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There Is Nothing In Which Deduction Is So Necessary As In Religion," Said He, Leaning With His Back Against The Shutters. "it Can Be Built Up As An Exact Science By The Reasoner. Our Highest Assurance Of The Goodness Of Providence Seems To Me To Rest In The Flowers. All Other Things, Our Powers, Our Desires, Our Food, Are All Really Necessary For Our Existence In The First Instance. But This Rose Is An Extra. Its Smell And Its Colour Are An Embellishment Of Life, Not A Condition Of It. It Is Only Goodness Which Gives Extras, And So I Say Again That We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

-Arthur Conan Doyle

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There Is Nothing In

Arthur Conan Doyle

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There Is Nothing In Which Deduction Is So Necessary As In Religion," Said He, Leaning With His Back Against The Shutters. "it Can Be Built Up As An Exact Science By The Reasoner. Our Highest Assurance Of The Goodness Of Providence Seems To Me To Rest In The Flowers. All Other Things, Our Powers, Our Desires, Our Food, Are All Really Necessary For Our Existence In The First Instance. But This Rose Is An Extra. Its Smell And Its Colour Are An Embellishment Of Life, Not A Condition Of It. It Is Only Goodness Which Gives Extras, And So I Say Again That We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

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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!(...)

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.

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

Sherlock Holmes Took His Bottle From The Corner Of The Mantel-piece, And His Hypodermic Syringe From Its Neat Morocco Case. With His Long, White, Nervous Fingers He Adjusted The Delicate Needle, And Rolled Back His Left Shirt-cuff. For Some Little Time His Eyes Rested Thoughtfully Upon The Sinewy Forearm And Wrist, All Dotted And Scarred With Innumerable Puncture-marks. Finally, He Thrust The Sharp Point Home, Pressed Down The Tiny Piston, And Sank Back Into The Velvet-lined Armchair With A Long Sigh Of Satisfaction.

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.

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.

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.

"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."

...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.

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.

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.

Where There Is No Imagination There Is No Horror.

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

I Do Hate The City Of London! It Is The Only Thing Which Ever Comes Between Us.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

I Suppose I Shall Have To Compound A Felony As Usual.

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.

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

I Trust That Age Doth Not Wither Nor Custom Stale My Infinite Variety.

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.

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.

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

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

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 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.

It Is An Old Maxim Of Mine That When You Have Excluded The Impossible, Whatever Remains, However Improbable, Must Be The Truth.

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

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?

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.

Art In The Blood Is Liable To Take The Strangest Forms.

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.

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

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.

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.

Horses: Dangerous On Both Ends And Crafty In The Middle

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.

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

'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.'

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wedding Anniversary

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

I Wanted To End The World But,i'll Settle For Ending Yours.

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.

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.

There Is Nothing More Deceptive Than An Obvious Fact.

You Have Been In Afghanistan I Perceive.

What A Lovely Thing A Rose Is!

It's A Wicked World, And When A Clever Man Turns His Brain To Crime It Is The Worst Of All.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

I Am An Omnivorous Reader With A Strangely Retentive Memory For Trifles.

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

There Is Danger For Him Who Taketh The Tiger Cub, And Danger Also For Whoso Snatches A Delusion From A Woman.

He Burst Into One Of His Rare Fits Of Laughter As He Turned Away From The Picture. I Have Not Heard Him Laugh Often, And It Has Always Boded Ill To Somebody.

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

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.

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.

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.

Have You Tried To Drive A Harpoon Through A Body? No? Tut, Tut, My Dear Sir, You Must Really Pay Attention To These Details.

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.

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

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

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

Healthy Scepticism Is The Basis Of All Accurate Observation.

It Is A Great Thing To Start Life With A Small Number Of Really Good Books Which Are Your Very Own.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Living, As I Do, In An Educated And Scientific Atmosphere, I Could Not Have Conceived That The First Principles Of Zoology Were So Little Known. Is It Possible That You Do Not Know The Elementary Fact In Comparative Anatomy, That The Wing Of A Bird Is Really The Forearm, While The Wing Of A Bat Consists Of Three Elongated Fingers With Membranes Between?

Now, Watson,” Said Holmes, As A Tall Dog-cart Dashed Up Through The Gloom, Throwing Out Two Golden Tunnels Of Yellow Light From Its Side Lanterns. “you’ll Come With Me, Won’t You?” “if I Can Be Of Use.” “oh, A Trusty Comrade Is Always Of Use; And A Chronicler Still More So. My Room At The Cedars Is A Double-bedded One.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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 Great Bell Of Beaulieu Was Ringing. Far Away Through The Forest Might Be Heard Its Musical Clangor And Swell.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It Is Of The Highest Importance In The Art Of Detection To Be Able To Recognise Out Of A Number Of Facts Which Are Incidental And Which Are Vital.

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

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

I Can Never Bring You To Realize The Importance Of Sleeves, The Suggestiveness Of Thumb-nails, Or The Great Issues That May Hang From A Boot-lace.

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

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

The Soul Is Swayed By The Waters.

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

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

There Are Heroisms All Round Us Waiting To Be Done.

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.

Ex-professor Moriarty Of Mathematical Celebrity... Is The Napoleon Of Crime, Watson.

Any Truth Is Better Than Indefinite Doubt.

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

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

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

This Looks Like One Of Those Unwelcome Social Summonses Which Call Upon A Man Either To Be Bored Or To Lie.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Might I Trouble You To Open The Window, For Chloroform Vapour Does Not Help The Palate.

We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

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

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.

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

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.

""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.

There Is Nothing In Which Deduction Is So Necessary As In Religion," Said He, Leaning With His Back Against The Shutters. "it Can Be Built Up As An Exact Science By The Reasoner. Our Highest Assurance Of The Goodness Of Providence Seems To Me To Rest In The Flowers. All Other Things, Our Powers, Our Desires, Our Food, Are All Really Necessary For Our Existence In The First Instance. But This Rose Is An Extra. Its Smell And Its Colour Are An Embellishment Of Life, Not A Condition Of It. It Is Only Goodness Which Gives Extras, And So I Say Again That We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

I Know, My Dear Watson, That You Share My Love Of All That Is Bizarre And Outside The Conventions And Humdrum Routine Of Daily Life.

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

I Felt Holmes's Hand Steal Into Mine And Give Me A Reassuring Shake. - Watson

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

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!

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.

It Is A Mistake To Confound Strangeness With Mystery.

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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

Anything Is Better Than Stagnation.

The Grand Thing Is To Be Able To Reason Backwards.

A Study Of Family Portraits Is Enough To Convert A Man To The Theory Of Reincarnation.

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 Is Quite A Three-pipe Problem.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The Mighty Voice Of Canada Will Ever Call To Me.

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.

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

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

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.

The Fair Sex Is Your Department.

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.

I Have Taken To Living By My Wits.

As I Turned Away, I Saw Holmes, With His Back Against A Rock And His Arms Folded, Gazing Down At The Rush Of The Waters. It Was The Last That I Was Ever Destined To See Of Him In This World. - Watson.

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

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. (...)

The Unexpected Has Happened So Continually In My Life That It Has Ceased To Deserve The Name.

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?

The Emotional Qualities Are Antagonistic To Clear Reasoning.

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.

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

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

It Is A Mistake To Confound Strangeness With Mystery. The Most Commonplace Crime Is Often The Most Mysterious Because It Presents No New Or Special Features From Which Deductions May Be Drawn. This Murder Would Have Been Infinitely More Difficult To Unravel Had The Body Of The Victim Been Simply Found Lying In The Roadway Without Any Of Those Outré And Sensational Accompaniments Which Have Rendered It Remarkable. These Strange Details, Far From Making The Case More Difficult, Have Really Had The Effect Of Making It Less So.

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

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