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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.

-Arthur Conan Doyle

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Exactly. She Does Not

Arthur Conan Doyle

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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.

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To A Great Mind, Nothing Is Little,' Remarked Holmes, Sententiously.

Great Sorrow Or Great Joy Should Bring Intense Hunger--not Abstinence From Food, As Our Novelists Will Have It.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

My Name Is Sherlock Holmes. It Is My Business To Know What Other People Do Not Know.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

There Is A Soul-jealousy That Can Be As Frantic As Any Body-jealousy.

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.

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

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?

It Is Decreed By A Merciful Nature That The Human Brain Cannot Think Of Two Things Simultaneously . . .

You Have Been In Afghanistan I Perceive.

The Soul Is Swayed By The Waters.

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

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

It Is Fortunate For This Community That I Am Not A Criminal.

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.

My Business Is That Of Every Other Good Citizen - To Uphold The Law.

Holy Men! Holy Cabbages! Holy Bean Pods! What Do They Do But Live And Suck In Sustenance And Grow Fat?

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 — 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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Wedding Anniversary

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.

Steel True, Blade Straight.

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.

'there's No Need For Fiction In Medicine,' Remarks Foster... 'for The Facts Will Always Beat Anything You Fancy.'

I Never Can Resist A Touch Of The Dramatic.

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?

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

You See, But You Do Not Observe.

The Mighty Voice Of Canada Will Ever Call To Me.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

I Followed You.' I Saw No One.' That Is What You May Expect To See When I Follow You.

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

Any Truth Is Better Than Indefinite Doubt.

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.

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

Some People's Affability Is More Deadly Than The Violence Of Coarser Souls.

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.

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

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!

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.

Mediocrity Knows Nothing Higher Than Itself, But Talent Instantly Recognizes Genius.

The World Is Full Of Obvious Things Which Nobody By Any Chance Ever Observes.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

You Cannot See The Lettuce And The Dressing Without Suspecting A Salad.

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.

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.

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.

It Is Not My Intention To Be Fulsome, But I Confess That I Covet Your Skull.

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.

If My Future Were Black, It Was Better Surely To Face It Like A Man Than To Attempt To Brighten It By Mere Will-o’-the-wisps Of The Imagination.

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.

It Is A Capital Mistake To Theorize Before You Have All The Evidence. It Biases The Judgment.

There Is A Mystery About This Which Stimulates The Imagination; Where There Is No Imagination There Is No Horror.

I Have My Own Views About Nature's Methods, Though I Feel That It Is Rather Like A Beetle Giving His

Streams May Spring From One Source, And Yet Some Be Clear And Some Be Foul.

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.

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.

He Seems To Have Declared War On The King’s English As Well As On The English King.

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.

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.

His Sanguine Spirit Turns Every Firefly Into A Star.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 . . .

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

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

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.

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.

'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.'

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

No Violence, Gentlemen — No Violence, I Beg Of You! Consider The Furniture!

""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.

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.

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.

You Know My Method. It Is Founded Upon The Observation Of Trifles.

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.

There Is Nothing More Stimulating Than A Case Where Everything Goes Against You.

As A Rule, The More Bizarre A Thing Is, The Less Mysterious It Proves To Be.

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.

There Are Fifty Who Can Reason Synthetically For One Who Can Reason Analytically.

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

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!

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

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!

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

The More Featureless And Commonplace A Crime Is, The More Difficult It Is To Bring It Home.

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.

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

Education Never Ends, Watson. It Is A Series Of Lessons, With The Greatest For The Last.

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

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.

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.

I Have Taken To Living By My Wits.

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?

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

The Chief Proof Of Man's Real Greatness Lies In His Perception Of His Own Smallness.

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.

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.

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.

I Cannot Live Without Brainwork. What Else Is There To Live For

Horses: Dangerous On Both Ends And Crafty In The Middle

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.

Where There Is No Imagination There Is No Horror.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

...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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The Press, Watson, Is A Most Valuable Institution, If You Only Know How To Use It.

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

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

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?" “his Name," Said The Cabman, "was Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

Detection Is, Or Ought To Be, An Exact Science, And Should Be Treated In The Same Cold And Unemotional Manner.

I Don't Speak For Others And They Don't Speak For Me.

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?

Still, It Is An Error To Argue In Front Of Your Data. You Find Yourself Insensibly Twisting Them Round To Fit Your Theories.

Finding Yourself

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.

It Seems To Leave The Darkness Rather Blacker Than Before.

He Foresaw That She Would Be Very Much More Useful To Him In The Character Of A Free Woman.

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.

Come, Watson, Come!" He Cried. The Game Is Afoot.

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

My Life Is Spent In One Long Effort To Escape From The Commonplaces Of Existence. These Little Problems Help Me To Do So.

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

Life Is Infinitely Stranger Than Anything Which The Mind Of Man Could Invent.

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

Violence Recoils On The Violent.

Let Me See. What Are My Other Shortcomings?

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.

I Am A Brain, Watson. The Rest Of Me Is A Mere Appendix.

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!

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.

Every Man Finds His Limitations, Mr. Holmes, But At Least It Cures Us Of The Weakness Of Self-satisfaction.

All Other Men Are Specialists, But His Specialism Is Omniscience.

The Emotional Qualities Are Antagonistic To Clear Reasoning.

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.

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.

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

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