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

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

Understanding the Quote: "the press, watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know..."

This quote by Arthur Conan Doyle reflects deeply on the theme of use. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Use, Institutions, Valuable, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Arthur Conan Doyle interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle is celebrated for insightful thoughts on use and institutions. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Use
Institutions
Valuable
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Drinking
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London
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Late
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Running
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Eye
Light
Speak
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Heart
Wickedness
Holmes
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Science
Men
Thinking
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.
Running
Pain
Book
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.
Incidents
Grotesque
Cases
My Business Is That Of Every Other Good Citizen - To Uphold The Law.
Law
Citizens
Good Citizen
I Trust That Age Doth Not Wither Nor Custom Stale My Infinite Variety.
Humorous
Sarcasm
Age
There Was A Brisk Northern Wind, Heavy And Wet With The Salt Of The Sea, And He Felt, As He Turned His Face To It, Fresh Life And Strength Surging In His Blood And Bracing His Limbs.
Ocean
Blood
Wind
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.
Men
Thinking
Good Man
I Said That He Was My Superior In Observation And Deduction. If The Art Of The Detective Began And Ended In Reasoning From An Armchair, My Brother Would Be The Greatest Criminal Agent That Ever Lived. But He Has No Ambition And No Energy. He Will Not Even Go Out Of His Way To Verify His Own Solutions, And Would Rather Be Considered Wrong Than Take The Trouble To Prove Himself Right.
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Brother
Book
If I Could Be Assured Of Your Destruction, I Would In The Interest Of The Public, Cheerfully Accept My Death.
Destruction
Accepting
Interest
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.
Men
May
Realizing
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.
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Bottles
Credit
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Men
Evil
Girlhood
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Empires
Idlers
My Life Is Spent In One Long Effort To Escape From The Commonplaces Of Existence. These Little Problems Help Me To Do So.
Long
Effort
Littles
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.
Dream
Wall
Eye
Art In The Blood Is Liable To Take The Strangest Forms.
Art
Blood
Liable
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.
Wall
Garden
House
The Love Of Books Is Among The Choicest Gifts Of The Gods.
Inspirational
Life
God
There Is But One Step From The Grotesque To The Horrible.
Steps
Grotesque
Horrible
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.
Dark
Son
Evil
Excellent!" I Cried. "elementary," Said He.
Classic
Easy
Excellent
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
Two
Four
Might
I Cannot Live Without Brainwork. What Else Is There To Live For
Holmes
[sherlock Holmes:] The Temptation To Form Premature Theories Upon Insufficient Data Is The Bane Of Our Profession.
Data
Temptation
Form
It Is Quite A Three-pipe Problem.
Smoking
Three
Problem
The Adventure Of The Noble Bachelor
Silly
Adventure
Noble
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".
Stories
Causes
Facts
His Ignorance Was As Remarkable As His Knowledge.
Ignorance
Literature
Study
Of All Ruins, That Of A Noble Mind Is The Most Deplorable.
Mind
Noble
Ruins
The Mighty Voice Of Canada Will Ever Call To Me.
Voice
Canada
Healthy Scepticism Is The Basis Of All Accurate Observation.
Healthy
Skepticism
Observation
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.
Order
Cities
Evil
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!
Beautiful
Memories
Spring
Keep Your Revolver Near You Night And Day, And Never Relax Your Precautions.
Gun
Night
Relax
A Fine Horse Or A Beautiful Woman, I Cannot Look At Them Unmoved, Even Now When Seventy Winters Have Chilled My Blood.
Beautiful
Horse
Humorous
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.
Spiritual
San Francisco
America
You Have Been In Afghanistan I Perceive.
Afghanistan
Perceive
Has Beens
Ex-professor Moriarty Of Mathematical Celebrity... Is The Napoleon Of Crime, Watson.
Crime
Professors
Mathematical
Only That I Insist Upon Your Dining With Us. It Will Be Ready In Half An Hour. I Have Oysters And A Brace Of Grouse, With Something A Little Choice In White Wines. Watson, You Have Never Yet Recognized My Merits As A Housekeeper. ~ Sherlock Holmes
Wine
Oysters
White
Yet Birth, And Lust, And Illness, And Death Are Changeless Things, And When One Of These Harsh Facts Springs Out Upon A Man At Some Sudden Turn Of The Path Of Life, It Dashes Off For The Moment His Mask Of Civilization And Gives A Glimpse Of The Stranger And Stronger Face Below.
Spring
Men
Civilization
Data!data!data!" He Cried Impatiently. "i Can't Make Bricks Without Clay.
Data
Clay
Bricks
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.
Time
Learning
Sight
Have You Tried To Drive A Harpoon Through A Body? No? Tut, Tut, My Dear Sir, You Must Really Pay Attention To These Details.
Book
Details
Attention
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. (...)
Cells
Years
Would Be
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.
Husband
Lying
Humorous
Watson. Come At Once If Convenient. If Inconvenient, Come All The Same.
Holmes
Convenient
Watson
The Less Experienced A Doctor Is, The Higher Are His Notions Of Professional Dignity . . .
Humorous
Sarcasm
Doctors
But Love Is An Emotional Thing, And Whatever Is Emotional Is Opposed To That True Cold Reason Which I Place Above All Things.
Love Is
Emotional
Cold
You Know My Method. It Is Founded Upon The Observation Of Trifles.
Method
Holmes
Observation
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.
Should Have
Principles
Violence
It Seems To Leave The Darkness Rather Blacker Than Before.
Darkness
Seems
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.
Children
Animal
Boys
There Is Nothing Like First-hand Evidence.
Hands
Firsts
Evidence
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.
Men
Cities
Mind
I Never Can Resist A Touch Of The Dramatic.
Dramatic
There Are Heroisms All Round Us Waiting To Be Done.
Waiting
Heroism
Done
When The Impossible Has Been Eliminated, All That Remains No Matter How Improbable Is Possible.
Motivational
Matter
Impossible
There Seems To Me To Be Absolutely No Limit To The Inanity And Credulity Of The Human Race. Homo Sapiens! Homo Idioticus!
Humorous
Sarcasm
Race
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.
Husband
Wife
Teeth
Life Is Infinitely Stranger Than Anything Which The Mind Of Man Could Invent.
Life
Men
Mind
I Followed You.' I Saw No One.' That Is What You May Expect To See When I Follow You.
May
Saws
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.
Men
Air
Idlers
Everything I Have To Say Has Already Crossed Your Mind." "then Possibly My Answer Has Crossed Yours.
Mind
Answers
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.
Life
Writing
Years
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.
Children
Real
Character
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.
Horse
Past
Ears
To A Great Mind, Nothing Is Little,' Remarked Holmes, Sententiously.
Mind
Littles
Great Minds
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.
Uncles
Humorous
Successful
A Man With So Large A Brain Must Have Something In It.
Men
Brain
Depend Upon It, There Is Nothing So Unnatural As The Commonplace.
Commonplace
Depends
Unnatural
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.
Time
Knowledge
Useless
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.
Memories
Ideas
Race
When A Doctor Does Go Wrong He Is The First Of Criminals. He Has Nerve And He Has Knowledge.
Knowledge
Doctors
Doe
What One Man Can Invent, Another Can Discover.
Men
Holmes
One Man
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.
Humorous
Sarcasm
Past
There Is A Soul-jealousy That Can Be As Frantic As Any Body-jealousy.
Soul
Body
Frantic
An Absence Of Antecedents And Of Relatives Is Sometimes An Aid Rather Than An Impediment To Social Advancement . . .
Humorous
Sarcasm
Advancement
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.
Men
Information
Holmes
You See, But You Do Not Observe.
Curiosity
Statistics
Detectives
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.
Motivational
Work
Giving
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