Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

In my inmost heart I believed that I could succeed where others failed, and now I had the opportunit...

The statesman received us with that old-fashioned courtesy for which he is remarkable, and seated us...

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

...above all, do not fret until you know that you really have a cause for it.

It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matt...

Art in the blood is liable to take the strongest forms

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however...

...it is only when a man goes out into the world with the thought that there are heroisms all round ...

On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studi...

Picnics are very dear to those who are in the first stage of the tender passion.

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.

That's rather a broad idea," I remarked. "One's ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to inte...

Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain from it?''What, indeed? It is art for art's s...

The big blank spaces in the map are all being filled in, and there's no room for romance anywhere.

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.

(...) My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with ...

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence, the question is what you can make people be...

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use an...

The cheese-mites asked how the cheese got there, And warmly debated the matter; The Orthodox said th...

I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. "When your round is a short o...

My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining light as to the tendencies of a child b...

To a great mind, nothing is little.

Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.

There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and su...

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, an...

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.

My job is to know what other people do not know.

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however imp...

I do not think that life has any joy to offer so complete, so soul-filling as that which comes upon ...

You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.

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

Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking int...

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

We can't command our love, but we can our actions.

Of all ghosts, the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.

You will, I am sure, agree with me that... if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the leng...

My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, ...

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.

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

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

Some friend of yours, perhaps?""Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage visit...

The mighty voice of Canada will ever call to me.

There are seventy-five perfumes, which it is very necessary that a criminal expert should be able to...

Well, Watson, what do you make of it?'Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no...

You know, Watson, I don't mind confessing to you that I have always had an idea that I would have ma...

There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient ...

Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you...

I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.

Accounts are not quite settled between us," said she, with a passion that equaled my own. "I can lov...

It would be superfluous todrive us mad, my dear Watson

For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far mo...

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.

I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain," said he. "Results without causes are muc...

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.

By the way, Doctor, I shall want your cooperation.''I shall be delighted.''You don't mind breaking t...

Do you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating...

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

It was easier to know it than to explain why I knew it.

Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him: but now and again a reaction woul...

Dr. Watson's summary list of Sherlock Holmes's strengths and weaknesses:"1. Knowledge of Literature:...

Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire.A fool always finds a greater fool to admire him.

It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery. The most commonplace crime is often the most m...

Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning.

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

There are no crimes and no criminals in these days. What is the use of having brains in our professi...

What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or e...

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to sui...

Oh how I've missed you, Holmes.

Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. Please come at once and join me ther...

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

It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lines which run high and allow you to l...

How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gig...

It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do ...

It is a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a brain must have something in it...

Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I ...

I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and I must further beg you to be so unconventional ...

Miss Morstan and I stood together, and her hand was in mine. A wondrous subtle thing is love, for he...

A study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn't we use a little art jargon? There's the scarlet thread of murd...

Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?' 'To the curious incident of the do...

The charlatan is always the pioneer... The quack of yesterday is the professor of tomorrow.

It is only goodness which gives extra...

To underestimate oneself is as much an exaggeration of one's powers than the other.

He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that...

A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman's love, however badly he...

What a lovely thing a rose is!"He walked past the couch to the open window and held up the drooping ...

Her cuisine is limited but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchw

You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.

Holmes,” I cried, “this is impossible.” “Admirable!” he said. “A most illuminating remark. It IS imp...

There is a danger there - a very real danger to humanity. Consider, Watson, that the material, the s...

Who knows, Watson? Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male.

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

It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.

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

When a man does a queer thing, or two queer things, there may be a meaning to it, but when everythin...

He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as ...

It is easy to be wise after the event.

I don't take much stock of detectives in novels - chaps that do things and never let you see how the...

My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the wo...

[O]n general principles it is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely w...

There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to ...