Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer- excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained observer to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Truly, the old maid is a most useful person, one of the reserve forces of the community. They talk of the superfluous woman, but what would the poor superfluous man do without her kindly presence?

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I have wrought my simple planIf I give one hour of joyTo the boy who’s half a man,Or the man who’s half a boy.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I am somewhat exhausted, I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

It would be superfluous todrive us mad, my dear Watson

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Exactly. Since it is morally justifiable, I have only to consider the question of personal risk. Surely a gentleman should not lay much stress upon this, when a lady is in most desperate need of his help?

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

The statesman received us with that old-fashioned courtesy for which he is remarkable, and seated us on the two luxuriant lounges on either side of the fireplace. Standing on the rug between us, with his slight, tall figure, his sharp features, thoughtful face, and curling hair prematurely tinged with gray, he seemed to represent that not too common type, a nobleman who is in truth noble.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Why should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with which you have been endowed?

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

What is the meaning of it, Watson? said Holmes solemnly as he laid down the paper. What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him: but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting- room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night. On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes, that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic, had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

When once your point of view is changed, the very thing which was so damning becomes a clue to the truth.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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. Yet you saw for yourself. Can you suggest any fallacy?

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

There were no footmarks.''Meaning that you saw none?''I assure you, sir, that there were none.''My good Hopkins, I have investigated many crimes, but I have never yet seen one which was committed by a flying creature. As long as the criminal remains upon two legs so long must there be some indentation, some abrasion, some trifling displacement which can be detected by the scientific searcher.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

There are seventy-five perfumes, which it is very necessary that a criminal expert should be able to distinguish from each other, and cases have more than once within my own experience depended upon their prompt recognition.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

All my instincts are one way, and all the facts are the other, and I much fear that British juries have not yet attained that pitch of intelligence when they will give the preference to my theories over Lestrade's facts.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so completely overtopped every other consideration that we both burst out into a roar of laughter.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

No ghosts need

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

...above all, do not fret until you know that you really have a cause for it.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

To a great mind, nothing is little.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

He was the best shot in India, and I expect that there are few better in London. Have you heard the name?''No, I have not.''Well, well, such is fame!

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I should prefer that you do not mention my name at all in connection with this case, as I choose to be only associated with those crimes which present some difficulty in their solution.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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. I can dispense with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

The charlatan is always the pioneer... The quack of yesterday is the professor of tomorrow.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.”—Sherlock Holmes, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

The affair seems absurdly trifling, and yet I dare call nothing trivial when I reflect that some of my most classic cases have had the least promising commencement. You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of the Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence, the question is what you can make people believe that you have done.

~ Arthur Conan Doyle

My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built. Life is commonplace; the papers are sterile; audacity and romance seem to have passed forever from the criminal world. Can you ask me, then, whether I am ready to look into any new problem, however trivial it may prove?

~ Arthur Conan Doyle