Quotes from Arthur Conan Doyle

Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of the triggers. It was clear that this had been fired at close range and that he had received the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost to pieces. The triggers had been wired together, so as to make the simultaneous discharge more destructive.

Mi dica, dottore, a cosa serve avere determinate facoltà se non c'è modo di impiegarle? Il delitto è banale, la vita è banale, e soltanto le qualità banali hanno ormai una funzione sulla terra.

Sollevò il fanale con mano così tremante che la luce danzava tutt'intorno a noi. La signorina Morstan mi afferrò il polso, il cuore in tumulto. Usciva nella notte dalla grande casa buia il più doloroso e malinconico dei suoni: il singhiozzo di una donna spaventata

I was forced to agree.

They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains, he remarked with a smile.

You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.

He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman.

you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating it existed among the human race long before the power of speech was arrived at. Perhaps that is why we are so subtly influenced by it. There are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries when the world was in its childhood.

Now, Watson, said he. Have you any change in your pocket? Yes. Any silver? A good deal. How many half-crowns? I have five. Ah, too few! Too few! How very unfortunate, Watson! However, such as they are you can put them in your watchpocket. And all the rest of your money in your left trouser pocket. Thank you. It will balance you so much better like that.

Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." "But the Solar System!" I protested.

I am not a whole sole admirer of womankind – as you are aware, Watson.

There is no treachery in the truth. There may be pain, but to face honestly all possible conclusions formed by a set of facts is the noblest route possible for a human being

Save for the occasional use of cocaine he had no vices

Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see that there was nothing in it, after all." "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake in explaining.

It was a tremendously virile and yet sinister face which was turned towards us. With the brow of a philosopher above and the jaw of a sensualist below, the man must have started with great capacities for good or for evil. But one could not look upon his cruel blue eyes, with their drooping, cynical lids, or upon the fierce, aggressive nose and the threatening, deep-lined brow, without reading Nature's plainest danger-signals.

But they must be sorry folk to bow down to the rich in such a fashion, said big John. I am but a poor commoner of England myself, and yet I know something of charters, liberties franchises, usages, privileges, customs, and the like. If these be broken, then all men know that it is time to buy arrow-heads. Aye

A third attempt, later in the day, provoked a terrific crash, and a subsequent message from the Central Exchange that Professor Challenger's receiver had been shattered. After that we abandoned all attempt at communication.

Eliminate the impossible, and what ever remains, however improbable, must be the truth - Sherlock Holmes

A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of human experience this lonely woman had strayed into.

I play the game for the game's own sake

However, I guess your time is of value, and we did not meet to talk about the cut of my socks.

Because it is done by a man who cannot afford to fail, one whose whole unique position depends upon the fact that all he does must succeed. A great brain and a huge organization have been turned to the extinction of one man. It is crushing the nut with the triphammer—an absurd extravagance of energy—but the nut is very effectually crushed all the same.

You have an extraordinary genius for minutiae

and your presence may be of assistance to me. Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.