Quotes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the situation.

A forced marriage is no marriage.

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.

You can understand,' said Holmes very suavely, 'that I extend to the affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to you in yours.

I examine the data, as an expert, and pronounce a specialist's opinion. I claim no credit in such cases. My name figures in no newspaper. The work itself, the pleasure of finding a filed for my peculiar powers, is my highest reward.

Give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and i am in my own proper atmosphere. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it.

Women have seldom have been an attraction to me, for my brain has always governed my heart.

Make the matter even more terrible than the truth

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

I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I have ever come across: a study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn't we use a little art jargon. There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it. -Sherlock Holmes

Who knows, Watson? Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male. Murder might be condoned or explained, and yet some smaller offense might rankle. -Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

Do you note the peculiar construction of the sentence—'This account of you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian could not have written that. It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs.

I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner.

We can pass the eight Dreadnoughts, if we are sure of the eight Shackleton's.

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

Well, Watson, what do you make of it?' Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation. 'How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head.' 'I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me', said he.

Have you tried to drive a harpoon through a body? No? Tut, tut, my dear sir, you must really pay attention to these details. My friend Watson could tell you that I spent a whole morning in that exercise. It is no easy matter, and requires a strong and practiced arm.

Be frank with me and we may do some good. Play tricks with me, and I'll crush you.

To underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers.

Lieber Gott, falls es einen Gott gibt, rette meine Seele, falls ich eine Seele habe.

I am killed them quick, but they are killing me slow. [Jim Browner in 'The Adventure of the Cardboard Box']

Perchance you shall, fair sir, said Nigel, for all that I have seen of you fills me with this desire to go further with you. It is in my mind that we might turn this thing to profit and to honour, for when Sir Robert has spoken to you, I am free to do with you as I will.

A large number merely strange

For the love of his art