Quotes from Arthur Conan Doyle

I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather.

What the deuce is it to me? he interrupted impatiently: you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.

No: I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely. ~ Sherlock Holmes

My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.

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.

Come, Watson, come! he cried. The game is afoot.

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

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

I get in the dumps at times, and don't open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I'll soon be right.

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

Everything I have to say has already crossed your mind. Then possibly my answer has crossed yours.

It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.

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

There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words.

It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.

Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed.

Anything is better than stagnation.

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.

If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive.

Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. 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

You would not call me a marrying man, Watson? No, indeed! You'll be interested to hear that I'm engaged. My dear fellow! I congrat- To Milverton's housemaid. My dear Holmes! I wanted information, Watson.

The devil's agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?