Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes :
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
“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.”
“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.”
“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.”
“The game is afoot.”
“I never guess. It is a shocking habit — destructive to the logical faculty.”
“You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.”
“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
“A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.”
“I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.”
“To a great mind, nothing is little.”
“My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere.”
“It is my business to know what other people don’t know.”
“Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.”
“The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.”
“Where there is no imagination, there is no horror.”
“What one man can invent another can discover.”
“A trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so.”
“The little things are infinitely the most important.”
“You know my methods, Watson.”
“There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before.”
“I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?”
“We can but try — the motto of the firm.”
“Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.”
“A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman’s love, however badly he may have treated her.”
“Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.”
“The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.”
“It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.”
“One should always look for a possible alternative, and provide against it.”
“Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson.”
“We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.”
“There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.”
“I follow my own methods, and tell as much or as little as I choose. That is the advantage of being unofficial.”
“Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”
“I can never bring you to realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace.”
“You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.”
“There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps.”
“We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception.”
“Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner.”
“Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.”
“We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.”
“Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau’s example.”
“It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.”
“The air of London is the sweeter for my presence.”
“You have erred, perhaps, but you are guilty of no crime.”
“We should be prepared for any change of fortune.”
“It is a good thing to know the worst, for it is at the worst that one can lay plans for the better.”
“The chief proof of man’s real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.”
“The most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money.”
“My professional charges are upon a fixed scale. I do not vary them, save when I remit them altogether.”
“I am a poor man’s consultant.”
“I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”
“I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me.”
“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
“There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.”
“It is quite a three-pipe problem.”
“I play the game for the game’s own sake.”
“The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.”
“You see, but you do not observe.”
“A client to me is a mere unit, a factor in a problem.”
“You will not apply my precept, he said, shaking his head. How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
“The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home.”
“The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?”
“One should always look for a possible alternative and provide against it. It is the first rule of criminal investigation.”
“To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces.”
“I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?”
“There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellow men.”
“My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence.”
“The most difficult crime to track is the one which is purposeless.”
“It is always a joy to meet an American, for he is the kindest, most straightforward and most generous of men.”
“There is no part of the body which varies so much as the human ear.”
“There is no one who knows the higher criminal world of London so well as I do.”
“No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.”
“There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellow men.”
“When I hear you give your reasons, I seem to see it all as plain as a map.”
“A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use.”
“A woman’s instinct is often as true as a man’s reasoning.”
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