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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

-Arthur Conan Doyle

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It Was Easier To

Arthur Conan Doyle

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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

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

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

Some Facts Should Be Suppressed, Or, At Least, A Just Sense Of Proportion Should Be Observed In Treating Them.

It Has Long Been An Axiom Of Mine That The Little Things Are Infinitely The Most Important.

""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.

Hot Hate Is Twin Brother To Hot Love.

Violence Recoils On The Violent.

Nothing Clears Up A Case So Much As Stating It To Another Person.

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.

I Have Taken To Living By My Wits.

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

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

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

The Emotional Qualities Are Antagonistic To Clear Reasoning.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I Have Already Explained To You That What Is Out Of The Common Is Usually A Guide Rather Than A Hindrance.

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.

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

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.

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'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.

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

No Man Burdens His Mind With Small Matters Unless He Has Some Very Good Reason For Doing So.

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.

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.

...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.

Your Life Is Not Your Own. Keep Your Hands Off It.

One Must Wait Till It Comes.

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

That Which Is Clearly Known Hath Less Terror Than That Which Is But Hinted At And Guessed.

To Let The Brain Work Without Sufficient Material Is Like Racing An Engine. It Racks Itself To Pieces.

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.

Work Is The Best Antidote To Sorrow, My Dear Watson.

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

Steel True, Blade Straight.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

The World Is Big Enough For Us. No Ghosts Need Apply.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Wedding Anniversary

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.

Anything Seems Commonplace, Once Explained.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

"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."

I Am Afraid That I Rather Give Myself Away When I Explain," Said He. "results Without Causes Are Much More Impressive.

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

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.

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

Horses: Dangerous On Both Ends And Crafty In The Middle

It Is Not That I Think Or Believe, But That I Know.

Jealousy Is A Strange Transformer Of Characters.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

It Is, Of Course, A Trifle, But There Is Nothing So Important As Trifles.

Life, It Turns Out, Is Infinitely More Clever And Adaptable Than Anyone Had Ever Supposed.

It Is All In The Way Of Professional Experience.

Professional Experience

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.

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.

Let Me See. What Are My Other Shortcomings?

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.

I Never Guess. It Is A Shocking Habit Destructive To The Logical Faculty.

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.

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 . . .

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.

The Times Is A Paper Which Is Seldom Found In Any Hands But Those Of The Highly Educated.

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.

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

I Love And Am Loved By A Better Man Than He.

Where There Is No Imagination There Is No Horror.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

There Is Nothing Like First-hand Evidence.

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.

When People Bury Treasure Nowadays They Do It In The Post-office Bank.

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

Anything Is Better Than Stagnation.

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.

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.

If You Had Killed Watson, You Would Not Have Got Out Of This Room Alive.

Critics Kind Never Mind! Critics Flatter No Matter! Critics Blame All The Same! Do Your Best Damn The Rest!

There Are Always Some Lunatics About. It Would Be A Dull World Without Them.

"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."

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

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.

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

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

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 Larger Crimes Are Apt To Be The Simpler, For The Bigger The Crime, The More Obvious, As A Rule, Is The Motive.

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

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

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.

When A Doctor Does Go Wrong He Is The First Of Criminals. He Has Nerve And He Has Knowledge.

We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

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.

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.

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

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

Keep Your Revolver Near You Night And Day, And Never Relax Your Precautions.

The Adventure Of The Noble Bachelor

The Soul Is Swayed By The Waters.

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

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 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.

We Surely Know By Some Nameless Instinct More About Our Futures Than We Think We Know.

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

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.

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.

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

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 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.

Violence Is Sometimes A Duty.

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.

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.

It Is A Mistake To Confound Strangeness With Mystery.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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's A Light In A Woman's Eyes That Speaks Louder Than Words.

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.

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

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.

Any Truth Is Better Than Indefinite Doubt.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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".

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.

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.

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

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

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.

There Is Nothing More Deceptive Than An Obvious Fact.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Of All Ruins, That Of A Noble Mind Is The Most Deplorable.

The Mighty Voice Of Canada Will Ever Call To Me.

Dogs Don't Make Mistakes.

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.

You Have Been In Afghanistan I Perceive.

Our Ideas Must Be As Broad As Nature If They Are To Interpret Nature.

From A Drop Of Water A Logician Could Infer The Possibility Of An Atlantic Or A Niagara Without Having Seen Or Heard Of One Or The Other.

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. (...)

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