Quotes & Sayings About Conan Doyle

explained is the statement — Arthur Conan Doyle

We can't do these things in the force, Mr. Holmes," said he. "No wonder you get results that are beyond us. But some of these days you'll go too far, and you'll find yourself and your friend in trouble." "For England, home and beauty - eh, Watson? Martyrs on the altar of our country. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I waited all day without news of him. That night, on the advice of the manager of the hotel, I communicated with the police, and next morning we advertised in all the papers. Our inquiries led to no result; and from that day to this no word has ever been heard of my unfortunate father. He came home with his heart full of hope, to find some peace, some comfort, and instead - She put — Arthur Conan Doyle

THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES — Arthur Conan Doyle

Now, how did you know that I was going to propose?" I asked in genuine wonder. "Don't women always know? Do you suppose any woman in the world was ever taken unawares? — Arthur Conan Doyle

'Men die of the diseases which they have studied most,' remarked the surgeon, snipping off the end of a cigar with all his professional neatness and finish. 'It's as if the morbid condition was an evil creature which, when it found itself closely hunted, flew at the throat of its pursuer. If you worry the microbes too much they may worry you. I've seen cases of it, and not necessarily in microbic diseases either. There was, of course, the well-known instance of Liston and the aneurism; and a dozen others that I could mention.' — Arthur Conan Doyle

conscience swelled nightly — Arthur Conan Doyle

I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. "When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansom. As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom."
"Excellent!" I cried.
"Elementary," said he. "It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction. The same may be said, my dear fellow, for the effect of some of these little sketches of yours, which is entirely meretricious, depending as it does upon your retaining in your own hands some factors in the problem which are never imparted to the reader. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, or how lonely the room which it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead, and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation can follow you no more. You have left all that is vulgar and all that is sordid behind you. There stand your noble, silent comrades, waiting in their ranks. Pass your eye down their files. Choose your man. And then you have but to hold up your hand to him and away you go together into dreamland — Arthur Conan Doyle

How can you build on such a quicksand? Their most trivial action may mean volumes, or their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin or a curling tongs. — Arthur Conan Doyle

A conjurer gets no credit once he has explained his trick; — Arthur Conan Doyle

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Sometimes I think that it is only the monstrous conceit of mankind which makes him think that all this stage was erected for him to strut upon. — Arthur Conan Doyle

My line of thoughts about dogs is analogous. A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones. And their passing moods may reflect the passing moods of others. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I never guess. It is a shocking habit destructive to the logical faculty. — Arthur Conan Doyle

His eyes kindled and a slight flush sprang into his thin cheeks. For an instant the veil had lifted upon his keen, intense nature, but for an instant only. When I glanced again his face had resumed that red-Indian composure which had made so many regard him as a machine rather than a man. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Several times during the last three years I have taken up my pen to write to you, but always I feared lest your affectionate regard for me should tempt you to some indiscretion which would betray my secret. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I have heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold wickedness of the human heart. — Arthur Conan Doyle

It was one of my friend's most obvious weaknesses that he was impatient with less alert intelligences than his own. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Watson,' said he, 'if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little over-confident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you. — Arthur Conan Doyle

It may have been a comedy, or it may have been a tragedy. It cost one man his reason, it cost me a blood-letting, and it cost yet another man the penalties of the law. Yet there was certainly an element of comedy. Well, you shall judge for yourselves. — 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

By the way, Doctor, I shall want your cooperation.'
'I shall be delighted.'
'You don't mind breaking the law?'
'Not in the least.'
'Nor running a chance of arrest?'
'Not in a good cause.'
'Oh, the cause is excellent!'
'Then I am your man.'
'I was sure that I might rely on you. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Make the matter even more terrible than the truth — Arthur Conan Doyle

Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I would not tell them too much," said Holmes. "Women are never to be entirely trusted, - not the best of them. — 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

Philosophy. - Nil. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I believe you are a wizard, Mr. Holmes. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Let me say right here, Mr. Holmes, that money is nothing to me in this case. You can burn it if it's any use in lighting you to the truth. This woman is innocent and this woman has to be cleared, and it's up to you to do it. Name your figure!
My professional charges are upon a fixed scale, I do not vary them, save when I remit them altogether. — Arthur Conan Doyle

The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. — Arthur Conan Doyle

His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue triumphant cloud from his cigarette. — Arthur Conan Doyle

- I have come for advice.
- That is easily got.
- And help.
- That is not always so easy.
#The Five Orange Pips — Arthur Conan Doyle

Yes, the reaction is already upon me. I shall be as limp as a rag for a week."
"Strange," said I, "how terms of what in another man I should call laziness alternate with your fits of splendid energy and vigor. — Arthur Conan Doyle

No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so. — Arthur Conan Doyle

There is nothing like first-hand evidence. — Arthur Conan Doyle

The plot thickens. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs. — Arthur Conan Doyle

And meanwhile take my assurance that the clouds are lifting and that I have every hope that the light of truth is breaking through — Arthur Conan Doyle

The approach to the offices of Girdlestone and Co. was not a very dignified one, nor would the uninitiated who traversed it form any conception of the commercial prosperity of the firm in question. — Arthur Conan Doyle

How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise. — Arthur Conan Doyle

It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting it on a level with his own, said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. — Arthur Conan Doyle

And here it is that I miss my Watson. By cunning questions and ejaculations of wonder he could elevate my simple art, which is but systematized common sense, into a prodigy. When I tell my own story I have no such aid. — Arthur Conan Doyle

The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply. — Arthur Conan Doyle

It was a net from which it seemed to me, a few hours ago, that there was no possible escape. But he had not that supreme gift of the artist, the knowledge of when to stop. He wished to improve that which was already perfect ... and so he ruined all. — Arthur Conan Doyle

To begin at the beginning. — Arthur Conan Doyle

you know a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick and if I show too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all." -Sherlock Holmes — Arthur Conan Doyle

There is a soul-jealousy that can be as frantic as any body-jealousy. — Arthur Conan Doyle

You know, Watson, I don't mind confessing to you that I have always had an idea that I would have made a highly efficient criminal.
Sherlock Holmes — Arthur Conan Doyle

if a man wants friends be must go among strangers. It's — Arthur Conan Doyle

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

I am killed them quick, but they are killing me slow. [Jim Browner in 'The Adventure of the Cardboard Box'] — Arthur Conan Doyle

You know how often the turning down this street or that, the accepting or rejecting of an invitation, may deflect the whole current of our lives into some other channel. Are we mere leaves, fluttered hither and thither by the wind, or are we rather, with every conviction that we are free agents, carried steadily along to a definite and pre-determined end? — Arthur Conan Doyle

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

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY FRANCES CARFAX — Arthur Conan Doyle

Yet birth, and lust, and illness, and death are changeless things, and when one of these harsh facts springs out upon a man at some sudden turn of the path of life, it dashes off for the moment his mask of civilization and gives a glimpse of the stranger and stronger face below. — Arthur Conan Doyle

It is all very well to say that a man is clever, but the reader wants to see examples of it ... — Arthur Conan Doyle

In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Above all, do not fret until you know that you really have a cause for it. — Arthur Conan Doyle

my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines. Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships — Arthur Conan Doyle

I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge. — Arthur Conan Doyle

As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I thrilled now with a keener zest than I had ever enjoyed when we were the defenders of the law instead of its defiers. — Arthur Conan Doyle

His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing, save during those intervals of torpor to which I have alluded; and his thin, hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination. His hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals, yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch, as I frequently had occasion to observe when I watched him manipulating his fragile philosophical instruments. — Arthur Conan Doyle

There was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their — Arthur Conan Doyle

Sure there are times when one cries with acidity,
'Where are the limits of human stupidity?'
Here is a critic who says as a platitude
That I am guilty because 'in gratitude
Sherlock, the sleuth-hound, with motives ulterior,
Sneers at Poe's Dupin as "very inferior".'
Have you not learned, my esteemed communicator,
That the created is not the creator?
As the creator I've praised to satiety
Poe's Monsieur Dupin, his skill and variety,
And have admitted that in my detective work
I owe to my model a deal of selective work.
But is it not on the verge of inanity
To put down to me my creation's crude vanity?
He, the created, would scoff and would sneer,
Where I, the creator, would bow and revere.
So please grip this fact with your cerebral tentacle:
The doll and its maker are never identical. — Arthur Conan Doyle

The most dangerous condition for a man or a nation is when his intellectual side is more developed than his spiritual. Is that not exactly the condition of the world today? — Arthur Conan Doyle

the right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, — Arthur Conan Doyle

He burst into one of his rare fits of laughter as he turned away from the picture. I have not heard him laugh often, and it has always boded ill to somebody. — Arthur Conan Doyle

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

Who are you, then?" "My name is Sherlock Holmes." "Good Lord!" "You have heard of me, I see. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Brain, character, soul - only as one sees more of life does one understand how distinct is each. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Why on earth people who have something to say which is worth hearing should not take the slight trouble to learn how to make it heard is one of the strange mysteries of modern life. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Surely the game is hardly worth the candle. Why — Arthur Conan Doyle

Pinner. "'Thank you very much,' said he; 'I fear that I underrated the difficulty of the task. This list will be of very material assistance to me.' "'It took some time,' said I. — Arthur Conan Doyle

It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Good heavens!" cried the Colonel, laughing, "do you mean to say all our sympathy was wasted and your fit an imposture?" "Speaking professionally, it was admirably done," cried I, looking in amazement at this man who was forever confounding me with some new phase of his astuteness. "It is an art which is often useful, — Arthur Conan Doyle

Then, how do you know?" "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and careless servant girl?" "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. — Arthur Conan Doyle

That one word, my dear Watson, should have told me the whole story had I been the ideal reasoner which you are so fond of depicting. It was evidently a term of reproach."

-Sherlock Holmes- — Arthur Conan Doyle

The supreme gift of an artist is the knowledge of when to stop. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Recognising, as I do, that you are the second highest expert in Europe
"
"Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?" Asked Holmes, with some asperity.
"To the man of precised, scientific mind the work of Monsieur Bertillon must always appeal strongly."
"Then had you not better consult him?"
"I said, sir, to the precisely scientific mind. But as a practical man of affairs it is acknowledged that you stand alone. I trust, sir, that I have not inadvertently
"
"Just a little," said Holmes. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Commonplace," said Holmes, though I thought from his expression that he was pleased at my evident surprise and admiration. — Arthur Conan Doyle

This is not the time for humbugs, Watson! — Arthur Conan Doyle

I could not wish anything better than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Is that Eduardo Lucas of Godolphin Street?" "Yes." "You will not see him." "Why not?" "He was murdered in his house last night." My friend has so often astonished me in the course of our adventures that it was with a sense of exultation that I realized how completely I had astonished him. — Arthur Conan Doyle

There are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all other loves, and I think that she must have been one. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Gone to the nearest public-house. That is the centre of country gossip. They would have told you every name, from the master to the scullery-maid. — Arthur Conan Doyle

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact. — Arthur Conan Doyle

He [Professor Moriarty] is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged. — Arthur Conan Doyle

There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words. — Arthur Conan Doyle

In shape they were like horrible toads, and moved in a succession of springs, but in size they were of an incredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant. We had never before seen them save at night, and indeed they are nocturnal animals save when disturbed in their lairs, as these had been. We now stood amazed at the sight, for their blotched and warty skins were of a curious fish-like iridescence, and the sunlight struck them with an ever-varying rainbow bloom as they moved. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Walter, with his 61 years of life, although he never wrote a novel until he was over 40, had, fortunately for the world, a longer working career than most of his brethren. — Arthur Conan Doyle

If the man who observes the myriad stars, and considers that they and their innumerable satellites move in their serene dignity through the heavens, each swinging clear of the other's orbit-if, I say, the man who sees this cannot realise the Creator's attributes without the help of the book of Job, then his view of things is beyond my understanding. — Arthur Conan Doyle

THE ADVENTURE OF THE GOLDEN PINCE-NEZ — Arthur Conan Doyle

Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools. — Arthur Conan Doyle

You have brought detection as near an exact science as it ever will be brought in this world. My companion flushed up with pleasure at my words, and the earnest way in which I uttered them. I had already observed that he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty. — Arthur Conan Doyle

My friend, who loved above all things precision and concentration of thought, resented anything which distracted his attention from the matter in hand. And yet, without a harshness which was foreign to his nature, it was impossible to refuse to listen to the story of the young and beautiful woman — Arthur Conan Doyle

The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it. — Arthur Conan Doyle