Arthur Conan Doyle

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

“Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.”

“This room is not well adapted as a cell, and Mr. Patrick Cairns occupies too large a portion of our carpet.”

“Sherlock Holmes prese il suo flacone dall'angolo della mensola del caminetto e la sua siringa ipodermica da un elegante astuccio di marocchino. Con le sue dita lunghe e nervose infilò l'ago sottile e arrotolò la manica sinistra della camicia. Per un po', osservò pensoso l'avambraccio muscoloso e il polso, costellati di innumerevoli segni di punture. Alla fine, infilò con gesto deciso la siringa, premette il pistone e si abbandonò nella poltrona di velluto con un lungo sospiro di soddisfazione.[...]«Cos'è oggi», gli chiesi, «morfina o cocaina?»[...]«Cocaina», rispose, «soluzione al sette per cento. Vuole provarla?»”

“SHERLOCK HOLMES - I SUOI LIMITI1. Conoscenza della letteratura - Zero.2. Conoscenza della filosofia - Zero.3. Conoscenza dell'astronomia - Zero.4. Conoscenza della politica - Scarsa.5. Conoscenza della botanica - Variabile. Sa molte cose sulla belladonna, l'oppio e i veleni in genere. Non sa niente di giardinaggio.6. Conoscenza della geologia - Pratica, ma limitata. Distingue a colpo d'occhio un tipo di terreno da un altro. Rientrando da qualche passeggiata mi ha mostrato delle macchie di fango sui pantaloni e, in base al colore e alla consistenza, mi ha detto in quale parte di Londra se l'era fatte.7. Conoscenza della chimica - Profonda.8. Conoscenza dell'anatomia - Accurata, ma non sistematica.9. Conoscenza della letteratura scandalistica - Immensa. Sembra conoscere ogni particolare di tutti i misfatti più orrendi perpetrati in questo secolo.10. Buon violinista.11. Esperto schermidore col bastone, pugile, spadaccino.12. Ha una buona conoscenza pratica del diritto britannico.”

“It was worth a wound - it was worth many wounds - to know the depth of loyalty and love that lay behind that cold mask.”

“Wonderful!" I ejaculated.”

“The swing of his nature took him from extreme languor to devouring energy; and as I knew well, he was never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him that afternoon so enwrapped in the music of St. James's Hall I felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set himself to hunt down.”

“I observe that there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is introspective, and I want to introspect.”

“But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things.”

“The ideal reasoner 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 the results which would follow from it.”

“It’s every man’s business to see justice done.”

“I was not surprised. Indeed, my only wonder was that he had not already been mixed up in this extraordinary case, which was the one topic of conversation through the length and breadth of England. For a whole day my companion had rambled about the room with his chin upon his chest and his brows knitted, charging and recharging his pipe with the strongest black tobacco, and absolutely deaf to any of my questions or remarks. Fresh editions of every paper had been sent up by our news agent, only to be glanced over and tossed down into a corner. Yet, silent as he was, I knew perfectly well what it was over which he was brooding. There was but one problem before the public which could challenge his powers of analysis, and that was the singular disappearance of the favorite for the Wessex Cup, and the tragic murder of its trainer. When, therefore, he suddenly announced his intention of setting out for the scene of the drama it was only what I had both expected and hoped for.”

“He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and 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.”

“You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist out of stories.”

“Dogs don't make mistakes.”

“The division seems rather unfair," I remarked. "You have doneall the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones getsthe credit, pray what remains for you?""For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains thecocaine-bottle." And he stretched his long white hand up forit.”

“It is cocaine," he said, "a seven-per-cent solution. Would youcare to try it?""No, indeed," I answered brusquely. "My constitution has not gotover the Afghan campaign yet. I cannot afford to throw any extrastrain upon it."He smiled at my vehemence. "Perhaps you are right, Watson," hesaid. "I suppose that its influence is physically a bad one. I findit, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to themind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment.”

“Very sorry to knock you up, Watson,' said he [Holmes], 'but it is a common lot this morning. Mrs Hudson has been knocked up, she retorted upon me, and I on you.”

“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.”

“It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery. The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn. This murder would have been infinitely more difficult to unravel had the body of the victim been simply found lying in the roadway without any of those outré and sensational accompaniments which have rendered it remarkable. These strange details, far from making the case more difficult, have really had the effect of making it less so.”

“One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was returning from a journey to a patient(for I had now returned to civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I passed the well-remembered door...I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new problems.”

“It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.”

“Exactly, Watson. Pathetic and futile. But is not all life pathetic and futile? Is not his story a microcosm of the whole? We reach. We grasp. And what is left in our hands at the end? A shadow. Or worse than a shadow - misery.”

“The public, not unnaturally, goes upon the principle that he who would heal others must himself be whole.”

“I think that I had better go, Holmes.""Not a bit, doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell.”

“What do you wish to draw my attention to?To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.The dog did nothing in the night-time.That was the curious incident, remarked Sherlock Holmes.”

“It might have driven me mad; but I was always a pretty stubborn one, so I just held on and bided my time.”

“I shall never do that,' I answered; 'you have brought detection as near an exact science as it ever will be brought in this world.”

“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.”

“My profession is its own reward”

“The fantastic graces of Chivalry lay upon the surface of life, but beneath it was a half-savage population, fierce and animal, with little ruth or mercy.”

“You may have noticed how extremes call to each other, the spiritual to the animal, the caveman to the angel. You never saw a worse case than this.”

“Who knows, Watson? Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male.”

“And so reader, farewell to Sherlock Holmes! I thank you for your past constancy, and can but hope that some return has been made in the shape of that distraction from the worries of life and stimulating change of thought which can only be found in the fairy kingdom of romance.”

“Then he half raised himself from the ground, threw his arms into the air, and fell forward in his side. He was dead.”

“..There is no treachery in the truth. There may be pain, but to face honestly all possible conclusions formed by a set of facts is the noblest route possible for a human being”

“It seems to leave the darkness rather blacker than before.”

“En 1878, reçu médecin à l’Université de Londres, je me rendis à Netley pour suivre les cours prescrits aux chirurgiens de l’armée ; et là, je complétai mes études. On me désigna ensuite, comme aide-major, pour le 5e régiment de fusiliers de Northumberland en garnison aux Indes.”

“As he spoke, he whipped a tape measure and a large round magnifying glass from his pocket. With these two implements he trotted noiselessly about the room, sometimes stopping, occasionally kneeling, and once lying flat upon his face... As I watched him I was irresistibly reminded of a pure-blooded well-trained foxhound as it dashes backwards and forwards through the covert, whining in its eagerness, until it comes across the lost scent. For twenty minutes or more he continued his researches, measuring with the most exact care the distance between marks which were entirely invisible to me, and occasionally applying his tape to the walls in an equally incomprehensible manner.”

“What is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance.”

“Per Sherlock Holmes ella è sempre la donna. Raramente l’ho sentito accennare a lei in altro modo. Ai suoi occhi, supera e annulla tutte le altre esponenti del suo sesso.”

“Count Sylvius, "We give you best, Holmes. I believe you are the devil himself.""Not far from him, at any rate," Holmes answered witha polite smile.”

“It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”

“Some believe what separates men from animals is our ability to reason. Others say it’s language or romantic love, or opposable thumbs. Living here in this lost world, I’ve come to believe it is more than our biology. What truly makes us human is our unending search, our abiding desire for immortality.”

“A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two, who had never seen each other before that day, between whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed, and yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other”

“there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before.”

“— В этом мире неважно, сколько вы сделали. Самое главное — суметь убедить людей, что вы сделали много.”

“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.”

“The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know how to use it.”