Sherlock Holmes

I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air — or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought

— Sherlock Holmes time

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know nothing.

— Sherlock Holmes philosophy

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it.

— Sherlock Holmes knowledge

Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems.

— Sherlock Holmes men

The theories which I have expressed there, and which appear to you to be so chimerical, are really extremely practical — so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese.

— Sherlock Holmes you

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 you

"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."

— Sherlock Holmes pain

You know a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.

— Sherlock Holmes work

When a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.

— Sherlock Holmes rain

"What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence," returned my companion, bitterly. "The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?

— Sherlock Holmes people

In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practise it much. In the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically.

— Sherlock Holmes life

There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps.

— Sherlock Holmes science

I never guess. It is a shocking habit — destructive to the logical faculty.

— Sherlock Holmes logic

"Which is it to-day," I asked, "morphine or cocaine?" He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened. "It is cocaine," he said, "a seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?"

— Sherlock Holmes you

"My mind," he said, "rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world"

— Sherlock Holmes art

I have been guilty of several monographs. They are all upon technical subjects. Here, for example, is one 'Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos'. In it I enumerate a hundred and forty forms of cigar, cigarette, and pipe tobacco, with coloured plates illustrating the difference in the ash.

— Sherlock Holmes lust

Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.

— Sherlock Holmes truth

Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon earth.

— Sherlock Holmes hope

He smiled gently. "It is of the first importance," he cried, "not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities. A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor."

— Sherlock Holmes art

I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule.

— Sherlock Holmes

"Holmes," I said in a whisper, "a child has done this horrid thing!"

— Sherlock Holmes child

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

— Sherlock Holmes truth

You know my methods. Apply them.

— Sherlock Holmes you

"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."

— Sherlock Holmes man

It is the unofficial force — the Baker Street irregulars.

— Sherlock Holmes

"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. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician.

— Sherlock Holmes man

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.

— Sherlock Holmes men

You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.

— Sherlock Holmes you

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

— Sherlock Holmes facts

I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life.

— Sherlock Holmes love

It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.

— Sherlock Holmes you

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.

— Sherlock Holmes fiction

There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.

— Sherlock Holmes

* The little things are infinitely the most important.

— Sherlock Holmes

Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.

— Sherlock Holmes trust

You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.

— Sherlock Holmes you

Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home.

— Sherlock Holmes home

"Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different."

— Sherlock Holmes man

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

— Sherlock Holmes fact

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library...

— Sherlock Holmes man

As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after.

— Sherlock Holmes sin

It is not so impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this, I have endeavoured in my case to do.

— Sherlock Holmes knowledge

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

— Sherlock Holmes man

It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.

— Sherlock Holmes

My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know.

— Sherlock Holmes people

On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences.

— Sherlock Holmes reason

"You are Holmes, the meddler." My friend smiled. "Holmes, the busybody!" His smile broadened. "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" Holmes chuckled heartily.

— Sherlock Holmes art

"When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals. He has the nerve and he has the knowledge."

— Sherlock Holmes knowledge

Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

— Sherlock Holmes truth

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

— Sherlock Holmes truth

"Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."

— Sherlock Holmes wit

The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

— Sherlock Holmes beautiful

"I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they seem to you to be relevant or not."

— Sherlock Holmes you

"Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."

— Sherlock Holmes beauty

Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person.

— Sherlock Holmes person

It is more than possible; it is probable.

— Sherlock Holmes possible

That is the case as it appears to the police, and improbable as it is, all other explanations are more improbable still.

— Sherlock Holmes

"Is there any other 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.

— Sherlock Holmes time

pg 284

— Sherlock Holmes

Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.

— Sherlock Holmes truth

I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain. Results without causes are much more impressive.

— Sherlock Holmes self

It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated.

— Sherlock Holmes art

Watson here will tell you that I never can resist a touch of the dramatic.

— Sherlock Holmes you

Out of my last 53 cases 49 have been given full credit to the police and the rest to me.

— Sherlock Holmes

If I were assured of your eventual destruction I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept my own.

— Sherlock Holmes you

He is the Napoleon of crime.

— Sherlock Holmes crime

Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!

— Sherlock Holmes

We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.

— Sherlock Holmes imagination

There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.

— Sherlock Holmes you

Bear in mind, Sir Henry, one of the phrases in that queer old legend which Dr. Mortimer has read to us, and avoid the moor in those hours of darkness when the powers of evil are exalted.

— Sherlock Holmes time

You never tire of the moor. You cannot think the wonderful secrets which it contains. It is so vast, and so barren, and so mysterious.

— Sherlock Holmes secrets

For all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he went. With my face over the brink, I saw him fall for a long way. Then he struck a rock, bounded off, and splashed into the water.

— Sherlock Holmes water

Work is the best antidote to sorrow.

— Sherlock Holmes sorrow

There is no prospect of danger, or I should not dream of stirring out without you.

— Sherlock Holmes dream

What one man can invent another can discover.

— Sherlock Holmes man

With a resigned air and a somewhat weary smile, Holmes begged the beautiful intruder to take a seat and to inform us what it was that was troubling her.

— Sherlock Holmes beautiful

It was vain to urge that his time was already fully occupied, for the young lady had come with the determination to tell her story, and it was evident that nothing short of force could get her out of the room until she had done so. With a resigned air and a somewhat weary smile, Holmes begged the beautiful intruder to take a seat and to inform us what it was that was troubling her.

— Sherlock Holmes time

We had got as far as this, when who should walk in but the gentleman himself, who had been drinking his beer in the tap-room and had heard the whole conversation. Who was I? What did I want? What did I mean by asking questions? He had a fine flow of language, and his adjectives were very vigorous. He ended a string of abuse by a vicious back-hander, which I failed to entirely avoid. The next few minutes were delicious. It was a straight left against a slogging ruffian. I emerged as you see me. Mr. Woodley went home in a cart. So ended my country trip, and it must be confessed that, however enjoyable, my day on the Surrey border has not been much more profitable than your own.

— Sherlock Holmes art

I have never been in Africa in my life, so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Busybody Holmes!

— Sherlock Holmes life

It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong.

— Sherlock Holmes respect

"We're not jealous of you down at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there's not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand."

— Sherlock Holmes man

There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast.

— Sherlock Holmes value

One should always look for a possible alternative, and provide against it. It is the first rule of criminal investigation.

— Sherlock Holmes possible

Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs.

— Sherlock Holmes will

There is so much red tape in these matters.

— Sherlock Holmes

Dr Leslie Armstrong "I have heard your name, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and I am aware of your profession — one of which I by no means approve." Holmes "In that, Doctor, you will find yourself in agreement with every criminal in the country."

— Sherlock Holmes war

A draghound will follow aniseed from here to John o' Groat's, and our friend, Armstrong, would have to drive through the Cam before he would shake Pompey off his trail.

— Sherlock Holmes will

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.

— Sherlock Holmes knowledge

"Come, Watson, come!" he cried. "The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!"

— Sherlock Holmes you

What I know is unofficial; what he knows is official.

— Sherlock Holmes

Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department.

— Sherlock Holmes art

Only one important thing has happened in the last three days, and that is that nothing has happened.

— Sherlock Holmes day

It is a capital mistake to theorise in advance of the facts.

— Sherlock Holmes facts

There should be no combination of events for which the wit of man cannot conceive an explanation.

— Sherlock Holmes man

The first two chapters originally appeared in 1914 in The Strand Magazine (September 1914)

— Sherlock Holmes

"When water is near and a weight is missing, it is not a very far-fetched supposition that something has been sunk in the water." ~ Sherlock Holmes

— Sherlock Holmes sin

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