Top quotes by Arthur Conan Doyle

My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. Votes: 27

The division seems rather unfair," I remarkedYou have doneall the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones getsthe credit, pray what remains for you?""For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains thecocaine-bottle." And he stretched his long white hand up forit." Votes: 17

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. Votes: 16

Where there is no imagination there is no horror. Votes: 16

...Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. Votes: 15

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. Votes: 12

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it. Votes: 11

...Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature." Votes: 10

I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children. Votes: 9

Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person. Votes: 8

Sir Walter, with his 61 years of life, although he never wrote a novel until he was over 40, had, fortunately for the world, a longer working career than most of his brethren. Votes: 7

It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers? Votes: 7

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. Votes: 5

Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old loves are the worst. Votes: 5

The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness. Votes: 5

""Dear girl," continued Bob advancing with an imbecile grin upon his countenance, which he imagined no doubt to be a seductive smile, "fly with me! Be mine! Share with me the wild free life of a barrister! Say that you return the love which consumes my heart - oh, say it!" Here Bob put his hand over a hole in his waistcoat and struck a dramatic attitude. Votes: 5

So swift, silent and furtive were his movements like those of a trained bloodhound picking out a scent, that I could not but think what a terrible criminal he would have made had he turned his energy and sagacity against the law instead of exerting them in its defense. -Dr. Watson, The Sign of the Four Votes: 5

Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones. Votes: 4

As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after. Votes: 3

For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination. Votes: 3

When the impossible has been eliminated, all that remains no matter how improbable is possible. Votes: 3

I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor? Votes: 2

Jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Votes: 2

It is easy to be wise after the event. Votes: 1

It is a pity he did not write in pencil. As you have no doubt frequently observed, the impression usually goes through -- a fact which has dissolved many a happy marriage. Votes: 1

Well, and there is the end of our little drama," I remarked, after we had sat some time smoking in silenceI fear that it may be the last investigation in which I shall have the chance of studying your methods. Miss Morstan has done me the honour to accept me as a husband in prospective."He gave a most dismal groan." Votes: 1

Was it hardness, was it selfishness, that she should ask me to risk my life for her own glorification? Such thoughts may come to middle age; but never to ardent three-and-twenty in the fever of his first love." Votes: 1

It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy. Votes: 0

Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the mud stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime records unique, violin player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Votes: 0

By the way, Doctor, I shall want your cooperation.' 'I shall be delighted.' 'You don't mind breaking the law?' 'Not in the least.' 'Nor running a chance of arrest?' 'Not in a good cause.' 'Oh, the cause is excellent!' 'Then I am your man.' 'I was sure that I might rely on you. Votes: 0

He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Votes: 0

The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it. Votes: 0

Might I trouble you to open the window, for chloroform vapour does not help the palate. Votes: 0

Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example. Votes: 0

Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different Votes: 0

It's a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brain to crime it is the worst of all. Votes: 0

We can't command our love, but we can our actions. Votes: 0

The more we progress the more we tend to progress. We advance not in arithmetical but in geometrical progression. We draw compound interest on the whole capital of knowledge and virtue which has been accumulated since the dawning of time. Votes: 0

Strange indeed is human nature. Here were these men, to whom murder was familiar, who again and again had struck down the father of the family, some man against whom they had no personal feeling, without one thought of compunction or of compassion for his weeping wife or helpless children, and yet the tender or pathetic in music could move them to tears. Votes: 0

A trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so. Votes: 0

It was all love on my side, and all good comradeship and friendship on hers. When we parted she was a free woman, but I could never again be a free man. Votes: 0

Steel True, Blade Straight *In 1955, Doyle's family sold Windlesham, which was turned into a hotel. The bodies of Conan Doyle and his wife, Jean, were moved to a grave at Minstead Churchyard, Hampshire. Votes: 0

I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner. Votes: 0

It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. Votes: 0

You would not call me a marrying man, Watson?" "No, indeed!" "You'll be interested to hear that I'm engaged." "My dear fellow! I congrat-" "To Milverton's housemaid." "My dear Holmes!" "I wanted information, Watson. Votes: 0

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing... My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. Votes: 0

Life, my dear Watson, is infinitely stranger than fiction; stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We could not conceive the things that are merely commonplace to existence. If we could hover over this great city, remove the roofs, and peep in at the things going on, it would make all fiction, with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions flat, stale and unprofitable. Votes: 0

It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you,' cried the Inspector, with the magnificent fair play of the British criminal law. Votes: 0

He spoke wistfully of a sudden leaving, a breaking of old ties, a flight into a strange world, ending in this dreary valley, and Ettie listened, her dark eyes gleaming with pity and with sympathy - those two qualities which may turn so rapidly and so naturally to love. Votes: 0

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. Votes: 0

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Votes: 0

It seems very strange ... that in the course of the world's history so obvious an improvement should never have been adopted. ... The next generation of Britishers would be the better for having had this extra hour of daylight in their childhood. Votes: 0

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact. Votes: 0

Just as an octopus may have his den in some ocean cave, and come floating out a silent image of horror to attack a swimmer, so I picture such a spirit lurking in the dark of the house which he curses by his presence, and ready to float out upon all whom he can injure. Votes: 0

They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work. Votes: 0

What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently: "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work. Votes: 0

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones. Votes: 0

Ah! my dear Watson, there we come into those realms of conjecture, where the most logical mind may be at fault. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. Votes: 0

If the fresh facts come to our knowledge all fit themselves into the scheme, then our hypothesis may gradually become a solution. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. Votes: 0

Like all Holmes' reasoning, the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained. Dr. Watson, speaking of Sherlock Holmes. Votes: 0

We all learn by experience, and your lesson this time is that you should never lose sight of the alternative. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. Votes: 0

One forms provisional theories and waits for time or fuller knowledge to explode them. A bad habit, Mr. Ferguson, but human nature is weak. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. Votes: 0

Clouds of insects danced and buzzed in the golden autumn light, and the air was full of the piping of the song-birds. Long, glinting dragonflies shot across the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleaming bodies. Votes: 0

Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid. Votes: 0

I never guess. It is a shocking habit destructive to the logical faculty. Votes: 0

His sanguine spirit turns every firefly into a star. Votes: 0

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius. Votes: 0

His neighbor is a tooth-drawer. That bag at his girdle is full of the teeth that he drew at Winchester fair. I warrant that there are more sound ones than sorry, for he is quick at his work and a trifle dim in the eye. Votes: 0

To all the world he was the man of violence, half animal and half demon; but to her he always remained the little wilful boy of her own girlhood, the child who had clung to her hand. Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him. Votes: 0

Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools. Votes: 0

Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. Please come at once and join me there. Bring with you a jemmy, a dark lantern, a chisel, and a revolver. S. H." It was a nice equipment for a respectable citizen to carry through the dim, fog-draped streets. Votes: 0

To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously. Votes: 0

What a creature he was! Never have I felt such a horse between my knees. His great haunches gathered under him with every stride, and he shot forward ever faster and faster, stretched like a greyhound, while the windbeat in my face and whistled past my ears. Votes: 0

Was it hardness, was it selfishness, that she should ask me to risk my life for her own glorification? Such thoughts may come to middle age; but never to ardent three-and-twenty in the fever of his first love. Votes: 0

My dear Watson," said [Sherlock Holmes], "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers. Votes: 0

My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know. Votes: 0

Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?' To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.' The dog did nothing in the night-time.' That was the curious incident,' remarked Sherlock Holmes. Votes: 0

I am inclined to think -' said I. `I should do so,' Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently. Votes: 0

No: I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely." ~ Sherlock Holmes Votes: 0

If in 100 years I am only known as the man who invented Sherlock Holmes then I will have considered my life a failure. Votes: 0

It's quite exciting," said Sherlock Holmes, with a yawn. Votes: 0

As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify. Votes: 0

Holy Men! Holy Cabbages! Holy Bean Pods! What do they do but live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? Votes: 0

I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of daily life. Votes: 0

The husband was a teetotaller, there was no other woman, and the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling them at his wife. Votes: 0

Oh how I've missed you, Holmes. Votes: 0

I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. Votes: 0

Yet birth, and lust, and illness, and death are changeless things, and when one of these harsh facts springs out upon a man at some sudden turn of the path of life, it dashes off for the moment his mask of civilization and gives a glimpse of the stranger and stronger face below. Votes: 0

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. Votes: 0

I should dearly love that the world should be ever so little better for my presence. Even on this small stage we have our two sides, and something might be done by throwing all one's weight on the scale of breadth, tolerance, charity, temperance, peace, and kindliness to man and beast. We can't all strike very big blows, and even the little ones count for something. Votes: 0

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Votes: 0

Living, as I do, in an educated and scientific atmosphere, I could not have conceived that the first principles of zoology were so little known. Is it possible that you do not know the elementary fact in comparative anatomy, that the wing of a bird is really the forearm, while the wing of a bat consists of three elongated fingers with membranes between? Votes: 0

To that Providence, my sons, I hereby commend you, and I counsel you by way of caution to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted. Votes: 0

You never tire of the moor. You cannot think the wonderful secrets which it contains. It is so vast, and so barren, and so mysterious. Votes: 0

Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving. As you value your life or your reason keep away from the moor. Votes: 0

He [Professor Moriarty] is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. Votes: 0

I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged. Votes: 0

Ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity... is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. Votes: 0

It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull. Votes: 0

I wanted to end the world but,I'll settle for ending yours. Votes: 0

I carry my own church about under my own hat," said I. "Bricks and mortar won't make a staircase to heaven. I believe with your Master that the human heart is the best temple. Votes: 0

You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought. Votes: 0

My sister and I, you will recollect, were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two souls which are so closely allied. Votes: 0

Well, I'm a bacteriologist, you know. I live in a nine-hundred-diameter microscope. I can hardly claim to take serious notice of anything that I can see with my naked eye. Votes: 0

Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil Votes: 0

"I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur." Votes: 0

While the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will be up to, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician. Votes: 0

It is quite a three-pipe problem. Votes: 0

I'm not a psychopath, I'm a fully functioning sociopath. Do your research. Votes: 0

To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces. Votes: 0

Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another. Votes: 0

Himself down into an armchairYou see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room. Frequently. How often? Well, some hundreds of times. Then how many are there? How many? I don't Votes: 0

My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know. ~ The Adventure of Blue Carbuncle Votes: 0

A study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn't we use a little art jargon? There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it. Votes: 0

He was the best shot in India, and I expect that there are few better in London. Have you heard the name?''No, I have not.''Well, well, such is fame! Votes: 0

It is only when you touch the higher that you realize how low we may be among the possibilities of creation. Votes: 0

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you. Votes: 0

Who knows, Watson? Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male. Votes: 0

From my boyhood I have had an intense and overwhelming conviction that my real vocation lay in the direction of literature. I have, however, had a most unaccountable difficulty in getting any responsible person to share my views.- Cyprian Overbeck Wells: A Literary Mosaic Votes: 0

How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature! Votes: 0

No ghosts need apply. - Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire Votes: 0

There is a soul-jealousy that can be as frantic as any body-jealousy. Votes: 0

These relics have a history then?''So much so that they are history. Votes: 0

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. Votes: 0

A strange enigma is man Votes: 0

Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician. Votes: 0

When a man does a queer thing, or two queer things, there may be a meaning to it, but when everything he does is queer, then you begin to wonder Votes: 0

What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson. Votes: 0

My correspondence has certainly the charm of variety, and the humbler are usually the more interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie. Votes: 0

A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman's love, however badly he may have treated her. Votes: 0

Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?' 'To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.' 'The dog did nothing in the night-time.''That was the curious incident,' remarked Sherlock Holmes. Votes: 0

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius. Votes: 0

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. Votes: 0

I don't take much stock of detectives in novels - chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That's just inspiration: not business. Votes: 0

A sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony. Votes: 0

There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen. Votes: 0

Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it. Votes: 0

Picnics are very dear to those who are in the first stage of the tender passion. Votes: 0

I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the situation. Votes: 0

There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book. Votes: 0

On general principles, it is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes. Votes: 0

Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting. Votes: 0

I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull. Votes: 0

You know how easily and suddenly these things happen, beginning in playful teasing and ending in something a little warmer than friendship. You squeeze the slender arm which is passed through yours, you venture to take the little gloved hand, you say good night at absurd length in the shadow of the door. It is innocent and very interesting, love trying his wings in a first little flutter. Votes: 0

My mind rebels at stagnation, give me problems, give me work! Votes: 0

I get in the dumps at times, and don't open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I'll soon be right. Votes: 0

There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world. Votes: 0

You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles. Votes: 0

Hot hate is twin brother to hot love. Votes: 0

There is nothing more unaesthetic than a policeman. Votes: 0

Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. Votes: 0

Only that I insist upon your dining with us. It will be ready in half an hour. I have oysters and a brace of grouse, with something a little choice in white wines. Watson, you have never yet recognized my merits as a housekeeper. ~ Sherlock Holmes Votes: 0

There is a danger there - a very real danger to humanity. Consider, Watson, that the material, the sensual, the worldly would all prolong their worthless lives. The spiritual would not avoid the call to something higher. It would be the survival of the least fit. What sort of cesspool may not our poor world become? Votes: 0

So it was, my dear Watson, that at two o'clock today I found myself in my old armchair in my own old room, and only wishing that I could have seen my old friend Watson in the other chair which he has so often adorned. - Sherlock Holmes. Votes: 0

A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem. Votes: 0

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. Votes: 0

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Votes: 0

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? Votes: 0

Any truth is better than indefinite doubt. Votes: 0

You will, I am sure, agree with me that... if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable. Votes: 0

To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. Votes: 0

Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. Votes: 0

Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed. Votes: 0

Critics kind never mind! Critics flatter no matter! Critics blame all the same! Do your best damn the rest! Votes: 0

When once your point of view is changed, the very thing which was so damning becomes a clue to the truth. Votes: 0

There are times, young fellah, when every one of us must make a stand for human right and justice, or you never feel clean again. Votes: 0

There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you. Votes: 0

All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience. Votes: 0

It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles. Votes: 0

It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment. Votes: 0

Come, Watson, come!" he cried. The game is afoot. Votes: 0

It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery. Votes: 0

There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them. Votes: 0

Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson. Votes: 0

Problems may be solved in the study which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to use all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. Votes: 0

Itâs every manâs business to see justice done. Votes: 0

There are heroisms all round us waiting to be done. Votes: 0

A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog. Votes: 0

There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers. Votes: 0

It is not that I think or believe, but that I know. Votes: 0

Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt. Votes: 0

You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion. Votes: 0

Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there. Votes: 0

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own. Votes: 0

The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods. Votes: 0

Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same. Votes: 0

Some people's affability is more deadly than the violence of coarser souls. Votes: 0

At the moment our human world is based on the suffering and destruction of millions of non-humans. To perceive this and to do something to change it in personal and public ways is to undergo a change of perception akin to a religious conversion. Nothing can ever be seen in quite the same way again because once you have admitted the terror and pain of other species you will, unless you resist conversion, be always aware of the endless permutations of suffering that support our society. Votes: 0

The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive. Votes: 0

Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms. Votes: 0

The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest. Votes: 0

I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles. Votes: 0

So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a link of it. Votes: 0

The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor Votes: 0

What one man can invent, another can discover. Votes: 0

Let me run over the principal steps. We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind, which is always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply there to observe and to draw inferences from our observations. Votes: 0

horses: dangerous on both ends and crafty in the middle Votes: 0

The mighty voice of Canada will ever call to me. Votes: 0

Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature. Votes: 0

The man might have died in a fit; but then the jewels are missing," mused the Inspector, "Ha! I have a theory. These flashes come upon me at times... What do you think of this, Holmes? Sholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off the treasure! How's that?" "On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the inside," said Holmes. Votes: 0

'There's no need for fiction in medicine,' remarks Foster... 'for the facts will always beat anything you fancy.' Votes: 0

No violence, gentlemen â no violence, I beg of you! Consider the furniture! Votes: 0

What a lovely thing a rose is! Votes: 0

Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last. Votes: 0

How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature! Votes: 0

It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes. Votes: 0

The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name. Votes: 0

I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix. Votes: 0

The best way of successfully acting a part is to be it. Votes: 0

You see, but you do not observe. Votes: 0

Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth. Votes: 0

I have my own views about Nature's methods, though I feel that it is rather like a beetle giving his Votes: 0

It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers. Votes: 0

You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Votes: 0

In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. Votes: 0

I feel that there is reason lurking in you somewhere, so we will patiently grope round for it. Votes: 0

When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities. Votes: 0

An absence of antecedents and of relatives is sometimes an aid rather than an impediment to social advancement . . . Votes: 0

My uncle, Mr. Stephen Maple, had been at the same time the most successful and the least respectable of our family, so that we hardly knew whether to take credit for his wealth or to feel ashamed of his position. Votes: 0

We surely know by some nameless instinct more about our futures than we think we know. Votes: 0

When such men, who are beyond hope and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the source their woes, it may be an evil time for those who have wronged them. The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. Votes: 0

Why should people ever take credit for charity when they must know that they cannot gain as much pleasure out of their guineas in any other fashion? Votes: 0

How wise and how merciful is that provision of nature by which his earthly anchor is usually loosened by many little imperceptible tugs, until his consciousness has drifted out of its untenable earthly harbor into the great sea beyond! Votes: 0

It was in the days when France's power was already broken upon the seas, and when more of her three-deckers lay rotting in the Medway than were to be found in Brest harbour. But her frigates and corvettes still scoured the ocean, closely followed ever by those of her rival. At the uttermost ends of the earth these dainty vessels, with sweet names of girls or of flowers, mangled and shattered each other for the honour of the four yards of bunting which flapped from the end of their gaffs. Votes: 0

Conceive a jelly-fish such as sails in our summer seas, bell-shaped and of enormous size - far larger, I should judge, than the dome of St. Paul's. It was of a light pink colour veined with a delicate green, but the whole huge fabric so tenuous that it was but a fairy outline against the dark blue sky. It pulsated with a delicate and regular rhythm. From it there depended two long drooping, green tentacles, which swayed slowly backwards and forwards. This gorgeous vision passed gently with noiseless dignity over my head, as light and fragile as a soap-bubble, and drifted upon its stately way. Votes: 0

A study of family portraits is enough to convert a man to the theory of reincarnation. Votes: 0

The most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor. Votes: 0

Steel True, Blade Straight. Votes: 0

I trust that age doth not wither nor custom stale my infinite variety. Votes: 0

A fine horse or a beautiful woman, I cannot look at them unmoved, even now when seventy winters have chilled my blood. Votes: 0

And yet the motives of women are so inscrutable. You remember the woman at Margate whom I suspected for the same reason. No powder on her nose - that proved to be the correct solution. How can you build on such a quicksand? Their most trivial action may mean volumes, or their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin or a curling tongs. Votes: 0

Well, sir, let us do what we can to curtail this visit, which can hardly be agreeable to you, and is inexpressibly irksome to me. Votes: 0

I think you want a little unofficial help. Three undetected murders in one year won't do, Lestrade. But you handled the Molesey Mystery with less than your usual - that's to say, you handled it fairly well. Votes: 0

Exactly. She does not shine as a wife even in her own account of what occurred. I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind, as you are aware, Watson, but my experience of life has taught me that there are few wives having any regard for their husbands who would let any man's spoken word stand between them and that husband's dead body. Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her. Votes: 0

One dumb-bell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumb-bell. Picture to yourself the unilateral development - the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking! Votes: 0

You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!" It was worth a wound -- it was worth many wounds -- to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation. Votes: 0

Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning. Votes: 0

You say that your fare told you that he was a detective?" "Yes, he did." "When did he say this?" "When he left me." "Did he say anything more?" "He mentioned his name." Holmes cast a swift glance of triumph at me. "Oh, he mentioned his name, did he? That was imprudent. What was the name that he mentioned?" âHis name," said the cabman, "was Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Votes: 0

Even the best of us are thrown off some- times. Votes: 0

But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things. Votes: 0

It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery. The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn. This murder would have been infinitely more difficult to unravel had the body of the victim been simply found lying in the roadway without any of those outrÃ© and sensational accompaniments which have rendered it remarkable. These strange details, far from making the case more difficult, have really had the effect of making it less so. Votes: 0

I am engaged in answering that Italian buffoon, Mazotti, whose views upon the larval development of the tropical termites have excited my derision and contempt . . . Votes: 0

The soul is swayed by the waters. Votes: 0

"Dr. Munro, sir," said he, "I am a walking museum. You could fit what ISN'T the matter with me on to the back of a -- visiting card. If there's any complaint you want to make a special study of, just you come to me, sir, and see what I can do for you. It's not every one that can say that he has had cholera three times, and cured himself by living on red pepper and brandy." Votes: 0

"There are one or two elementary rules to be observed in the way of handling patients," he remarked, seating himself on the table and swinging his legs. "The most obvious is that you must never let them see that you want them. It should be pure condescension on your part seeing them at all; and the more difficulties you throw in the way of it, the more they think of it. Break your patients in early, and keep them well to heel." Votes: 0

The sky was of the deepest blue, with a few white, fleecy clouds drifting lazily across it, and the air was filled with the low drone of insects or with a sudden sharper note as bee or bluefly shot past with its quivering, long-drawn hum, like an insect tuning-fork. Votes: 0

The less experienced a doctor is, the higher are his notions of professional dignity . . . Votes: 0

...Recognising, as I do, that you are the second highest expert in Europe--" "Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?" Asked Holmes, with some asperity. "To the man of precised, scientific mind the work of Monsieur Bertillon must always appeal strongly." "Then had you not better consult him?" "I said, sir, to the precisely scientific mind. But as a practical man of affairs it is acknowledged that you stand alone. I trust, sir, that I have not inadvertently--" "Just a little," said Holmes. Votes: 0

He had never seen a woman doctor before, and his whole conservative soul rose up in revolt at the idea. He could not recall any biblical injunction that the man should remain ever the doctor and the woman the nurse, and yet he felt as if a blasphemy had been committed. Votes: 0

Love has been taken away from the poets, and has been brought within the domain of true science. It may prove to be one of the great cosmic elementary forces. When the atom of hydrogen draws the atom of chlorine towards it to form the perfected molecule of hydrochloric acid, the force which it exerts may be intrinsically similar to that which draws me to you. Attraction and repulsion appear to be the primary forces. This is attraction. Votes: 0

Brothers are a blessing for one thing. There is no possibility of any young lady getting unreasonably conceited if she be endowed with them. Votes: 0

Goresthorpe Grange is a feudal mansion - or so it was termed in the advertisement which originally brought it under my notice. Its right to this adjective had a most remarkable effect upon its price, and the advantages gained may possibly be more sentimental than real. Still, it is soothing to me to know that I have slits in my staircase through which I can discharge arrows; and there is a sense of power in the fact of possessing a complicated apparatus by means of which I am enabled to pour molten lead upon the head of the casual visitor. Votes: 0

I do hate the City of London! It is the only thing which ever comes between us. Votes: 0

Far away on the path we saw Sir Henry looking back, his face white in the moonlight, his hands raised in horror, glaring helplessly at the frightful thing which was hunting him down. But that cry of pain from the hound had blown all our fears to the winds. If he was vulnerable he was mortal, and if we could wound him we could kill him. Never have I seen a man run as Holmes ran that night. Votes: 0

The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home. Votes: 0

The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it should be eaten without delay. Its finder has carried it off therefore to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose. Votes: 0

Violence is sometimes a duty. Votes: 0

We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds and clawed the air with both his hands. Votes: 0

How sweet the morning air is! ...How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature! Votes: 0

How dangerous it is to reason from insufficient data. Votes: 0

It is with nations as it is with individuals. A book of history is a book of sermons. Votes: 0

When we think how narrow and devious this path of nature is, how dimly we can trace it, for all our lamps of science, and how from the darkness which girds it round great and terrible possibilities loom ever shadowly upwards, it is a bold and a confident man who will put a limit to the strange by-oaths into which the human spirit may wander. Votes: 0

You will ruin no more lives as you ruined mine. You will wring no more hearts as you wrung mine. I will free the world of a poisonous thing. Take that, you hound, and that! - and that! - and that! - and that! Votes: 0

On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. Votes: 0

The approach to the offices of Girdlestone and Co. was not a very dignified one, nor would the uninitiated who traversed it form any conception of the commercial prosperity of the firm in question. Votes: 0

Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. Votes: 0

He foresaw that she would be very much more useful to him in the character of a free woman. Votes: 0

The setting is a worthy one, if the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men. Votes: 0

The whole force of the State is at your back if you should need it. I'm afraid that all the queen's horses and all the queen's men cannot avail in this matter. Votes: 0

I said that he was my superior in observation and deduction. If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an armchair, my brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived. But he has no ambition and no energy. He will not even go out of his way to verify his own solutions, and would rather be considered wrong than take the trouble to prove himself right. Votes: 0

It is always a joy to meet an American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believes that the folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes. Votes: 0

We have much to hope from the flowers. Votes: 0

It isn't true that the laws of nature have been capriciously disturbed; that snakes have talked; that women have been turned into salt; that rods have brought water out of rocks. Votes: 0

Are you conscious of the restful influence which the stars exert? To me they are the most soothing things in Nature. I am proud to say that I don't know the name of one of them. The glamour and romance would pass away from them if they were all classified and ticketed in one's brain. But when a man is hot and flurried, and full of his own little ruffled dignities and infinitesimal misfortunes, then a star bath is the finest thing in the world. Votes: 0

Too much! Wait till you have lived here longer. Look down the valley! See the cloud of a hundred chimneys that overshadows it! I tell you that the cloud of murder hangs thicker and lower than that over the heads of the people. It is the Valley of Fear, the Valley of Death. The terror is in the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn. Wait, young man, and you will learn for yourself. Votes: 0

Come what may, I am bound to think that all things are ordered for the best; though when the good is a furlong off, and we with our beetle eyes can only see three inches, it takes some confidence in general principles to pull us through. Votes: 0

You know how often the turning down this street or that, the accepting or rejecting of an invitation, may deflect the whole current of our lives into some other channel. Are we mere leaves, fluttered hither and thither by the wind, or are we rather, with every conviction that we are free agents, carried steadily along to a definite and pre-determined end? Votes: 0

Dogmas of every kind put assertion in the place of reason and give rise to more contention, bitterness, and want of charity than any other influence in human affairs. Votes: 0

It is hardly fair to blame America for the state of San Francisco, for its population is cosmopolitan and its seaport attracts the floating vice of the Pacific; but be the cause what it may, there is much room for spiritual betterment. Votes: 0

'Men die of the diseases which they have studied most,' remarked the surgeon, snipping off the end of a cigar with all his professional neatness and finish. 'It's as if the morbid condition was an evil creature which, when it found itself closely hunted, flew at the throat of its pursuer. If you worry the microbes too much they may worry you. I've seen cases of it, and not necessarily in microbic diseases either. There was, of course, the well-known instance of Liston and the aneurism; and a dozen others that I could mention.' Votes: 0

I can never bring you to realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. Votes: 0

I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for Votes: 0

Healthy scepticism is the basis of all accurate observation. Votes: 0

"I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences." Votes: 0

Dogs don't make mistakes. Votes: 0

There is but one step from the grotesque to the horrible. Votes: 0

I had ... come to an entirely erroneous conclusion, which shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data. Votes: 0

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. [...] It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. [...] It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones. Votes: 0

If I had never touched Holmes, who has tended to obscure my higher work, my position in literature would at the present moment be a more commanding one, Votes: 0

There was a brisk northern wind, heavy and wet with the salt of the sea, and he felt, as he turned his face to it, fresh life and strength surging in his blood and bracing his limbs. Votes: 0

There seems to me to be absolutely no limit to the inanity and credulity of the human race. Homo Sapiens! Homo idioticus! Votes: 0

Several incidents in my life have convinced me of spiritual interposition - of the promptings of some beneficent force outside ourselves, which tries to help us where it can. Votes: 0

Anything seems commonplace, once explained. Votes: 0

'It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you,' cried the Inspector, with the magnificent fair play of the British criminal law. Votes: 0

The fair sex is your department. Votes: 0

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist, all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally, he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction. Votes: 0

The great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away through the forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell. Votes: 0

Violence recoils on the violent. Votes: 0

When you have eliminated the impossible, what is left, no matter how unlikely, is the truth. Votes: 0

It is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself. If, after doing so, one simply knocks out all the central inferences and presents one's audience with the starting-point and the conclusion, one may produce a startling, though perhaps a meretricious, effect. Votes: 0

It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognise out of a number of facts which are incidental and which are vital. Votes: 0

...it was a huge creature, luminous, ghastly, and spectral. I have cross-examined these men, one of them a hard-headed countryman, one a farrier, and one a moorland farmer, who all tell the same story of this dreadful apparition, exactly corresponding to the hell-hound of the legend. I assure you that there is a reign of terror in the district, and that it is a hardy man who will cross the moor at night. Votes: 0

Skill is fine, and genius is splendid, but the right contacts are more valuable than either. Votes: 0

And once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complexity of human life so pletifuly presents. Votes: 0

In shape they were like horrible toads, and moved in a succession of springs, but in size they were of an incredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant. We had never before seen them save at night, and indeed they are nocturnal animals save when disturbed in their lairs, as these had been. We now stood amazed at the sight, for their blotched and warty skins were of a curious fish-like iridescence, and the sunlight struck them with an ever-varying rainbow bloom as they moved. Votes: 0

Three quiet days. This hell fiend is like a cat with a mouse. She lets me loose only to pounce upon me again. I am never so frightened as when every thing is still. Votes: 0

For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. Votes: 0

I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge. Votes: 0

Have you tried to drive a harpoon through a body? No? Tut, tut, my dear sir, you must really pay attention to these details. Votes: 0

There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less and a cleaner, better stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared. Votes: 0

You mentioned your name as if I should recognize it, but beyond the obvious facts that you are a bachelor, a solicitor, a freemason, and an asthmatic, I know nothing whatever about you. Votes: 0

By a man's finger-nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuff â By each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost inconceivable. You know that a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all. Votes: 0

It is more than possible; it is probable. Votes: 0

It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it. If you were asked to prove that two and two made four, you might find some difficulty, and yet you are quite sure of the fact. ~ Sherlock Holmes Votes: 0

I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall. Votes: 0

It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lines which run high and allow you to look down upon the houses like this." I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid enough, but he soon explained himself. "Look at those big, isolated clumps of buildings rising up above the slates, like brick islands in a lead-coloured sea." "The board-schools." "Light-houses, my boy! Beacons of the future! Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wiser, better England of the future. Votes: 0

All right, Watson. Donât look so scared,â he muttered in a very weak voice. âItâs not as bad as it seems.â âThank God for that!â âIâm a bit of a single-stick expert, as you know. I took most of them on my guard. It was the second man that was too much for me.â âWhat can I do, Holmes? Of course, it was that damned fellow who set them on. Iâll go and thrash the hide off him if you give the word.â âGood old Watson!(...) Votes: 0

Well, well, my dear fellow, be it so. We have shared this same room for some years, and it would be amusing if we ended by sharing the same cell. (...) Votes: 0

Now, Watson,â said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from its side lanterns. âYouâll come with me, wonât you?â âIf I can be of use.â âOh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one. Votes: 0

Draw your chair up, and hand me my violin, for the only problem which we have still to solve is how to while away these bleak autumnal evenings. Votes: 0

...while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. Votes: 0

You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?" "For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine bottle. Votes: 0

Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. Votes: 0

My business is that of every other good citizen - to uphold the law. Votes: 0

I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go. Votes: 0

There are no fools so troublesome as those of the mind Votes: 0

Indeed, I cannot think why the whole bed of the ocean is not one solid mass of oysters, so prolific the creatures seem. Ah, I am wandering! Strange how the brain controls the brain! What was I saying, Watson? Votes: 0

Everything I have to say has already crossed your mind." "Then possibly my answer has crossed yours. Votes: 0

There is a mystery about this which stimulates the imagination; where there is no imagination there is no horror. Votes: 0

I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain," said he. "Results without causes are much more impressive. Votes: 0

A fine thought in fine language is a most precious jewel, and should not be hid away, but be exposed for use and ornament. Votes: 0

Let me see. What are my other shortcomings? Votes: 0

Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable. Votes: 0

Great sorrow or great joy should bring intense hunger--not abstinence from food, as our novelists will have it. Votes: 0

There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words. Votes: 0

I think that I had better go, Holmes." "Not a bit, doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell. Votes: 0

I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by my wrist and pushed me back into my chair. 'It is both, or none,' said he. 'You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me. Votes: 0

There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him. Votes: 0

As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be. Votes: 0

That which is clearly known hath less terror than that which is but hinted at and guessed. Votes: 0

The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when [Holmes] became a specialist in crime. Votes: 0

You know my methods. Apply them. Votes: 0

Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipse domi stimul ac nummos contemplar in arca. (The public hiss at me, but I cheer myself when in my own house I contemplate the coins in my strong-box.) Votes: 0

To underestimate oneself is as much an exaggeration of one's powers than the other. Votes: 0

I never can resist a touch of the dramatic. Votes: 0

If my future were black, it was better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to brighten it by mere will-oâ-the-wisps of the imagination. Votes: 0

I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me. Votes: 0

I have wrought my simple plan If I give one hour of joy To the boy whoâs half a man, Or the man whoâs half a boy. Votes: 0

As I turned away, I saw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world. - Watson. Votes: 0

The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply. Votes: 0

I felt Holmes's hand steal into mine and give me a reassuring shake. - Watson Votes: 0

The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know how to use it. Votes: 0

There are no crimes and no criminals in these days. What is the use of having brains in our profession? I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done. And what is the result? There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it. Votes: 0

It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal. Votes: 0

This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie. Votes: 0

He burst into one of his rare fits of laughter as he turned away from the picture. I have not heard him laugh often, and it has always boded ill to somebody. Votes: 0

The Times is a paper which is seldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated. Votes: 0

âA change of work is the best rest. Votes: 0

It is, I admit, mere imagination; but how often is imagination the mother of truth? Votes: 0

I have taken to living by my wits. Votes: 0

No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so. Votes: 0

I love and am loved by a better man than he. Votes: 0

To his eyes all seemed beautiful, but to me a tinge of melancholy lay upon the countryside, which bore so clearly the mark of the waning year, Yellow leaves carpeted the lanes and fluttered down upon us as we passed, The rattle of our wheels died away as we drove through drifts of rotting vegetation--sad gifts, as it seemed to me, for Nature to throw before the carriage of the returning heir of the Baskervilles. Votes: 0

It seems to leave the darkness rather blacker than before. Votes: 0

What is the meaning of it, Watson? said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. "What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever. Votes: 0

Depend upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace. Votes: 0

So tomorrow we disappear into the unknown. This account I am transmitting down the river by canoe, and it may be our last word to those who are interested in our fate. Votes: 0

The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. Votes: 0

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done. Votes: 0

Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else. Votes: 0

The most serious point in the case is the disposition of the child." What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining insight as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children. Votes: 0

if i could be assured of your destruction, i would in the interest of the public, cheerfully accept my death. Votes: 0

I followed you.' I saw no one.' That is what you may expect to see when I follow you. Votes: 0

Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him. Votes: 0

One must wait till it comes. Votes: 0

Everything comes in circles. [...] The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It's all been done before, and will be again. Votes: 0

You wish to put me in the dark. I tell you that I will never be put in the dark. You wish to beat me. I tell you that you will never beat me. Votes: 0

You have been in Afghanistan I perceive. Votes: 0

By George!" cried the inspector. "How did you ever see that?" Because I looked for it. Votes: 0

The highest morality may prove also to be the highest wisdom when the half-told story comes to be finished. Votes: 0

...it is only when a man goes out into the world with the thought that there are heroisms all round him, and with the desire all alive in his heart to follow any which may come within sight of him, that he breaks away... from the life he knows, and ventures forth into the wonderful mystic twilight land where lie the great adventures and the great rewards. Votes: 0

Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill. Votes: 0

It is all in the way of professional experience. - Sherlock Holmes Votes: 0

The future was with Fate. The present was our own. ~ The Poison Belt Votes: 0

Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. Votes: 0

I suppose I shall have to compound a felony, as usual. - Sherlock Holmes Votes: 0

I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think, all that we need. Votes: 0

There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman. Votes: 0

My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so. Votes: 0

Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he. Votes: 0

There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically. Votes: 0

We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination. Votes: 0

The most difficult crime to track is the one which is purposeless. Votes: 0

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Votes: 0

I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me. Votes: 0

The most dangerous condition for a man or a nation is when his intellectual side is more developed than his spiritual. Is that not exactly the condition of the world today? Votes: 0

No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done. Votes: 0

So complex is the human spirit that it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it to action. Votes: 0

Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems. Votes: 0

I have mastered the principles of several religions. They have all shocked me by the violence which I should have to do to my reason to accept the dogmas of any one of them. Votes: 0

It is a fool's plan to teach a man to be a cur in peace, and think that he will be a lion in war. Votes: 0

Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs. Votes: 0

Nature is the true revelation of the Deity to man. The nearest green field is the inspired page from which you may read all that it is needful for you to know. Votes: 0

Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience. Votes: 0

Perhaps, when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand. Votes: 0

It is the small men and not the great who hold their noses in the air. Votes: 0

We had got as far as this, when who should walk in but the gentleman himself, who had been drinking his beer in the taproom and had heard the whole conversation. Who was I? What did I want? What did I mean by asking questions? He had a fine flow of language, and his adjectives were very vigorous. Votes: 0

His incredible untidiness, his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung around him made him the very worst tenant in London. Votes: 0

You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.â âA proposition which I took the liberty of doubting.â âYou did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to be right. Votes: 0

If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive. Votes: 0

The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. Votes: 0

I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather. Votes: 0

It is horrible, yet fascinating, this struggle between a set purpose and an utterly exhausted frame. Votes: 0

I say, Watson,â he whispered, âwould you be afraid to sleep in the same room as a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip?â âNot in the least,â I answered in astonishment. âAh, thatâs lucky,â he said, and not another word would he utter that night. Votes: 0

Do you know anything on earth which has not a dangerous side if it is mishandled and exaggerated? Votes: 0

I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the duncoloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? Votes: 0

It is the sweetest spring within the memory of man. So green, so mild, so beautiful! Ah, what a contrast between nature without and my own soul so torn with doubt and terror! Votes: 0

A man with so large a brain must have something in it. Votes: 0

[Sherlock Holmes:] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. Votes: 0

"I should have more faith," he said; "I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears opposed to a long train of deductions it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation." Votes: 0

The grand thing is to be able to reason backwards. Votes: 0

Amberley excelled at chess - a mark, Watson, of a scheming mind. Votes: 0

Keep your revolver near you night and day, and never relax your precautions. Votes: 0

If the man who observes the myriad stars, and considers that they and their innumerable satellites move in their serene dignity through the heavens, each swinging clear of the other's orbit-if, I say, the man who sees this cannot realise the Creator's attributes without the help of the book of Job, then his view of things is beyond my understanding. Votes: 0

Heaven, too, was very near to them in those days. God's direct agency was to be seen in the thunder and the rainbow, the whirlwind and the lightning. To the believer, clouds of angels and confessors, and martyrs, armies of the sainted and the saved, were ever stooping over their struggling brethren upon earth, raising, encouraging, and supporting them. Votes: 0

Still, it is an error to argue in front of your data. You can find yourself insensibly twisting them round to suit your theories. Votes: 0

Data!data!data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay. Votes: 0

There is nothing like first-hand evidence. Votes: 0

He seems to have declared war on the Kingâs English as well as on the English king. Votes: 0

Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her. Votes: 0

We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception. Votes: 0

Anything is better than stagnation. Votes: 0

The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action I can recall in our association. I was alone. Votes: 0

When people bury treasure nowadays they do it in the Post-Office bank. Votes: 0

I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being. Votes: 0

Every man finds his limitations, Mr. Holmes, but at least it cures us of the weakness of self-satisfaction. Votes: 0

What can we know? What are we all? Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite, with the aspirations of angels and the instinct of beasts. Votes: 0

Do you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating it existed among the human race long before the power of speech was arrived at. Perhaps that is why we are so subtly influenced by it. There are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries when the world was in its childhood.' That's a rather broad idea,' I remarked. One's ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature,' he answered. Votes: 0

Streams may spring from one source and yet some may be clear and some be foul. Votes: 0

Accounts are not quite settled between us," said she, with a passion that equaled my own. "I can love, and I can hate. You had your choice. You chose to spurn the first; now you must test the other. Votes: 0

The devilâs agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not? Votes: 0

I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance. Votes: 0

The more outre' and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it. Votes: 0

Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story ... Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it.'' âSherlock Holmes on John Watson's "pamphlet", "A Study in Scarlet". Votes: 0

You cannot see the lettuce and the dressing without suspecting a salad. Votes: 0

If you want to write good copy, you must be where the things are. Votes: 0

His love of danger, his intense appreciation of the drama of an adventure--all the more intense for being held tightly in--his consistent view that every peril in life is a form of sport, a fierce game betwixt you and Fate, with Death as a forfeit, made him a wonderful companion at such hours. Votes: 0

It is decreed by a merciful Nature that the human brain cannot think of two things simultaneously . . . Votes: 0

â¦but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all. Votes: 0

It may have been a comedy, or it may have been a tragedy. It cost one man his reason, it cost me a blood-letting, and it cost yet another man the penalties of the law. Yet there was certainly an element of comedy. Well, you shall judge for yourselves. Votes: 0

I have heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold wickedness of the human heart. Votes: 0

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