Sherlock Holmes

"There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you."

"For once you have fallen low. Let us see, in the future, how high you can rise."

"Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."

"We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination."

"It was vain to urge that his time was already fully occupied, for the young lady had come with the determination to tell her story, and it was evident that nothing short of force could get her out of the room until she had done so. With a resigned air and a somewhat weary smile, Holmes begged the beautiful intruder to take a seat and to inform us what it was that was troubling her."

"Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs."

"My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know."

"I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they seem to you to be relevant or not."

"It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated."

"Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!"

"I had little doubt that I had come to the end of my career when I perceived the somewhat sinister figure of the late Professor Moriarty standing upon the narrow pathway which led to safety. I read an inexorable purpose in his gray eyes. I exchanged some remarks with him, therefore, and obtained his courteous permission to write the short note which you afterwards received. I left it with my cigarette-box and my stick, and I walked along the pathway, Moriarty still at my heels. When I reached the end I stood at bay. He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me. He knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon me. 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. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he went. With my face over the brink, I saw him fall for a long way. Then he struck a rock, bounded off, and splashed into the water."

"What one man can invent another can discover."

"It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong."

"One should always look for a possible alternative, and provide against it. It is the first rule of criminal investigation."

"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."

"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."

"Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another."

"The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."

"That is the case as it appears to the police, and improbable as it is, all other explanations are more improbable still."

"I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain. Results without causes are much more impressive."

"Out of my last 53 cases 49 have been given full credit to the police and the rest to me."

"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."

"Bear in mind, Sir Henry, one of the phrases in that queer old legend which Dr. Mortimer has read to us, and avoid the moor in those hours of darkness when the powers of evil are exalted."

"You never tire of the moor. You cannot think the wonderful secrets which it contains. It is so vast, and so barren, and so mysterious."

"Work is the best antidote to sorrow."

"There is no prospect of danger, or I should not dream of stirring out without you."

"We had got as far as this, when who should walk in but the gentleman himself, who had been drinking his beer in the tap-room 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. He ended a string of abuse by a vicious back-hander, which I failed to entirely avoid. The next few minutes were delicious. It was a straight left against a slogging ruffian. I emerged as you see me. Mr. Woodley went home in a cart. So ended my country trip, and it must be confessed that, however enjoyable, my day on the Surrey border has not been much more profitable than your own."

"I have never been in Africa in my life, so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Busybody Holmes!"

"We're not jealous of you down at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there's not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand."

"There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast."

"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."

"It is not so impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this, I have endeavoured in my case to do."

"It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles."

"It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes’ requests, for they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with such a quiet air of mastery."

""You are Holmes, the meddler." My friend smiled. "Holmes, the busybody!" His smile broadened. "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" Holmes chuckled heartily."

"When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals. He has the nerve and he has the knowledge."

"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."

"Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person."

"It is more than possible; it is probable."

""Is there any other 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."

"Any truth is better than indefinite doubt."

""I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. "When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansom. As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom." "Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he."

"Watson here will tell you that I never can resist a touch of the dramatic."

"If I were assured of your eventual destruction I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept my own."

"He is the Napoleon of crime."

"Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes thoughtfully. "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."

"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact."

"You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles."

"There is so much red tape in these matters."