Doyle stokes in a thousand shrewd touches with no effort at all. Wonderful.

...it is our good fortune that the exigencies of birth and training furnish all of us with the opportunities for snobbery.

In a world that operates largely at random, coincidences are to be expected, but any one of them must always be mistrusted.

[A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.

I have a strong moral sense - by my standards.

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.