Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

It is a pity he did not write in pencil. As you have no doubt frequently observed, the impression usually goes through -- a fact which has dissolved many a happy marriage.

There is a soul-jealousy that can be as frantic as any body-jealousy.

‎A change of work is the best rest.

Anything is better than stagnation.

The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when [Holmes] became a specialist in crime.

To underestimate oneself is as much an exaggeration of one's powers than the other.

I trust that age doth not wither nor custom stale my infinite variety.

We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception.

I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me.

The Times is a paper which is seldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated.

I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.

Dogmas of every kind put assertion in the place of reason and give rise to more contention, bitterness, and want of charity than any other influence in human affairs.

The soul is swayed by the waters.

I had ... come to an entirely erroneous conclusion, which shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data.

You wish to put me in the dark. I tell you that I will never be put in the dark. You wish to beat me. I tell you that you will never beat me.

Anything seems commonplace, once explained.

There is a mystery about this which stimulates the imagination; where there is no imagination there is no horror.

I have taken to living by my wits.

“How ever did you see that?” “Because I looked for it.”

Every man finds his limitations, Mr. Holmes, but at least it cures us of the weakness of self-satisfaction.

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

The whole force of the State is at your back if you should need it. I'm afraid that all the queen's horses and all the queen's men cannot avail in this matter.

A fine thought in fine language is a most precious jewel, and should not be hid away, but be exposed for use and ornament.

I never can resist a touch of the dramatic.

The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.

It is a fool's plan to teach a man to be a cur in peace, and think that he will be a lion in war.

if i could be assured of your destruction, i would in the interest of the public, cheerfully accept my death.

And once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complexity of human life so pletifuly presents.

The setting is a worthy one, if the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men.

Still, it is an error to argue in front of your data. You find yourself insensibly twisting them round to fit your theories.

Have you tried to drive a harpoon through a body? No? Tut, tut, my dear sir, you must really pay attention to these details.

We surely know by some nameless instinct more about our futures than we think we know.

The less experienced a doctor is, the higher are his notions of professional dignity . . .

There is nothing like first-hand evidence.

You know my methods. Apply them.

I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance.

What can we know? What are we all? Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite, with the aspirations of angels and the instinct of beasts.

It is the small men and not the great who hold their noses in the air.

When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities.

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

Even the best of us are thrown off some- times.

It seems to leave the darkness rather blacker than before.

So complex is the human spirit that it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it to action.

Hot hate is twin brother to hot love.

I followed you.' I saw no one.' That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.

Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her.

I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for

It is, I admit, mere imagination; but how often is imagination the mother of truth?

I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being.

Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipse domi stimul ac nummos contemplar in arca. (The public hiss at me, but I cheer myself when in my own house I contemplate the coins in my strong-box.)