Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes
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It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
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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.
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I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me.
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It is, I admit, mere imagination; but how often is imagination the mother of truth?
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My mind rebels at stagnation, give me problems, give me work!
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Living, as I do, in an educated and scientific atmosphere, I could not have conceived that the first principles of zoology were so little known. Is it possible that you do not know the elementary fact in comparative anatomy, that the wing of a bird is really the forearm, while the wing of a bat consists of three elongated fingers with membranes between?
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Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt.
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I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.
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Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.
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The great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away through the forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell.
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You know how easily and suddenly these things happen, beginning in playful teasing and ending in something a little warmer than friendship. You squeeze the slender arm which is passed through yours, you venture to take the little gloved hand, you say good night at absurd length in the shadow of the door. It is innocent and very interesting, love trying his wings in a first little flutter.
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I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?
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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.
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Violence recoils on the violent.
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The grand thing is to be able to reason backwards.
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We can't command our love, but we can our actions.
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How sweet the morning air is! ...How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!
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An absence of antecedents and of relatives is sometimes an aid rather than an impediment to social advancement . . .
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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.
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Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.
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I am engaged in answering that Italian buffoon, Mazotti, whose views upon the larval development of the tropical termites have excited my derision and contempt . . .
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The most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor.
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Picnics are very dear to those who are in the first stage of the tender passion.
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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.