Quotes About Analysis

Sherlock Holmes used the process of induction—not deduction.

It's not enough to figure out how to do something. You must also analyze every possible path to failure. Only then can you be certain of success.

That's what humans do. We label, categorize, measure, and dissect because it gives us the illusion of control.

Understanding how things fail is the most important component in solving engineering problems.

It is a capital mistake to develop a premature hypothesis in the absence of hard data.

Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go.

If you are to be Hercule Poirot, you must think of everything.

It often seems to me that's all detective work is, wiping out your false starts and beginning again." "Yes, it is very true, that. And it is just what some people will not do. They conceive a certain theory, and everything has to fit into that theory. If one little fact will not fit it, they throw it aside. But it is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant.

Poirot said placidly, "One does not, you know, employ merely the muscles. I do not need to bend and measure the footprints and pick up the cigarette ends and examine the bent blades of grass. It is enough for me to sit back in my chair and think. It is this – " he tapped his egg-shaped head – "this, that functions!

How fast you go. You arrive at a conclusion much sooner than I would permit myself to do.

One cannot be interested in crime without being interested in psychology. It is not the mere act of killing, it is what lies behind it that appeals to the expert.

Everything is simple, if you arrange the facts methodically

What are you doing, Poirot?" "I dissect rucksacks. It is very interesting.

Sometimes I think there are people who only read books in the hope of finding mistakes in them.

The great thing in these cases is to keep an absolutely open mind. Most crimes, you see, are so absurdly simple.

I think each one of us in his secret heart fancies himself as Sherlock Holmes.

Poirot closed his eyes. What he perceived mentally was a kaleidoscope, no more, no less. Pieces of cut-up scarves and rucksacks, cookery books, lipsticks, bath salts; names and thumbnail sketches of odd students. Nowhere was there cohesion or form. Unrelated incidents and people whirled round in space. But Poirot knew quite well that somehow and somewhere there must be a pattern . . . The question was where to start.. . . .

Reflection had never been Mrs Oliver's strong point.

He was engaged at the moment in a careful stocktaking of his thoughts and emotions.

To a historian that always is a difficulty. At what point in history does one particular portion of history begin

Si se estudia un problema con orden y método, no hay dificultad alguna en resolverlo (Hércules Poirot)

To separate the main issue from the side issues is the first task of the orderly mind.

In a case like this we have to take everything into account,' he said, noncommittally.

often seems to me that's all detective work is, wiping out your false starts and beginning again." "Yes, it is very true, that. And it is just what some people will not do. They conceive a certain theory, and everything has to fit into that theory. If one little fact will not fit it, they throw it aside. But it is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant.