Top 100 Quotes About Holmes
#1. The incredible thing happens at the beginning of the story always, you notice, not the end. A Sherlock Holmes story is never a trick story.
Rex Stout
#2. If I had never touched Holmes, who has tended to obscure my higher work, my position in literature would at the present moment be a more commanding one,
Arthur Conan Doyle
#3. Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong.
Sophia McDougall
#4. Speaking professionally, it was admirably done."
-John H. Watson-
-The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes-
Arthur Conan Doyle
#5. And if so, I could fill my time with the new entry on my rather exclusive social register, whoever had created the Howling Vegetable of N.W. 4th Street, and the fact that this sounded rather like a Sherlock Holmes title made it no less urgent.
Jeff Lindsay
#6. He had breath in him once," he declared. "He is to be treated with respect, no matter the cost." "Now is not the time for empty ritual," Holmes thundered. "Now is precisely the time!" Douglas thundered back. "When we ourselves are empty, it is the ritual that turns us human again.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
#7. Eliminate the impossible, and what ever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" - Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#8. 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
#9. There would be no Sherlock Holmes if it were not for serial publication.
Margaret Atwood
#10. 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
#11. I've got to find Holmes."
"I guess that means you haven't heard. Oh, Jamie, I didn't want to be the one to tell you. But there's been an accident. A horrible, horrible accident.
Brittany Cavallaro
#12. I've done 33 Sherlock Holmes stories and bits of them are all right. But the definitive Sherlock Holmes is really in everyone's head. No actor can fit into that category because every reader has his own ideal.
Jeremy Brett
#13. A Dickens character to me is a theatrical projection of a character. Not that it isn't real. It's real, but in that removed sense. But Sherlock Holmes is simply there. I would be astonished if I went to 221 1/2 B Baker Street and didn't find him.
[An Invitation to Learning, January 1942]
Rex Stout
#14. We never like the smell of our own vices in other people, Holmes. Ah, let's steer here for a drink or two," Lowell suggested.
Matthew Pearl
#15. I kept looking [at wife Katie Holmes] and thinking, 'This woman's amazing.' I'm happy that I'm with her. She's amazing, and I'd think the same of her even if she wasn't with me
she's just amazing.
Tom Cruise
#16. You let their friendship continue because Maisie looks after your son while you're gallivanting around the country disguised as Sherlock Holmes - Uncle Paton Yewbeam
Jenny Nimmo
#17. 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
#18. I had given Holmes this wedding as a gift-only to have him turn around and hand it back to me tenfold. And now his two oldest friends in all the world had conspired against our plans, casually rendering our feeble attempts at a gift into solid gold.
Laurie R. King
#19. [Oliver Wendell] Holmes never believed in the truth and morality of the laws he was upholding. He said, "I loathe the thick-fingered clowns we call the people."
Jeffrey Rosen
#20. 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
#21. Science makes major contributions to minor needs, Justice Holmes was fond of saying, adding that religion, however small its successes, is at least at work on the things that matter most.
Huston Smith
#22. No one except Sherlock Holmes thought he should be going anywhere, least of all his long-suffering doctor, but the game was afoot.
Emma Jane Holloway
#23. I had received an answer to the question that Holmes had put to me. Now all I needed to know was why I had asked it.
Anthony Horowitz
#24. 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
#25. 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
#26. Holmes," I cried, "this is impossible." "Admirable!" he said. "A most illuminating remark. It IS impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong. Yet you saw for yourself. Can you suggest any fallacy?
Arthur Conan Doyle
#27. Information can be harmful when you're not ready for it. ['The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes']
Richard Walter
#28. As we approached the forbidding and squalid inn, with the sign of a game-cock above the door, Holmes gave a sudden groan, and clutched me by the shoulder to save himself from falling. He had had one of those violent strains of the ankle which leave a man helpless.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#29. John Clellon Holmes ... and I were sitting around trying to think up the meaning of the Lost Generation and the subsequent existentialism and I said 'You know John, this is really a beat generation'; and he leapt up and said, 'That's it, that's right!'
Jack Kerouac
#30. Any truth is better than indefinite doubt. - Sherlock Holmes, as recorded by John H. Watson, M.D., "The Adventure of the Yellow Face
Emma Jane Holloway
#31. Yes, Siobhan ?" Rebus said by way of an answer.
"Page wants you inside the tent rather than out."
"Is that even possible ?"
"You'd be acting in a consultative capicity."
"Like Sherlock Holmes ? Would I need invoices & stuff ? And a housekeeper and a sidekick ?
Ian Rankin
#32. The fact that Holmes had earlier lodgings in Montague Street (alongside the British Museum) is forgotten. That was before Watson and we must have Watson too.
Christopher Morley
#33. 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
#34. Dr. Holmes came again. Large, fresh coloured, handsome, flicking his boots, looking in the glass, he brushed it all aside-headaches, sleeplessness, fears, dreams-nerve symptoms and nothing more, he said.
Virginia Woolf
#35. 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
#36. I confess that I was filled with curiosity, but I was aware that Holmes liked to make his disclosures at his own time and in his own way,
Arthur Conan Doyle
#37. There is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado page on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now, we don't know if this is the same Jim Holmes. But it's Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.
Brian Ross
#38. The world domination plan goal is that I would love Veronica Mars to become a brand like Sherlock Holmes is a brand, like Nancy Drew, in a way, is a brand. When people start listing who are the great fictional detectives, I want Veronica Mars to make that list. That would be the dream scenario.
Rob Thomas
#39. Everybody, I think, who hopes to become a judge would aspire to be able to write as well as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. None are going to be able to attain that.
Merrick Garland
#40. I've owned a thousand houses that I've never built," she said. "Never had the money to build. Couldn't have used if I had had the money. Never really wanted to build maybe. But I still own the houses."
Karen Holmes in From Here To Eternity
James Jones
#41. In 'A Boy's Own Story' and 'Jack Holmes and His Friend,' my idea was to take someone totally different from my real self and, at the same time, to assign to him my own life trajectory.
Edmund White
#42. Sherlock Holmes and Jem Finch would agree.
Harper Lee
#43. I beat Larry Holmes and George Foreman. I whupped Mike Tyson twice. I had my ear chewed off and spat on the ground in front of me. I've seen everything it is possible to see in boxing. I know this business better than anyone. So I live and die by my own decisions.
Evander Holyfield
#44. 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
#45. I dislike the idea of a murderer employing children,' said Holmes darkly. 'It is, I agree, bad for their morals, and interferes with their sleep.' 'And their schooling,' added Holmes sententiously.
Laurie R. King
#46. Perhaps Dexter's dutiful but uninspired brain pictured him as Sherlock Holmes, able to examine the wheel ruts and deduce that a left-handed hunchback with red hair and a limp had gone down the road carrying a Cuban cigar and a ukulele. I would find no clues, not that it mattered.
Jeff Lindsay
#47. And then I thought that I had to be like Sherlock Holmes and I had to detach my mind at will to a remarkable degree so that I did not notice how much it was hurting inside my head.
Mark Haddon
#48. Johannes Cabal would kill me for saying this, but he's my favorite Zeppelin-hopping detective. The fellow has got all the charm of Bond and the smarts of Holmes
without the pesky morality.
Daniel H. Wilson
#49. I love Sherlock Holmes. I've got all his books, leather-bound. What I thought was great about Sherlock Holmes was that not only was he a supersleuth, he was also a hard worker. Not only did he go out and solve the crimes, he came home and wrote it all down. Fantastic. That's why I admire him.
Steve Coogan
#50. I lost three times in my career. Losing to Holmes I could deal with, because I lost to a true champion.
Gerry Cooney
#51. All that was Emmanuelle Holmes in his kitchen in his tee making him a sandwich after he'd fucked her and they'd both come hard.
That did not suck.
Kristen Ashley
#52. I had did so much to Larry [Holmes] in the ring that I made him respect me in the fight.
Michael Spinks
#53. Winwood Reade is good upon the subject," said Holmes. "He remarks that, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#54. You look at me as if I were a conjuror,' Holmes remarked, with a laugh.
Anthony Horowitz
#55. 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
#56. In other people's books, I tend to love the really daredevil-y characters. I love Finnick from 'The Hunger Games.' And I think, probably, my favorite character of all time is Sherlock Holmes.
Cassandra Clare
#59. My dear fellow, you may laugh, but I give you my word that I shall be very glad to have you back safe and sound in Baker Street once more.
- Holmes, to Watson.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#60. Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
Douglas Adams
#61. Unlike other enduring characters such as 'Sherlock Holmes' or 'Tarzan,' being the 'Doctor' allows you a certain freedom that is both very demanding and very thrilling. It allows you to make the character using elements of yourself.
David Tennant
#62. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#63. To make a current example, the world can find human interest in the death and the love affairs and the pallid addiction to cocaine of Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
John Albert Macy
#64. The future is in great hands with feminists such as Carla Buzasi, Caroline Criado-Perez, Lucy-Anne Holmes
Bonnie Greer
#65. Like all Holmes' reasoning, the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained. Dr. Watson, speaking of Sherlock Holmes.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#68. I looked at the actors with whom I'd grown so familiar over the last few months: Scott Holmes (who was playing Mike - and who was eventually credited as "Mike Holmes" because Tommy forgot his real name),
Greg Sestero
#69. Trying to be Sherlock Holmes is like trying to catch an arrow in mid-flight.
Jeremy Brett
#70. And once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complexity of human life so pletifuly presents.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#71. You know, Watson, I don't mind confessing to you that I have always had an idea that I would have made a highly efficient criminal.
Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#72. I felt Holmes's hand steal into mine and give me a reassuring shake.
- Watson
Arthur Conan Doyle
#73. Every calling is great if greatly pursued."-Late Former Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
R.W. Preston
#74. No wonder Sherlock Holmes did all that coke. Math is hard.
Richard Kadrey
#75. I think my reputation will look after itself," Holmes said. "If they hang me, Watson, I shall leave it to you to persuade your readers that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.
Anthony Horowitz
#76. I read all the Agatha Christies when I was younger and like Sherlock Holmes. Crime fiction has always fascinated me, but I'll read anything anyone gives me.
Emilia Fox
#77. It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it. If you were asked to prove that two and two made four, you might find some difficulty, and yet you are quite sure of the fact.
~ Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
#78. Every man finds his limitations, Mr. Holmes, but at least it cures us of the weakness of self-satisfaction.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#80. Jesus Christ - "
"Sherlock Holmes, actually. And you were doing such a good job remembering my name.
Eva Morgan
#81. I dove on those papers like Sherlock Holmes on a cappuccino binge.
Jordan Sonnenblick
#82. Some of you rich men have to be taught that all the world cannot be bribed into condoning your offences. Sherlock Holmes, The Problem of Thor Bridge
Arthur Conan Doyle
#83. The period after the First World War was an extremely different time, so that Sherlock Holmes would have been a different person following 1918 than he was during the Victorian era.
Laurie R. King
#84. Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.
Jeffery Deaver
#85. Sometimes I wake up and think, 'I want to look like Sherlock Holmes today,' and other times I want to look like a witch from 'Macbeth.'
Edie Campbell
#86. In those days Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road.
C.S. Lewis
#87. It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished. In
Arthur Conan Doyle
#88. I take my favorite and most promising lads to the theater," said [Sherlock] Holmes. "I'd say that if they were born into better circumstances many would have grown up to be MP's, but in truth most are too smart and too honest for Parliament.
Dan Simmons
#90. Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low laugh and put his lips to my ear.
"It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#91. I reached for the prescription. In a vigorous scrawl, he inked: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. Take ten pages, twice a day, till end of course.
Diane Setterfield
#92. Who are you, then?" "My name is Sherlock Holmes." "Good Lord!" "You have heard of me, I see.
Arthur Conan Doyle
#93. I mean really: If even Conan Doyle hungered to shove Holmes off a tall cliff, surely a young female of obvious intelligence would have brained the detective on first sight.
Laurie R. King
#95. There's something very strange about Sherlock Holmes, especially if you're an English schoolboy. When you read the stories, they stay with you forever.
Anthony Horowitz
#97. We like to see death as an unfair conspiracy, and what we want is a magic practitioner, a combination of Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes.
A.A. Gill
#98. Of all the ways to murder someone, slowly, over the course of about 75 years or so, is the best way to not get caught. Nobody, not even Sherlock Holmes, would suspect a thing.
Jarod Kintz
#100. From the vantage of the early twenty-first century, it might be more accurate to say, with no disrespect, that Arthur Conan Doyle originated Sherlock Holmes. The rest of us, obviously, aren't yet finished creating him.
Zach Dundas
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