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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.

-Arthur Conan Doyle

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Man, Or At Least

Arthur Conan Doyle

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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.

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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.

For Strange Effects And Extraordinary Combinations We Must Go To Life Itself, Which Is Always Far More Daring Than Any Effort Of The Imagination.

It Is With Nations As It Is With Individuals. A Book Of History Is A Book Of Sermons.

Data!data!data!" He Cried Impatiently. "i Can't Make Bricks Without Clay.

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!

Crime Is Common. Logic Is Rare. Therefore It Is Upon The Logic Rather Than Upon The Crime That You Should Dwell.

I Am Inclined To Think -' Said I. `i Should Do So,' Sherlock Holmes Remarked Impatiently.

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.

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

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.

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.

Everything Comes In Circles. [...] The Old Wheel Turns, And The Same Spoke Comes Up. It's All Been Done Before, And Will Be Again.

To Underestimate Oneself Is As Much An Exaggeration Of One's Powers Than The Other.

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.

It Is Horrible, Yet Fascinating, This Struggle Between A Set Purpose And An Utterly Exhausted Frame.

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?

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.

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.

The Adventure Of The Noble Bachelor

It’s Every Man’s Business To See Justice Done.

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.

There Seems To Me To Be Absolutely No Limit To The Inanity And Credulity Of The Human Race. Homo Sapiens! Homo Idioticus!

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.

Do You Know Anything On Earth Which Has Not A Dangerous Side If It Is Mishandled And Exaggerated?

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?

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.

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.

I Am Somewhat Exhausted; I Wonder How A Battery Feels When It Pours Electricity Into A Non-conductor?

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.

A Trusty Comrade Is Always Of Use; And A Chronicler Still More So.

Eliminate All Other Factors, And The One Which Remains Must Be The Truth.

...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.

The Ways Of Fate Are Indeed Hard To Understand. If There Is Not Some Compensation Hereafter, Then The World Is A Cruel Jest.

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.

It Is Only Goodness Which Gives Extras, And So I Say Again That We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

Violence Does, In Truth, Recoil Upon The Violent, And The Schemer Falls Into The Pit Which He Digs For Another.

We Can't Command Our Love, But We Can Our Actions.

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.

If In 100 Years I Am Only Known As The Man Who Invented Sherlock Holmes Then I Will Have Considered My Life A Failure.

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.

When The Impossible Has Been Eliminated, All That Remains No Matter How Improbable Is Possible.

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!

Women Are Naturally Secretive, And They Like To Do Their Own Secreting.

Evil Indeed Is The Man Who Has Not One Woman To Mourn Him.

It Is Quite A Three Pipe Problem, And I Beg That You Won't Speak To Me For Fifty Minutes.

A Fine Horse Or A Beautiful Woman, I Cannot Look At Them Unmoved, Even Now When Seventy Winters Have Chilled My Blood.

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.

There Is But One Step From The Grotesque To The Horrible.

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.

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.

I Fear That If The Matter Is Beyond Humanity, It Is Certainly Beyond Me.

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.

His Sanguine Spirit Turns Every Firefly Into A Star.

...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.

A Fine Thought In Fine Language Is A Most Precious Jewel, And Should Not Be Hid Away, But Be Exposed For Use And Ornament.

All Right, Watson. Don’t Look So Scared,” He Muttered In A Very Weak Voice. “it’s Not As Bad As It Seems.” “thank God For That!” “i’m 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.” “what Can I Do, Holmes? Of Course, It Was That Damned Fellow Who Set Them On. I’ll Go And Thrash The Hide Off Him If You Give The Word.” “good Old Watson!(...)

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.

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.

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.

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.

For The One And Only Time I Caught A Glimpse Of A Great Heart As Well As Of A Great Brain.

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.

The Weak Man Becomes Strong When He Has Nothing, For Then Only Can He Feel The Wild, Mad Thrill Of Despair.

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.

I Have Frequently Gained My First Real Insight Into The Character Of Parents By Studying Their Children.

It Is Quite A Three-pipe Problem.

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.

Funny Inspirational

Excellent!" I Cried. "elementary," Said He.

We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Let Us Hear The Suspicions. I Will Look After The Proofs.

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.

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.

Brothers Are A Blessing For One Thing. There Is No Possibility Of Any Young Lady Getting Unreasonably Conceited If She Be Endowed With Them.

"i Have Seen Those Symptoms Before," Said Holmes, Throwing His Cigarette Into The Fire. "oscillation Upon The Pavement Always Means An Affaire De Coeur."

Even The Best Of Us Are Thrown Off Some- Times.

I Have Heard, Mr. Holmes, That You Can See Deeply Into The Manifold Wickedness Of The Human Heart.

You Have A Grand Gift For Silence, Watson. It Makes You Quite Invaluable As A Companion.

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.

The Love Of Books Is Among The Choicest Gifts Of The Gods.

A Sandwich And A Cup Of Coffee, And Then Off To Violin-land, Where All Is Sweetness And Delicacy And Harmony.

The Future Was With Fate. The Present Was Our Own.

The Setting Is A Worthy One, If The Devil Did Desire To Have A Hand In The Affairs Of Men.

I Say, Watson,’ He Whispered, ‘would 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?’ ‘not In The Least,’ I Answered In Astonishment. ‘ah, That’s Lucky,’ He Said, And Not Another Word Would He Utter That Night.

It Is More Than Possible; It Is Probable.

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.

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.

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.

Unrequited Love

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.

Watson. Come At Once If Convenient. If Inconvenient, Come All The Same.

If I Could Be Assured Of Your Destruction, I Would In The Interest Of The Public, Cheerfully Accept My Death.

A Client Is To Me A Mere Unit, A Factor In A Problem.

I Have Wrought My Simple Plan If I Give One Hour Of Joy To The Boy Who’s Half A Man, Or The Man Who’s Half A Boy.

The Less Experienced A Doctor Is, The Higher Are His Notions Of Professional Dignity . . .

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.

I Am Not The Law, But I Represent Justice So Far As My Feeble Powers Go.

It Is The Small Men And Not The Great Who Hold Their Noses In The Air.

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.

Of All Ghosts The Ghosts Of Our Old Loves Are The Worst.

The Lowest And Vilest Alleys Of London Do Not Present A More Dreadful Record Of Sin Than Does The Smiling And Beautiful Countryside.

An Absence Of Antecedents And Of Relatives Is Sometimes An Aid Rather Than An Impediment To Social Advancement . . .

What One Man Can Invent, Another Can Discover.

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.

His Ignorance Was As Remarkable As His Knowledge.

I'm Not A Psychopath, I'm A Fully Functioning Sociopath. Do Your Research.

There Is Nothing More Deceptive Than An Obvious Fact.

One Must Wait Till It Comes.

Like All Holmes' Reasoning, The Thing Seemed Simplicity Itself When It Was Once Explained. Dr. Watson, Speaking Of Sherlock Holmes.

Let Me See. What Are My Other Shortcomings?

There Is No Scent So Pleasant To My Nostrils As That Faint, Subtle Reek Which Comes From An Ancient Book.

It Is, I Admit, Mere Imagination; But How Often Is Imagination The Mother Of Truth?

Dogs Don't Make Mistakes.

I Am The Most Incurably Lazy Devil That Ever Stood In Shoe Leather.

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.

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.

Steel True, Blade Straight.

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.

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.)

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!

I Think There Are Certain Crimes Which The Law Cannot Touch, And Which Therefore, To Some Extent, Justify Private Revenge.

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.

You Are My Heart, My Life, My One And Only Thought.

Wedding Anniversary

You Yourself May Not Be Luminous, But You Are A Conductor Of Light.

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.

Bricks And Mortar

“how Ever Did You See That?” “because I Looked For It.”

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.

So All Life Is A Great Chain, The Nature Of Which Is Known Whenever We Are Shown A Link Of It.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

No: I Am Not Tired. I Have A Curious Constitution. I Never Remember Feeling Tired By Work, Though Idleness Exhausts Me Completely." ~ Sherlock Holmes

Horses: Dangerous On Both Ends And Crafty In The Middle

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.

Everything I Have To Say Has Already Crossed Your Mind." "then Possibly My Answer Has Crossed Yours.

Where There Is No Imagination There Is No Horror.

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.

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.

My Mind Rebels At Stagnation, Give Me Problems, Give Me Work!

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.

The Stage Lost A Fine Actor, Even As Science Lost An Acute Reasoner, When [holmes] Became A Specialist In Crime.

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.

The More Outré And Grotesque An Incident Is The More Carefully It Deserves To Be Examined.

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.

We Must Look For Consistency. Where There Is A Want Of It We Must Suspect Deception.

The Most Difficult Crime To Track Is The One Which Is Purposeless.

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.

The Mighty Voice Of Canada Will Ever Call To Me.

…but It Is Better To Learn Wisdom Late Than Never To Learn It At All.

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.

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.

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.

Depend Upon It, There Is Nothing So Unnatural As The Commonplace.

The Highest Morality May Prove Also To Be The Highest Wisdom When The Half-told Story Comes To Be Finished.

The Fair Sex Is Your Department.

We Balance Probabilities And Choose The Most Likely. It Is The Scientific Use Of The Imagination.

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.

The Best Way Of Successfully Acting A Part Is To Be It.

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.

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.

The Devil’s Agents May Be Of Flesh And Blood, May They Not?

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.'' —sherlock Holmes On John Watson's "pamphlet", "a Study In Scarlet".

It Is A Capital Mistake To Theorize Before One Has Data.

‎a Change Of Work Is The Best Rest.

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.

Violence Is Sometimes A Duty.

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.

So Complex Is The Human Spirit That It Can Itself Scarce Discern The Deep Springs Which Impel It To Action.

I Had ... Come To An Entirely Erroneous Conclusion, Which Shows, My Dear Watson, How Dangerous It Always Is To Reason From Insufficient Data.

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.

What You Do In This World Is A Matter Of No Consequence. The Question Is, What Can You Make People Believe That You Have Done?

But Love Is An Emotional Thing, And Whatever Is Emotional Is Opposed To That True Cold Reason Which I Place Above All Things.

It Is Stupidity Rather Than Courage To Refuse To Recognize Danger When It Is Close Upon You.

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.

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!

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.” “a Proposition Which I Took The Liberty Of Doubting.” “you 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.

If You Want To Write Good Copy, You Must Be Where The Things Are.

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.

The Emotional Qualities Are Antagonistic To Clear Reasoning.

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.

You Have Been In Afghanistan I Perceive.

There Are Heroisms All Round Us Waiting To Be Done.

Healthy Scepticism Is The Basis Of All Accurate Observation.

When Once Your Point Of View Is Changed, The Very Thing Which Was So Damning Becomes A Clue To The Truth.

The Grand Thing Is To Be Able To Reason Backwards.

What A Lovely Thing A Rose Is!

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.

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.

London, That Great Cesspool Into Which All The Loungers And Idlers Of The Empire Are Irresistibly Drained.

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.

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.

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.

I Think That I Had Better Go, Holmes." "not A Bit, Doctor. Stay Where You Are. I Am Lost Without My Boswell.

There Are No Fools So Troublesome As Those Who Have Some Wit.

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