She grinned at me. 'You got types?' 'Only you darling - lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.
Dashiell HammettRead
We didn't exactly believe your story.' Then --?' 'We believed your two hundred dollars.' 'You mean --' She seemed not to know what he meant. 'I mean that you paid us more than if you'd been telling the truth,' he explained blandly, 'and enough more to make it all right.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Sometimes actions speak louder than words, and the truth may be secondary to the value of tangible rewards.
This quote by Dashiell Hammett suggests that the weight of one's actions, especially in terms of financial transactions, can often outweigh the truthfulness of their words. It implies that in certain situations, people may prioritize monetary gain over sincerity, and the implications of such a mindset can reveal deeper philosophical insights about trust and motives in human interactions.
Themes
TruthMoneyActionDeceptionValue
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of honesty versus financial gain.
More from Dashiell Hammett
All quotes →What I try to do is write a story about a detective rather than a detective story. Keeping the reader fooled until the last, possible moment is a good trick and I usually try to play it, but I can't attach more than secondary importance to it. The puzzle isn't so interesting to me as the behavior of the detective attacking it.
Dashiell HammettRead
If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted policemen.
Dashiell HammettRead
The people who lie the most are nearly always the clumsiest at it, and they're easier to fool with lies than most people, too. You'd think they'd be on the look-out for lies, but they seem to be the very ones that will believe almost anything at all.
Dashiell HammettRead
Similar quotes
You know what the best kind of organic certification would be? Make an unannounced visit to a farm and take a good long look at the farmer’s bookshelf. Because what you’re feeding your emotions and thoughts is what this is really all about. The way I produce a chicken is an extension of my worldview. You can learn more about that by seeing what’s sitting on my bookshelf than having me fill out a whole bunch of forms.
Joel SalatinRead
If we hold tightly to anything given to us unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used we stunt the growth of the soul. What God gives us is not necessarily "ours" but only ours to offer back to him, ours to relinguish, ours to lose, ours to let go of, if we want to be our true selves. Many deaths must go into reaching our maturity in Christ, many letting goes.
Elisabeth ElliotRead
It is a measure of the framers' fear that a passing majority might find it expedient to compromise 4th Amendment values that these values were embodied in the Constitution itself.
Sandra Day O'ConnorRead
You'll get used to it. In the end you won't even notice it anymore," he said. "How is that possible? It will always be there, right before my eyes." "Exactly," said Mattia. "Which is precisely why you won't see it anymore.
Paolo GiordanoRead
I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced.
Anais NinRead
In a sane, civil, intelligent and moral society, you don't blame poor people for being poor.
Andrew YoungRead