [Poirot spies on Japp]
- Chief Inspector Japp: [giving a speech] The professional private detective, ladies and gentlemen, is not the glamorous figure of fiction. He is a man who, failing in more worthy walks of life and being of meddlesome and troublemaking disposition, finally comes to rest in a dingy office over the chip shop, where he plies for hire in the sordid world of petty crime and divorce.
- [a shamed Poriot prepares to leave...]
- Chief Inspector Japp: Except, I have to say, for one. I have been fortunate in my career, in that many - in fact most of my cases have been shared with the most extraordinary of private detectives and, if I may borrow a word from his own native tongue, that doyen of the Belgian police force, Monsieur Hercule Poirot. I think I may say without fear of contradiction that Hercule Poirot has one of the most original minds of the 20th century. Intelligent, brave, sensitive, devastatingly quick, Hercule Poirot stands head and shoulders above any other detective of my considerable experience.
- [a pleased Poirot bows and leaves]
- Captain Hastings: I'm worried about Poirot, Miss Lemon. He's talking about retirement.
- Miss Lemon: That's because he hasn't had an interesting case for five minutes.
- Captain Hastings: [about Poirot] Well, he's always been middle-aged. Have you seen that photograph of him at his christening?
- Miss Lemon: [chuckling] I know!
- Captain Hastings: He looks as though he's about to address a board meeting!
- Hercule Poirot: [appears] Who looks as if he's about to address a board meeting?
- Lady Amanda Manderley: [furious at being hauled away by a policeman after crashing her car into a haystack] Why can't you leave me alone! Don't you know what it's like to love a man?
- Captain Hastings: [nonplussed] Well ah... no ah... not exactly.
- [last lines]
- Captain Hastings: Allow me, Poirot.
- [picks up fallen paper from Poirot's pocket]
- Captain Hastings: [looks at it] There's something about you here, Japp. "Chief Inspector Japp to speak in North Country lecture tour."
- Captain Hastings: [to Poirot] You knew! That's why you dragged me all the way up here!
- Hercule Poirot: No, no. It was the other side I was interested in. I did not know that...
- Captain Hastings: [turns paper over] "Learn to speak French like a Frenchman"?
- Hercule Poirot: In Belgium, Hastings, it is considered quite bad form to read another person's newspaper cuttings.
- [takes clipping]
- Hercule Poirot: Thank you.
- [first lines]
- Captain Hastings: Isn't it bracing, Poirot?
- Hercule Poirot: Bracing, Hastings?
- Captain Hastings: The weather.
- Hercule Poirot: No, it is cold and wet. Did you know, Hastings, that the earth is cooling at a rate of three degrees every twelve thousand years?
- Captain Hastings: No, I didn't know that, no.
- Hercule Poirot: Ah.
- Captain Hastings: Still, beautiful fountain, isn't it?
- Hercule Poirot: It's feeble, Hastings. Fountains used to be more vigorous. Artistic too.
- Captain Hastings: I don't know what's wrong with you today, Poirot. Nothing seems good enough for you.
- Hercule Poirot: I am finished, Hastings.
- Captain Hastings: Finished?
- Hercule Poirot: Yes. I shall retire, I think.
- Captain Hastings: But you're at the height of your powers, Poirot.
- Hercule Poirot: You are being kind, Hastings.
- Captain Hastings: No, I'm not. Well, you've got a nice home, uh, devoted friends, a brilliant career.
- Hercule Poirot: No no no, mon ami. I am nothing. I have nothing. Poirot is finished.