Quotes from Arthur Conan Doyle

Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot.

"… the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.""The dog did nothing in the nighttime.""That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

To Sherlock Holmes she [Irene Adler] is always the woman.

It is quite a three-pipe problem.

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

Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.

It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy.

As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.

The unofficial force—the Baker Street irregulars.

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 be up to, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician.

Like all Holmes's reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained.

The fair sex is your department.

It is with nations as it is with individuals. A book of history is a book of sermons.

A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.

From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other.

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.

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

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

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.

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

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

My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.