All Quotes

"You and I, Watson, we have done our part. Shall the world, then, be overrun by oysters? No, no; horrible!"

"But I have reasons to suppose that this opinion would be very much more frank and valuable if he imagines that we are alone."

"I give you my word that for three days I have tasted neither food nor drink until you were good enough to pour me out that glass of water. But it is the tobacco which I find most irksome."

"Three days of absolute fast does not improve one's beauty, Watson."

"Malingering is a subject upon which I have sometimes thought of writing a monograph."

"I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity it is certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations before we fall back upon such a theory as this."

"I think, Watson, that I shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning which you have so often and so justly condemned."

"To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces."

"We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes! My poor parish is devil-ridden! Satan himself is loose in it! We are given over into his hands!"

"It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official police force."

"I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry."

"Surely the clearest proof of it is that, knowing what I know, I have sent for you and not for the police."

"I have heard your reasons and regard them as unconvincing and inadequate. We will pass that."

"I followed you.""I saw no one.""That is what you may expect to see when I follow you."

"Some fumes which are not poisonous would be a welcome change."

"Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared."

"It may be some fussy, self-important fool; it may be a matter of life or death."

"I should say that there is no more dangerous man in Europe." "I have had several opponents to whom that flattering term has been applied."

"I am sorry. I am accustomed to have mystery at one end of my cases, but to have it at both ends is too confusing. I fear, Sir James, that I must decline to act."

"A complex mind. All great criminals have that."

"I have my plans. The first thing is to exaggerate my injuries. They'll come to you for news. Put it on thick, Watson. Lucky if I live the week out — concussion — delirium — what you like! You can't overdo it."

"I have found out who our client is," I cried, bursting with my great news. "Why, Holmes, it is —""It is a loyal friend and a chivalrous gentleman," said Holmes, holding up a restraining hand. "Let that now and forever be enough for us."

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go."

"Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson," said Holmes in a reminiscent voice. "It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."

"This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply."

"Of course I remembered him," said I as I laid down the letter. "Big Bob Ferguson, the finest three-quarter Richmond ever had. He was always a good-natured chap. It's like him to be so concerned over a friend's case." Holmes looked at me thoughtfully and shook his head. "I never get your limits, Watson," said he. "There are unexplored possibilities about you. Take a wire down, like a good fellow. 'Will examine your case with pleasure.'" --"Your case!" --"We must not let him think that this agency is a home for the weak-minded."

"It is simpler to deal direct."

"In my profession all sorts of odd knowledge comes useful, and this room of yours is a storehouse of it."

"Well, Watson, we can but possess our souls in patience and see what the hour may bring."

"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."

"We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception."

"We can but try."

"Come at once if convenient — if inconvenient come all the same."

"When one tries to rise above Nature one is liable to fall below it. The highest type of man may revert to the animal if he leaves the straight road of destiny."

"That the dog should die was after the beautiful, faithful nature of dogs."

"I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles."

"Dogs don't make mistakes."

"Cut out the poetry, Watson."

"Things must be done decently and in order."

"Elementary, my dear Watson."

"Quick Watson, the needle."

"The world has teeth and it can bite you with them any time it wants."

"Sundance is weird. The movies are weird—you actually have to think about them when you watch them."

"I just want to say that um, I'm just really, really shocked at like how nice our world is because it's just so nice. Like oh my God! Like, the other day, like I was sitting there and I saw these magazines and they said I was pregnant, and like, it's so true. Like America, believe everything you read. Because, like, you're smart and I'm stupid. Like for real. Come on y'all."

"Eat it, lick it, snort it, fuck it!"

"I look back and think I'm a smart person! What the hell was I thinking?"

"Carlson: Give me the chronology of the kiss. How did you decide to kiss Madonna? Spears: Well, actually, in rehearsals, it wasn't something that was like, "Y'know, This is what we're gonna do. Y'know." It was just kinda like we play around a little bit and, um, she said during—before the performance, "Let's just feel it out and see what happens." So I didn't know it was gonna be that long and everything, but it was cool."

"I think I'm still clean living, you know? That's something, when I—I don't go home and have orgies or anything like that. I'm still the same person that I've always been. So…."

"Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that, you know, and, um, be faithful in what happens."