20 quotes
"A lot of fancier yarns come from people trying to tell the truth. It’s not easy once you’re out of the habit."
The Thin Man (1929)
"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter."
The Maltese Falcon (1930)
Emotions are useless during business hours.
If a man says a thing often enough, he is very likely to acquire some sort of faith in it sooner or later.
But where knowledge of trickery is evenly distributed, honesty not infrequently prevails.
All successful bunko men come in time to believe the world, except for themselves, is populated with a race of human sheep who may be trusted to conduct themselves with true sheeplike docility.
"She keeps trying and you’ve got to be careful or you’ll find yourself believing her, not because she seems to be telling the truth, but simply because you’re tired of disbelieving her."
The Thin Man (1929)
I don't like eloquence. If it isn't effective enough to pierce your hide, it's tiresome, and if it is effective enough, it muddles your thoughts.
"Did it ever occur to you that everybody is more or less afraid of nearly everything, and that courage isn't a damn thing but a habit of not dodging things because you're afraid of them?"
She was a big-boned, full-fleshed, red-haired woman of perhaps twenty-eight, handsome in a rather brutal, sloppy way.
The Thin Man (1934)
"You got types?"
"Only you, darling-lanky brunettes with wicked jaws."
The Thin Man (1929)
"How do you feel?"
"Terrible. I must have gone to bed sober."
The Thin Man (1929)
"That’s why I don’t very often drink, or even smoke. I want to try cocaine, though because that’s suppose to sharpen the brain, isn’t it?"
The Thin Man (1929)
You're a damned good man, sister.
The Maltese Falcon (1930)
"Remember, I've got no idea what this is all about," said the girl when they were in the living room, a narrow room, where blue fought with red without ever compromising on purple.
"The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two."
The Thin Man (1929)
I didn't know then, and I don't know now, whether she was the owner of the world's best poker face or was just naturally stupid, but whichever she was, she was thoroughly and completely it.
"I’ve thrown myself on your mercy, told you that without your help I’m utterly lost. What else is there?" She suddenly moved close to him on the settee and cried angrily: "Can I buy you with my body?"
The Maltese Falcon (1930)
"Tall-over six feet-and one of the thinnest men I’ve ever seen. He must be about fifty now and his hair was almost white when I knew him.Usually needs a haircut, ragged brindle mustache, bites his fingernails." I pushed the dog away to reach for my drink.
The Thin Man (1929)
Most people—even women—get discouraged after you've caught them in the third or fourth straight lie and fall back on either the truth or silence, but not Mimi. She keeps trying and you've got to be careful or you'll find yourself believing her, not because she seems to be telling the truth, but simply because you're tired of disbelieving her.
The Thin Man (1934)