More Arthur Conan Doyle

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Sir Walter, with his 61 years of life, although he never wrote a novel until he was over 40, had, fo...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people be...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people wit...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, howe...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lines which run high and allow you to l...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Dr. Watson's summary list of Sherlock Holmes's strengths and weaknesses:

"1. Knowledge of...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire.

A fool always finds a greater fool to ad...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The lowest and vilest alleys of London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the sm...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far mo...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You will, I am sure, agree with me that... if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the leng...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The most difficult crime to track is the one which is purposeless.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their child...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There is nothing more unaesthetic than a policeman.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to qu...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE A trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE We can't command our love, but we can our actions.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I never guess. It is a shocking habit destructive to the logical faculty.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest mani...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Where there is no imagination there is no horror.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I am lost without my Boswell.

[Sherlock Holmes on Dr. Watson.]
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly dr...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to qu...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the obse...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE What a lovely thing a rose is!"

He walked past the couch to the open window and held up t...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without havi...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, an...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE When a man does a queer thing, or two queer things, there may be a meaning to it, but when everythin...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matt...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclu...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE From the first day I met her, she was the only woman to me. Every day of that voyage I loved her mor...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearing...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however imp...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I felt Holmes's hand steal into mine and give me a reassuring shake.

- Watson
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The Times is a paper which is seldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to sui...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Well, Watson, what do you make of it?'

Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE A study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn't we use a little art jargon? There's the scarlet thread of murd...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own. ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Everything I have to say has already crossed your mind."
"Then possibly my answer has crossed y...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman's love, however badly he...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gig...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?'

'To the curious incide...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Problems may be solved in the study which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the a...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs f...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income o...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE When people bury treasure nowadays they do it in the Post-Office bank.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The man might have died in a fit; but then the jewels are missing," mused the Inspector, "Ha! I have...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the wo...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I do not know whether it came from his own innate depravity or from the promptings of his master, bu...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Do you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Era peor la herida... eran peor muchas heridas... que saber la profundidad de lealtad y amor que yac...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE When will you be pleased to dine, Mr. Holmes?' Mrs. Hudson asked. 'Seven-thirty, the day after to-mo...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE A fortune for one man that was more than he needed should not be built on ten thousand ruined men wh...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE . . . and meanwhile take my assurance that the clouds are lifting and that I have every hope that th...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE When one tries to rise above Nature one is liable to fall below it.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE She entered with ungainly struggle like some huge awkward chicken, torn, squawking, out of its coop.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE We give you best, Holmes. I believe you are the devil himself.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE One likes to think that there is some fantastic limbo for the children of imagination, some strange,...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE No ghosts need apply.

- Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You are right," he cried with an immense sigh of relief. "It is quite superficial." His face set lik...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It was worth a wound--it was worth many wounds--to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behi...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is all in the way of professional experience.
- Sherlock Holmes
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE All right, Watson. Don’t look so scared,” he muttered in a very weak voice. “It’s not as bad...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There is a danger there - a very real danger to humanity. Consider, Watson, that the material, the s...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then th...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Every man finds his limitations, Mr. Holmes, but at least it cures us of the weakness of self-satisf...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There is a soul-jealousy that can be as frantic as any body-jealousy.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE When once your point of view is changed, the very thing which was so damning becomes a clue to the t...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action I can recall in our...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Anything is better than stagnation.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!"
It was worth a wound -- it...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE presume nothing
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you s...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and I must further beg you to be so unconventional ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime; and when Hom...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is a...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining light as to the tendencies of a child b...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when [Holmes] became a speciali...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he i...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You see, but you do not observe
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My correspondence has certainly the charm of variety, and the humbler are usually the more interesti...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to c...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The charlatan is always the pioneer... The quack of yesterday is the professor of tomorrow.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Her cuisine is limited but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman."

[Sh...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking int...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I wanted to end the world, but I'll settle for ending yours.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The game is afoot.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You see, but you do not observe.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and su...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Some people's affability is more deadly than the violence of coarser souls.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Let me see—what are my other shortcomings? I get in the dumps at times, and don't open my mouth fo...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There are no crimes and no criminals in these days. What is the use of having brains in our professi...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE When a man writes on a wall, his instinct leads him to write above the level of his own eyes.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery. The most commonplace crime is often the most m...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE To begin at the beginning.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There is a mystery about this which stimulates the imagination; where there is no imagination there ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politic...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Let me see. What are my other shortcomings?
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE By a man's finger-nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by the callosities ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE One's ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a link of it.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a ve...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travele...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I get in the dumps at times, and don't open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it. If you were asked to prove that two and two ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently: "you say that we go round the sun. If we we...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Where there is no imagination, there is no horror.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It's quite exciting," said Sherlock Holmes, with a yawn.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi stimul ac nummos contemplar in arca.
(The pub...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I should prefer that you do not mention my name at all in connection with this case, as I choose to ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Now, Watson, confess yourself utterly taken aback,” said he. “I am.” “I ought to make you si...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I am inclined to think--” said I. “I should do so,” Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently. I be...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?” “The famous scientific criminal, as famous among...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My brain has always governed my heart" Sherlock Holmes
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His expression, his manner, his very soul seemed ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Let me say right here, Mr. Holmes, that money is nothing to me in this case. You can burn it if it�...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion, bitterly. “The ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two who had never seen each other before that day,...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson,
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I had,” said he, “come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which shows, my dear Watson, how dang...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins t...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I said that he was my superior in observation and deduction. If the art of the detective began and e...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My line of thoughts about dogs is analogous. A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky do...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, HOWEVER ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You mentioned your name as if I should recognize it, but beyond the obvious facts that you are a bac...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE You have been in Afghanistan I perceive.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is easy to be wise after the event.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE ...Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, ju...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE if i could be assured of your destruction, i would in the interest of the public, cheerfully accept ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE So swift, silent, and furtive were his movements, like those of a trained blood-hound picking out a ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Well, and there is the end of our little drama," I remarked, after we had sat some time smoking in s...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Il n'y a pas des sots si incommodes que ceux ont de l'esprit.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, ...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE It is cocaine," he said, "a seven-per-cent solution. Would you
care to try it?"
"No, indee...
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

It is more than possible; it is probable.

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Arthur Conan Doyle

It is more than possible; it is probable.

Arthur Conan Doyle

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