- Alexander Bonaparte Cust: I just had to come and say "Thank you," Mr. Poirot. You are a very great man.
- Chief Inspector Japp: Oh, he knows that.
- Donald Fraser: Who are you anyway? You don't belong to the police.
- Hercule Poirot: No, Monsieur, I am better than the police.
- Captain Hastings: You mean it wasn't true?
- Hercule Poirot: Not in the least, mon ami.
- Captain Hastings: Good Lord!
- Captain Hastings: So how have you been these last six months? Busy?
- Hercule Poirot: No, the little grey cells, I fear, they grow the rust.
- Hercule Poirot: Ah, Hastings, always you are full of the charitable feelings for the young ladies who are beautiful, hmmm? As for me, I am always full of the charitable feelings to the old ladies that have the maladies.
- Hercule Poirot: Remember, Monsieur Fraser, our weapon is our knowledge, but it may be a knowledge we do not know we possess.
- Chief Inspector Japp: I don't suppose it means anything but an old woman who kept a tobacco and newspaper shop in Andover was battered to death last night.
- Hercule Poirot: Which of us one time or another have not felt aggrieved by a shopkeeper.
- Captain Hastings: Good Lord! Yes.
- Chief Inspector Japp: Well, well, well. If it isn't Captain Hastings, back from his holidays in the wiles of whatchamacallit.
- Hercule Poirot: I did not say this before, Hastings, because... uh, perhaps it would have been mistaken for self-importance - a characteristic that I dislike more than any other.
- Captain Hastings: Oh, right...
- [Giving Poirot a look of disbelief]
- Hercule Poirot: I can assure you, Monsieur Clarke, that Poirot never permits himself to get false impressions from anything anyone says.
- Captain Hastings: Look at this room, Poirot - all that's left of a life -a couple of broken china ornaments, a photograph, a new pair of stockings...
- Hercule Poirot: Hastings, let us not become sentimental.
- Captain Hastings: Good Lord!
- Hercule Poirot: What is it?
- Captain Hastings: It's another one. Another ABC Murder letter.
- [last lines]
- Captain Hastings: [to Mr. Cust] Just down below the rapids was a native canoe, obviously in some kind of trouble. And I suddenly realised that they were being pursued by something rather horrid.
- Alexander Bonaparte Cust: When I undertake to do a thing, I follow it through.
- Mrs. Marbury: Oh well, if you say so Mr. Cust.
- Man in Library: Nasty business, ey?
- Alexander Bonaparte Cust: Yes, very.
- Man in Library: You never know with lunatics, do you? They never look balmy. Sometimes they can look just like you and me.
- Alexander Bonaparte Cust: Yes, I suppose they can.
- Captain Hastings: [Hastings and Poirot are doing dishes. Hastings hands a washed dish to Poirot, who inspects the dish, dries and places it in the stack] Do you think their cooperation will lead to anything?
- Hercule Poirot: It is possible. You know, Hastings...
- [Hastings gives another washed dish to Poirot]
- Hercule Poirot: I cannot rid my mind of the impression that something was said this afternoon that was significant.
- [Poirot hands the dish back to Hastings to re-wash, which he does, without skipping a beat. Hastings passes the dish to Poirot for the second time]
- Hercule Poirot: Ah, it is odd. I cannot pin it down exactly.
- [Poirot rejects the dish again, and hands it back to Hastings for a third washing. This routine seems to be normal]
- Hercule Poirot: But something passed through my mind that reminded me of that which I had already seen or heard or noted.
- [Close-up of Hastings, who continues to wash and pass to Poirot. It is difficult to tell if the thrice-washed dish was finally approved and dried by Poirot]
- [first lines]
- Announcer: Train now boarding.
- Donald Fraser: Mr. Poirot, do you know anything about dreams?
- Hercule Poirot: I do. You have been dreaming?
- Donald Fraser: I keep dreaming the same dream.
- Mrs. Marbury: Terrible the news nowadays, isn't it? Nothing but this murder business. It gives me the creeps, I don't read it.
- Usher: It's an ABC.
- Captain Hastings: But, Poirot, there weren't any fingerprints on it.
- [the railway guide]
- Hercule Poirot: Exactimont, Hastings. Our murderer - he is in the dark and seeks to remain in the dark. But in the very nature of things he cannot help to throw the light upon himself.