Quotes from Arthur Conan Doyle

You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales.

Died August 4th, 1860.

process, said I, starts upon the supposition that when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. It may well be that several explanations remain, in which case one tries test after test until one or other of them has a convincing amount of support.

The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations—that's the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year's pension as a solatium for his wounded character.

Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Candahar in safety, where I found my regiment

pero más vale aprender tarde que no aprender nunca.

In this great stretch of country there is no sign of life, nor of anything appertaining to life. There is no bird in the steel-blue heaven, no movement upon the dull, grey earth—above all, there is absolute silence. Listen as one may, there is no shadow of a sound in all that mighty wilderness; nothing but silence—complete and heart-subduing silence.

sententiously. "Well, I went to Underwood

driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but

I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a logical basis with which he unraveled the problems which were submitted to him.

vestigia nulla retrorsum. Never look rearwards, but always to our glorious goal.

Is that Eduardo Lucas of Godolphin Street?" "Yes." "You will not see him." "Why not?" "He was murdered in his house last night." My friend has so often astonished me in the course of our adventures that it was with a sense of exultation that I realized how completely I had astonished him.

the police. Offer to assist them in every way. We shall wait here until your return.' The little man obeyed in a half-stupefied fashion, and we heard him stumbling

So engrossed was he with his occupation that he appeared to have forgotten our presence, for he chattered away to himself under his breath the whole time, keeping up a running fire of exclamations, groans, whistles, and little cries suggestive of encouragement and of hope.

If the young lady has a brother or a friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders.

Goethe is always pithy.

Non vedo niente», dissi restituendo il cappello al mio amico.  «Al contrario, Watson, lei vede tutto, ma non riflette su ciò che vede. Non ha il coraggio di trarne delle deduzioni».

got him, that's all,' said he. 'I know a dog that would follow that scent to the world's end. If a pack can track a trailed herring across a shire, how far can a specially

when this original intellectual deduction is confirmed point by point by quite a number of independent incidents, then the subjective becomes objective and

Ich erinnerte mich, wie der Baronet mir erzählt hatte, dass

than theories, after all. My view of the case is confirmed. There is a trapdoor communicating with the roof, and

It is all very well to say that a man is clever, but the reader wants to see examples of it...

promise of secrecy was made at the time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours

Then he's no use to me. I'm a practical man." "Mr. Mac, the most practical thing that you ever did in your life would be to shut yourself up for three months and read twelve hours a day at the annals of crime. Everything comes in circles—even Professor Moriarty.