Top 100 Dashiell Hammett Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “You got to look on the bright side, even if there ain’t one.”

— Dashiell Hammett

2. “The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two.”

— Dashiell Hammett

3. “The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.”

— Dashiell Hammett

4. “Most things in San Francisco can be bought or taken.”

— Dashiell Hammett

5. “I haven’t laughed so much over anything since the hogs ate my kid brother.”

— Dashiell Hammett

6. “Listen, darling, tomorrow I’ll buy you a whole lot of detective stories, but don’t worry your pretty little head over mysteries tonight.”

— Dashiell Hammett

7. “I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit.”

— Dashiell Hammett

8. “I deserve all the love you can spare me. And I want a lot more than I deserve.”

— Dashiell Hammett

9. “It’s awfully easy to be in love in jail.”

— Dashiell Hammett

10. “Asta jumped up and punched me in the belly with her front feet.”

— Dashiell Hammett

11. “Be still while I get up or I’ll make an opening in your head for brains to leak in.”

— Dashiell Hammett

12. “He went like that,” Spade said, “like a fist when you open your hand.”

— Dashiell Hammett

13. “My way of learning is to heave a wild and unpredictable monkey-wrench into the machinery.”

— Dashiell Hammett

14. “I once knew a man who stole a Ferris Wheel...”

— Dashiell Hammett

15. “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 Hammett

16. “Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready. Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?”

— Dashiell Hammett

17. “I don t mind a reasonable amount of trouble.”

— Dashiell Hammett

18. “Strictly speaking, there are no real substitutes for sexual satisfaction.”

— Dashiell Hammett

19. “The life he knew was a clean orderly sane responsible affair. Now a falling beam had shown him that life was fundamentally none of these things. He, the good citizen-husband-father, could be wiped out between office and restaurant by the accident of a falling beam. He knew then that men died at haphazard like that, and lived only while blind chance spared them.”

— Dashiell Hammett

20. “The boy spoke two words, the first a short guttural verb, the second “you.” “People lose teeth talking like that.” Spade’s voice was still amiable though his face had become wooden. “If you want to hang around you’ll be polite.” The boy repeated his two words.”

— Dashiell Hammett

21. “The face she made at me was probably meant for a smile. Whatever it was, it beat me. I was afraid she’d do it again, so I surrendered.”

— Dashiell Hammett

22. “I found I was repeating myself. It is the beginning of the end when you discover you have style.”

— Dashiell Hammett

23. “You’re drunk, and I’m drunk, and I’m just exactly drunk enough to tell you anything you want to know. That’s the kind of girl I am. If I like a person, I’ll tell them anything they want to know. Just ask me. Go ahead, ask me.”

— Dashiell Hammett

24. “He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him see the works.”

— Dashiell Hammett

25. “A bullet kissed a hole in the door-frame close to my noodle.”

— Dashiell Hammett

26. “To get what he wanted, a man had to give other people what they wanted.”

— Dashiell Hammett

27. “What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?”

— Dashiell Hammett

28. “I don’t get away soon I’ll be going blood-simple like the natives.”

— Dashiell Hammett

29. “It’s sometimes better to pretend I don’t hear the sound of somebody in the nearby woods with a shotgun.”

— Dashiell Hammett

30. “I know a man who once stole a Ferris-wheel.”

— Dashiell Hammett

31. “Who shot him? I asked. The grey man scratched the back of his neck and said: Somebody with a gun.”

— Dashiell Hammett

32. “Feed the lettuce to the bunny and eat the bunny.”

— Dashiell Hammett

33. “He’s the guy that the joke was wrote about: ‘Is he a criminal lawyer?’ ‘Yes, very.”

— Dashiell Hammett

34. “He looked rather pleasantly, like a blonde satan.”

— Dashiell Hammett

35. “What was that joke about a guy being so thin he had to stand in the same place twice to throw a shadow?”

— Dashiell Hammett

36. “She jealous?” I asked before he could go on with his shouting. “And if you don’t yell maybe I’ll be able to hear you anyway. My deafness is a lot better since I’ve been eating yeast.”

— Dashiell Hammett

37. “It’s tough, him getting it like that. Miles had his faults same as the rest of us, but I guess he must’ve had some good points too.”

— Dashiell Hammett

38. “Listen, Dundy, it’s been a long time since I burst into tears because a policeman didn’t like me.”

— Dashiell Hammett

39. “You’re good. You’re very good. It’s chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get into your voice when you say things like ‘Be generous, Mr. Spade.”

— Dashiell Hammett

40. “I distrust a man that says when. If he’s got to be careful not to drink to much it’s because he’s not to be trusted when he does.”

— Dashiell Hammett

41. “But besides I haven’t the time: I’m too busy trying to see that you don’t lose any of the money I married you for.” I kissed her.”

— Dashiell Hammett

42. “The roof might fall in; anything could happen.”

— Dashiell Hammett

43. “You’re not going to go around poking at the fire and straightening up the room again, are you?”

— Dashiell Hammett

44. “I haven’t any sort of plans for the future but I reckon things will work out in some manner.”

— Dashiell Hammett

45. “Gilbert said: “I read somewhere that when habitual criminals are accused of things they didn’t do – even little things – they’re much more upset by it than other people would be. Do you think that’s so, Mr. Charles?” “It’s likely.”

— Dashiell Hammett

46. “A lot of fancier yarns come from people trying to tell the truth. It’s not easy once you’re out of the habit.”

— Dashiell Hammett

47. “I like women. I really like women.”

— Dashiell Hammett

48. “Talking is something you can’t do judiciously unless you keep in practice.”

— Dashiell Hammett

49. “I’ve been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.”

— Dashiell Hammett

50. “I told Nora: “I’m not one to suggest that your charm wouldn’t make any man turn himself inside out for you, but don’t be too sure that guy isn’t kidding us.” “So it’s come to that,” she said. “You’re jealous of policemen.”

— Dashiell Hammett