Quotes About Deduction

Holmes," I cried, "this is impossible." "Admirable!" he said. "A most illuminating remark. It IS impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong.

There have," said I, "been numerous petty thefts." Holmes snorted his contempt. "This great and sombre stage is set for something more worthy than that," said he. "It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal.

On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic.

I believe you are a wizard, Mr. Holmes.

There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically.

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. (p. 261).

His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.

A mistake would have been fatal. -Sherlock Holmes-

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

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

You then went to the vicarage, waited outside it for some time, and finally returned to your cottage." "How do you know that?" "I followed you." "I saw no one." "That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.

risen out of his drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which had formerly been in part my own. His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene

Eliminato l'impossibile ció che resta, per improbabile che sia, deve essere la veritá

Man or woman?" I asked. "Oh, man, of course. No woman would ever send a reply-paid telegram. She would have come.

Cuando un hecho parece contradecir un largo cortejo de deducciones resulta de una manera invariable capaz de ser interpretado de diferente manera.

I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. What do you deduce from it?

Ah! my dear Watson, there we come into those realms of conjecture, where the most logical mind may be at fault. Each may form his own hypothesis upon the present evidence, and yours is as likely to be correct as mine.

In your own case, from all that you have told me, it seems obvious that your faculty of observation and your peculiar facility for deduction are due to your own systematic training. -John. Watson-

explained is the statement   

fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.

I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind dwell upon it further.

Holmes held out a small chip with the letters NN and a space of clear wood after them.

An argument is valid when there is no way—meaning no possible way—that the premises, or starting points, could be true without the conclusion being true

The world's most famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, said that once you have eliminated all the possibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true.