Top 100 Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Quotes
#1. No ghosts need apply.
- Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire
Arthur Conan Doyle
#2. Speaking professionally, it was admirably done."
-John H. Watson-
-The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes-
Arthur Conan Doyle
#3. My business is that of every other good citizen - to uphold the law.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#4. It is of the first importance not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities. A client is to me a mere unit,
a factor in a problem. - Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#5. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#6. Suddenly the dreamer disappeared, and Holmes, the man of action, sprang from his chair.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#8. And he has guns and dogs that would make the Hound of Baskervilles seem like a bleeding Pekinese.
David Baldacci
#9. I must really apologize, Hopkins," said Sherlock Holmes. "I fear that the scrambled eggs are cold. However, you will enjoy the rest of your breakfast all the better, will you not, for the thought that you have brought your case to a triumphant conclusion.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#11. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#12. [Sherlock Holmes:] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#13. That hurts my pride, Watson. It is a petty feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal matter with me now..."
-Sherlock Holmes-
-The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Five Orange Pips-
Arthur Conan Doyle
#14. Eliminate the impossible, and what ever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" - Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#15. I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#16. The Times is a paper which is seldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#17. I cannot at the moment recall any possible blunder which you have omitted. From His Last Bow
Arthur Conan Doyle
#18. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#19. Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so completely overtopped every other consideration that we both burst out into a roar of laughter.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#22. One should always look for a possible alternative, and provide against it.
-Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#23. By all means."
"The first three sensible words that you have uttered since you entered this room, Watson
Arthur Conan Doyle
#24. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#25. I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#26. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#28. Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#31. If in 100 years I am only known as the man who invented Sherlock Holmes then I will have considered my life a failure.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#33. I am inclined to think
" said I. "I should do so," Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently. I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I'll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption. "Really, Holmes," said I severely, "you are a little trying at times.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#34. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#36. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#37. If the fresh facts come to our knowledge all fit themselves into the scheme, then our hypothesis may gradually become a solution. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#38. His name," said the cabman, "was Mr. Sherlock Holmes."
Never have I seen my friend more completely taken aback than by the cabman's reply. For an instant he sat in silent amazement. Then he burst into a hearty laugh.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#40. Her cuisine is limited but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman.
[Sherlock Holmes, on Mrs. Hudson's cooking.]
Arthur Conan Doyle
#41. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#42. What do you think of this, Holmes? Sholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off with the treasure? How's that?"
"On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the inside.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#43. Come at once if convenient- if inconvenient come all the same.
- S. H.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#44. Watson: "Get that out of my face."
Sherlock: "It's not in your face, it's in my hand."
Watson: "Get what's in your hand out of my face.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#45. That one word, my dear Watson, should have told me the whole story had I been the ideal reasoner which you are so fond of depicting. It was evidently a term of reproach."
-Sherlock Holmes-
Arthur Conan Doyle
#46. They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#47. To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#48. From the point of view of the criminal expert," said Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the death of the late lamented Professor Moriarty.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#49. Take a pinch of snuff, doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over you in your example.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#50. Mr. Sherlock Holmes ... was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#53. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#55. I would not bring one shadow on his life, and this I know would break his noble heart.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#56. You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#57. 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 exagerate one's own powers.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#59. All my instincts are one way, and all the facts are the other, and I much fear that British juries have not yet attained that pitch of intelligence when they will give the preference to my theories over Lestrade's facts.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#60. I should prefer that you do not mention my name at all in connection with this case, as I choose to be only associated with those crimes which present some difficulty in their solution.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#61. Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. Please come at once and join me there. Bring with you a jemmy, a dark lantern, a chisel, and a revolver. S. H. It was a nice equipment for a respectable citizen to carry through the dim, fog-draped streets.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#62. It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle.
Frederick Buechner
#63. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#64. And so reader, farewell to Sherlock Holmes! I thank you for your past constancy, and can but hope that some return has been made in the shape of that distraction from the worries of life and stimulating change of thought which can only be found in the fairy kingdom of romance.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#65. Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#69. Never theorize before you have data.Invariably you end up twisting facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.
-Sherlock holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#70. To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#71. Prescription: 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. Take ten pages, twice a day, til end of course.
Diane Setterfield
#72. If you eliminate all other possibilities, whatever remains must be the truth." Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#73. Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#74. No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#75. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#76. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#77. Men of character always differentiate their long letters, however illegibly they may write. - Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#79. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#80. Conan Doyle deluded a century of readers into thinking we're all deductive geniuses.
Rob Thomas
#81. Murder was so trivial in the stories Harold loved. Dead bodies were plot points, puzzles to be reasoned out. They weren't brothers. Plot points didn't leave behind grieving sisters who couldn't find their shoes.
Graham Moore
#83. I think I have known how to frame the letter, said Sherlock Holmes.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#85. There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#86. So you can put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Busybody Holmes.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#87. I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?
Arthur Conan Doyle
#88. No: I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely." ~ Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#89. You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#90. you know a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick and if I show too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all." -Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#92. Is there any 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#93. When will you be pleased to dine, Mr. Holmes?' Mrs. Hudson asked. 'Seven-thirty, the day after to-morrow' said he.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#95. And meanwhile take my assurance that the clouds are lifting and that I have every hope that the light of truth is breaking through
Arthur Conan Doyle
#98. Moriarty: ... everything I have to say has already crossed your mind.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#99. 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.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#100. You're too late. She's my wife."
"No, she's your widow."
His revolver cracked, and I saw the blood spurt from the front of Woodley's waistcoat. He spun round with a scream and fell upon his back, his hideous red face turning suddenly to a dreadful mottled pallor.
Arthur Conan Doyle
