Background Image

...

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.

-Arthur Conan Doyle

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

When You Have One

Arthur Conan Doyle

...

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.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Arthur Conan Doyle

""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.

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

Circumstantial Evidence Is Occasionally Very Convincing, As When You Find A Trout In The Milk, To Quote Thoreau's Example.

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

It Is A Capital Mistake To Theorize Before One Has Data. Insensibly One Begins To Twist Facts To Suit Theories, Instead Of Theories To Suit Facts.

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

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.

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

I Think You Want A Little Unofficial Help. Three Undetected Murders In One Year Won't Do, Lestrade. But You Handled The Molesey Mystery With Less Than Your Usual - That's To Say, You Handled It Fairly Well.

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

We Tottered Together Upon The Brink Of The Fall. I Have Some Knowledge, However, Of Baritsu, Or The Japanese System Of Wrestling, Which Has More Than Once Been Very Useful To Me. I Slipped Through His Grip, And He With A Horrible Scream Kicked Madly For A Few Seconds And Clawed The Air With Both His Hands.

I 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.

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

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

The Ideal Reasoner, He Remarked, Would, When He Had Once Been Shown A Single Fact In All Its Bearings, Deduce From It Not Only All The Chain Of Events Which Led Up To It But Also All The Results Which Would Follow From It.

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

It Is Quite A Three-pipe Problem.

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.

...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.

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.

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.

[sherlock Holmes:] The Temptation To Form Premature Theories Upon Insufficient Data Is The Bane Of Our Profession.

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

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 Never Can Resist A Touch Of The Dramatic.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

It Is A Mistake To Confound Strangeness With Mystery.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Anything Seems Commonplace, Once Explained.

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

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

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

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

We Have Much To Hope From The Flowers.

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.

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

Clouds Of Insects Danced And Buzzed In The Golden Autumn Light, And The Air Was Full Of The Piping Of The Song-birds. Long, Glinting Dragonflies Shot Across The Path, Or Hung Tremulous With Gauzy Wings And Gleaming Bodies.

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

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.

Never Trust To General Impressions, My Boy, But Concentrate Yourself Upon Details.

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.

His Neighbor Is A Tooth-drawer. That Bag At His Girdle Is Full Of The Teeth That He Drew At Winchester Fair. I Warrant That There Are More Sound Ones Than Sorry, For He Is Quick At His Work And A Trifle Dim In The Eye.

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.

You See, But You Do Not Observe.

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

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.

There Is Nothing Like First-hand Evidence.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

When We Think How Narrow And Devious This Path Of Nature Is, How Dimly We Can Trace It, For All Our Lamps Of Science, And How From The Darkness Which Girds It Round Great And Terrible Possibilities Loom Ever Shadowly Upwards, It Is A Bold And A Confident Man Who Will Put A Limit To The Strange By-oaths Into Which The Human Spirit May Wander.

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

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

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

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.

A Man With So Large A Brain Must Have Something In It.

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

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.

‎a Change Of Work Is The Best Rest.

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

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.

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.

His Ignorance Was As Remarkable As His Knowledge.

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

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

Picnics Are Very Dear To Those Who Are In The First Stage Of The Tender Passion.

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

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

...while The Individual Man Is An Insoluble Puzzle, In The Aggregate He Becomes A Mathematical Certainty.

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

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.

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

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

Jealousy Is A Strange Transformer Of Characters.

His Love Of Danger, His Intense Appreciation Of The Drama Of An Adventure--all The More Intense For Being Held Tightly In--his Consistent View That Every Peril In Life Is A Form Of Sport, A Fierce Game Betwixt You And Fate, With Death As A Forfeit, Made Him A Wonderful Companion At Such Hours.

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

As Cuvier Could Correctly Describe A Whole Animal By The Contemplation Of A Single Bone, So The Observer Who Has Thoroughly Understood One Link In A Series Of Incidents Should Be Able To Accurately State All The Other Ones, Both Before And After.

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

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.

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

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?

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

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?

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

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.

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 Shape They Were Like Horrible Toads, And Moved In A Succession Of Springs, But In Size They Were Of An Incredible Bulk, Larger Than The Largest Elephant. We Had Never Before Seen Them Save At Night, And Indeed They Are Nocturnal Animals Save When Disturbed In Their Lairs, As These Had Been. We Now Stood Amazed At The Sight, For Their Blotched And Warty Skins Were Of A Curious Fish-like Iridescence, And The Sunlight Struck Them With An Ever-varying Rainbow Bloom As They Moved.

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

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

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

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

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!(...)

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.

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.

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.

You Know My Methods. Apply Them.

Anything Is Better Than Stagnation.

The Good Watson Had At That Time Deserted Me For A Wife, The Only Selfish Action I Can Recall In Our Association. I Was Alone.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Philosophy, Astronomy, And Politics Were Marked At Zero, I Remember. Botany Variable, Geology Profound As Regards The Mud Stains From Any Region Within Fifty Miles Of Town, Chemistry Eccentric, Anatomy Unsystematic, Sensational Literature And Crime Records Unique, Violin Player, Boxer, Swordsman, Lawyer, And Self-poisoner By Cocaine And Tobacco.

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.

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

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

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

It Is Not Really Difficult To Construct A Series Of Inferences, Each Dependent Upon Its Predecessor And Each Simple In Itself. If, After Doing So, One Simply Knocks Out All The Central Inferences And Presents One's Audience With The Starting-point And The Conclusion, One May Produce A Startling, Though Perhaps A Meretricious, Effect.

You Wish To Put Me In The Dark. I Tell You That I Will Never Be Put In The Dark. You Wish To Beat Me. I Tell You That You Will Never Beat Me.

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

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

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.

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

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.

'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.'

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

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

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

To His Eyes All Seemed Beautiful, But To Me A Tinge Of Melancholy Lay Upon The Countryside, Which Bore So Clearly The Mark Of The Waning Year, Yellow Leaves Carpeted The Lanes And Fluttered Down Upon Us As We Passed, The Rattle Of Our Wheels Died Away As We Drove Through Drifts Of Rotting Vegetation--sad Gifts, As It Seemed To Me, For Nature To Throw Before The Carriage Of The Returning Heir Of The Baskervilles.

Any Truth Is Better Than Indefinite Doubt.

"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."

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

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

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

Amberley Excelled At Chess - A Mark, Watson, Of A Scheming Mind.

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

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

I Have Taken To Living By My Wits.

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.

His Sanguine Spirit Turns Every Firefly Into A Star.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 . . .

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.

Once Or Twice In My Career I Feel That I Have Done More Real Harm By My Discovery Of The Criminal Than Ever He Had Done By His Crime. I Have Learned Caution Now, And I Had Rather Play Tricks With The Law Of England Than With My Own Conscience.

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!

Before Turning To Those Moral And Mental Aspects Of The Matter Which Present The Greatest Difficulties, Let The Inquirer Begin By Mastering More Elementary Problems.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

"i Should Have More Faith," He Said; "i Ought To Know By This Time That When A Fact Appears Opposed To A Long Train Of Deductions It Invariably Proves To Be Capable Of Bearing Some Other Interpretation."

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

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.

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

"there Are One Or Two Elementary Rules To Be Observed In The Way Of Handling Patients," He Remarked, Seating Himself On The Table And Swinging His Legs. "the Most Obvious Is That You Must Never Let Them See That You Want Them. It Should Be Pure Condescension On Your Part Seeing Them At All; And The More Difficulties You Throw In The Way Of It, The More They Think Of It. Break Your Patients In Early, And Keep Them Well To Heel."

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

We Had Got As Far As This, When Who Should Walk In But The Gentleman Himself, Who Had Been Drinking His Beer In The Taproom And Had Heard The Whole Conversation. Who Was I? What Did I Want? What Did I Mean By Asking Questions? He Had A Fine Flow Of Language, And His Adjectives Were Very Vigorous.

Trending Author

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Gabrielle Reece

Ferdinand De Saussure

Category