117 Sherlock Holmes Quotes

Sherlock Holmes, the iconic detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, continues to captivate readers and audiences with his unparalleled intellect, keen observations, and memorable wit. His stories, set against the backdrop of Victorian England, are not only masterpieces of mystery and deduction but also rich with profound insights and memorable lines that resonate with fans across generations. In this collection, we bring you the top 117 quotes from Sherlock Holmes, each offering a glimpse into his enigmatic mind and the timeless wisdom that has cemented his status as a literary legend. Whether you're a dedicated aficionado or new to the world of 221B Baker Street, these quotes are sure to intrigue, enlighten, and inspire.

1. “Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

2. “You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

3. “Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

4. “You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

5. “What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

6. “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

7. “Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?' '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.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

8. “I was fifteen when I first met Sherlock Holmes, fifteen years old with my nose in a book as I walked the Sussex Downs, and nearly stepped on him. In my defense I must say it was an engrossing book, and it was very rare to come across another person in that particular part of the world in that war year of 1915.” - Laurie R. King

9. “I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think, all that we need.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

10. “The game is afoot.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

11. “I love Sherlock Holmes. I've got all his books, leather-bound. What I thought was great about Sherlock Holmes was that not only was he a supersleuth, he was also a hard worker. Not only did he go out and solve the crimes, he came home and wrote it all down. Fantastic. That's why I admire him.” - Steve Coogan

12. “I wanted to end the world, but I'll settle for ending yours.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

13. “To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

14. “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

15. “My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

16. “Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

17. “Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. Please come at once and join me there. Bring with you a jemmy, a dark lantern, a chisel, and a revolver. S. H." It was a nice equipment for a respectable citizen to carry through the dim, fog-draped streets.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

18. “There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

19. “I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the duncoloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material?” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

20. “Holmes took up the stone and held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found in the banks of the Amoy River in soutern China and is remarkable in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the gallows and the prison?” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

21. “My mind," he said, "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 then 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

22. “The man might have died in a fit; but then the jewels are missing," mused the Inspector, "Ha! I have a theory. These flashes come upon me at times... What do you think of this, Holmes? Sholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off the treasure! How's that?""On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the inside," said Holmes.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

23. “No: I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely." ~ Sherlock Holmes” - Arthur Conan Doyle

24. “Only that I insist upon your dining with us. It will be ready in half an hour. I have oysters and a brace of grouse, with something a little choice in white wines. Watson, you have never yet recognized my merits as a housekeeper. ~ Sherlock Holmes” - Arthur Conan Doyle

25. “I would have stolen it for you, had I known you were interested." His voice was muffled by the door to the lumber room down the hallway, and I heard thumps and a crash.I raised my voice a trifle more than mere volume required. "I'm interested because she was. Both of them, come to that--Damian's art is infused with mystic symbols and traditions."Holmes' voice answered two inches away from my ear, making me jerk and spray a handful of maps across the floor. "Religion can be a dangerous thing, it is true," he remarked darkly, and went out again.” - Laurie R. King

26. “How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!” - Arthur Conan Doyle

27. “It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

28. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

29. “I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

30. “It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers?” - Arthur Conan Doyle

31. “I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

32. “My business is that of every other good citizen - to uphold the law.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

33. “Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

34. “Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

35. “I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?” - Arthur Conan Doyle

36. “From the first day I met her, she was the only woman to me. Every day of that voyage I loved her more, and many a time since have I kneeled down in the darkness of the night watch and kissed the deck of that ship because I knew her dear feet had trod it. She was never engaged to me. She treated me as fairly as ever a woman treated a man. I have no complaint to make. It was all love on my side, and all good comradeship and friendship on hers. When we parted she was a free woman, but I could never again be a free man.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

37. “I say, Watson,’ he whispered, ‘would you be afraid to sleep in the same room as a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip?’‘Not in the least,’ I answered in astonishment.‘Ah, that’s lucky,’ he said, and not another word would he utter that night.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

38. “I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

39. “I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of daily life.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

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

41. “I have taken to living by my wits.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

42. “To his eyes all seemed beautiful, but to me a tinge of melancholy lay upon the countryside, which bore so clearly the mark of the waning year, Yellow leaves carpeted the lanes and fluttered down upon us as we passed, The rattle of our wheels died away as we drove through drifts of rotting vegetation--sad gifts, as it seemed to me, for Nature to throw before the carriage of the returning heir of the Baskervilles.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

43. “Over the green squares of the fields and the low curves of a wood there rose in the distance a grey, melancholy hill, with a strange jagged summit, dim and vague in the distance like some fantastic landscape in a dream. Baskerville sat for a long time, his gaze fixed upon it, and I read upon his eager face how much it meant to him, this first sight of that strange spot where the men of his blood had held sway so long and left their mark so deep.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

44. “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

45. “...Holmes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

46. “I imagine John Watson thinks love’s a mystery to me, but the chemistry is incredibly simple and very destructive. When we first met, you told me that a disguise is always a self portrait, how true of you, the combination to your safe – your measurements. But this is far more intimate. This is your heart, and you should never let it rule your head. You could have chosen any random number and walked out of here today with everything you worked for. But you just couldn’t resist it, could you? I’ve always assumed that love is a dangerous disadvantage. Thank you for the final proof.” - Mark Gatiss

47. “It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lines which run high and allow you to look down upon the houses like this."I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid enough, but he soon explained himself."Look at those big, isolated clumps of buildings rising up above the slates, like brick islands in a lead-coloured sea.""The board-schools.""Light-houses, my boy! Beacons of the future! Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wiser, better England of the future.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

48. “On Westminster Bridge, Arthur was struck by the brightness of the streetlamps running across like a formation of stars. They shone white against the black coats of the marching gentlefold and fuller than the moon against the fractal spires of Westminster. They were, Arthur quickly realized, the new electric lights, which the city government was installing, avenue by avenue, square by square, in place of the dirty gas lamps that had lit London's public spaces for a century. These new electric ones were brighter. They were cheaper. They required less maintenance. And they shone farther into the dime evening, exposing every crack in the pavement, every plump turtle sheel of stone underfoot. So long to the faint chiaroscuro of London, to the ladies and gentlemen in black-on-black relief. So long to the era of mist and carbonized Newcastle coal, to the stench of the Blackfriars foundry. Welcome to the cleasing glare of the twentieth century.” - Graham Moore

49. “I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime; and when Homes, in one of his queer humours, would sit in an armchair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V.R. done in bullet pocks, I felt strongly that neither the atmosphere nor the appearance of our room was improved by it.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

50. “Holmes and Watson are on a camping trip. In the middle of the night Holmes wakes up and gives Dr. Watson a nudge. "Watson" he says, "look up in the sky and tell me what you see.""I see millions of stars, Holmes," says Watson."And what do you conclude from that, Watson?"Watson thinks for a moment. "Well," he says, "astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meterologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignficant. Uh, what does it tell you, Holmes?""Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!” - Thomas Cathcart, Daniel Klein

51. “Tell me about yourself, Miss Russell."I started to give him the obligatory response, first the demurral and then the reluctant flat autobiography, but some slight air of polite inattention in his manner stopped me. Instead, I found myself grinning at him."Why don't you tell me about myself, Mr. Holmes?” - Laurie R. King

52. “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

53. “Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

54. “You know my methods. Apply them.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

55. “You cannot help being a female, and I should be something of a fool were I to discount your talents merely because of their housing.” - Laurie R. King

56. “Oh how I've missed you, Holmes.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

57. “Show Holmes a drop of water and he would deduce the existence of the Atlantic. Show it to me and I would look for a tap. That was the difference between us.” - Anthony Horowitz

58. “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

59. “My book is extremely graphic. I make no apologies for it. But it is graphic only because I told the truth about what the Ripper did to his victims.” - Bernard Schaffer

60. “It's quite exciting," said Sherlock Holmes, with a yawn.” - Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

61. “They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

62. “To begin at the beginning.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

63. “I am lost without my Boswell.[Sherlock Holmes on Dr. Watson.]” - Arthur Conan Doyle

64. “Well, and there is the end of our little drama," I remarked, after we had sat some time smoking in silence. "I fear that it may be the last investigation in which I shall have the chance of studying your methods. Miss Morstan has done me the honour to accept me as a husband in prospective."He gave a most dismal groan.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

65. “If my future were black, it was better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to brighten it by mere will-o’-the-wisps of the imagination.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

66. “No ghosts need apply. - Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” - Arthur Conan Doyle

67. “My friend's wiry arms were around me and he was leading me to the chair."You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake say that you're not hurt!"It was worth a wound -it was worth many wounds- to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay beyond that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

68. “My mind rebels at stagnation, give me problems, give me work!” - Arthur Conan Doyle

69. “I must thank you,' said Sherlock Holmes, 'for calling my attention to a case which certainly presents some features of interest. I had observed some newspaper comment at the time, but I was exceedingly preoccupied by that little affair of the Vatican cameos, and in my anxiety to oblige the Pope I lost touch with several interesting English cases.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

70. “The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

71. “When one tries to rise above Nature one is liable to fall below it. The highest type of man may revert to the animal if he leaves the straight road of destiny.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

72. “Dr. Watson's summary list of Sherlock Holmes's strengths and weaknesses:"1. Knowledge of Literature: Nil.2. Knowledge of Philosophy: Nil.3. Knowledge of Astronomy: Nil.4. Knowledge of Politics: Feeble.5. Knowledge of Botany: Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.6. Knowledge of Geology: Practical but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.7. Knowledge of Chemistry: Profound.8. Knowledge of Anatomy: Accurate but unsystematic.9. Knowledge of Sensational Literature: Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.10. Plays the violin well.11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

73. “[O]n general principles it is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

74. “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

75. “I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

76. “It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

77. “Because it is my desire. Is that not enough?"[Sherlock Holmes on his raison d'être.]” - Arthur Conan Doyle

78. “Her cuisine is limited but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman."[Sherlock Holmes, on Mrs. Hudson's cooking.]” - Arthur Conan Doyle

79. “I do not know whether it came from his own innate depravity or from the promptings of his master, but he was rude enough to set a dog at me. Neither dog nor man liked the look of my stick, however, and the matter fell through. Relations were strained after that, and further inquiries out of the question.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

80. “My correspondence has certainly the charm of variety, and the humbler are usually the more interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

81. “There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals. It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubbable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Stranger's Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, allowed, and three offenses, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion. My brother was one of the founders, and I have myself found it a very soothing atmosphere.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

82. “A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman's love, however badly he may have treated her.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

83. “The best way of successfully acting a part is to be it.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

84. “To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

85. “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

86. “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

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

88. “So it was, my dear Watson, that at two o'clock today I found myself in my old armchair in my own old room, and only wishing that I could have seen my old friend Watson in the other chair which he has so often adorned.- Sherlock Holmes.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Return of Sherlock Holmes

89. “As I turned away, I saw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world.- Watson.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

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

91. “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.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

92. “What is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

93. “True deduction can only be obtained through a certain amount of self annihilation.” - Joe Riggs

94. “If man could apply half the ingenuity he’s exhibited in the creation of weapons to more sensible ends, there’s no limit to what he might yet accomplish” - Mark Frost

95. “then he jumped..I owe him so much. I needed him. I still do.But he's gone.He told me once that I shouldn't make people into heroes. He said that heroes didn't exist and that even if they did he wouldn't be one of them.which goes to show. he wasn't right about everything..” - Guy Adams

96. “I mean, imagine how some unfortunate Master Criminal would feel, on coming down to do a murder at the old Grange, if he found that not only was Sherlock Holmes putting in the weekend there, but Hercule Poirot, as well." ~ Bertram "Bertie" Wooster” - P.G. Wodehouse

97. “Moriarty: . . .everything I have to say has already crossed your mind.” - Conan Doyle

98. “Sherlock: You're keeping a SCRAPBOOK. Only old ladies and pre-pubescent girls keep scrapbooks, John.John: It's not a scrapbook, Sherlock. I'm collecting papers relevant to the cases. It helps me remember the details. And it was locked away in my desk drawer.Sherlock: The lock on your desk drawer was insulting me with its pretense at security.” - Guy Adams

99. “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.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

100. “To make a current example, the world can find human interest in the death and the love affairs and the pallid addiction to cocaine of Mr. Sherlock Holmes.” - John Albert Macy

101. “Are you prepared to be the complete Watson?" he asked."Watson?""Do-you-follow-me-Watson; that one. Are you prepared to have quite obvious things explained to you, to ask futile questions, to give me chances of scoring off you, to make brilliant discoveries of your own two or three days after I have made them myself all that kind of thing? Because it all helps.""My dear Tony," said Bill delightedly, "need you ask?" Antony said nothing, and Bill went on happily to himself, "I perceive from the strawberry-mark on your shirt-front that you had strawberries for dessert. Holmes, you astonish me. Tut, tut, you know my methods. Where is the tobacco? The tobacco is in the Persian slipper. Can I leave my practice for a week? I can.” - A.A. Milne

102. “Do you remember," he said, "one of Holmes's little scores over Watson about the number of steps up to the Baker Street lodging? Poor old Watson had been up and down them a thousand times, but he had never thought of counting them, whereas Holmes had counted them as a matter of course, and knew that there were seventeen. And that was supposed to be the difference between observation and non-observation. Watson was crushed again, and Holmes appeared to him more amazing than ever. Now, it always seemed to me that in that matter Holmes was the ass, and Watson the sensible person. What on earth is the point of keeping in your head an unnecessary fact like that? If you really want to know at any time the number of steps to your lodging, you can ring up your landlady and ask her.” - A.A. Milne

103. “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.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

104. “I think my reputation will look after itself," Holmes said. "If they hang me, Watson, I shall leave it to you to persuade your readers that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.” - Anthony Horowitz

105. “I give you full credit for the discovery, I crawl, I grovel, my name is Watson, and you need not say what you were just going to say, because I admit it all.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

106. “A mystifying sensation of loneliness shook him. Arthur had been alone before, to be sure, but to be alone while surrounded by people, the one sane man in a mad place - that was loneliness.” - Graham Moore

107. “There is an undeniable exhilaration in moment of even the smallest discovery” - Graham Moore

108. “Gray fall light came through the nine square glass panes. On days like this, the strips of white wood that separated the glass seemed brighter to the eye than did the window light.” - Graham Moore

109. “Amazing, really, to think of what a man could achieve with the simple ability to put pen to paper and spin a decent yarn.” - Graham Moore

110. “Watson is a cheap, efficient little sod of a literary device. Holmes doesn't need him to solve crimes any more than he needs a ten-stone ankle weight. The audience, Arthur. The audience needs Watson as an intermediary, so that Holmes's thoughts might be forever kept just out of reach. If you told stories from Holmes's perspective, everyone would know what the bleeding genius was thinking the whole time. They'd have the culprit fingered on page one.” - Graham Moore

111. “Our relationship with literary characters, at least to those that exercise a certain attraction over us, rests in fact on a denial. We know perfectly well, on a conscious level, that these characters “do not exist,” or in any case do not exist in the same way as do the inhabitants of the real world. But things manifest in an entirely different way on the unconscious level, which is interested not in the ontological differences between worlds but in the effect they produce on the psyche.Every psychoanalyst knows how deeply a subject can be influenced, and even shaped, sometimes to the point of tragedy, by a fictional character and the sense of identification it gives rise to. This remark must first of all be understood as a reminder that we ourselves are usually fictional characters for other people […]” - Pierre Bayard

112. “The most common place crime is often the most mysterious, because it presents no new or specific features from which deductions may be drawn” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

113. “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.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

114. “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.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

115. “Wonderful!" I ejaculated.” - Arthur Conan Doyle

116. “A strange enigma is man” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Sign of Four

117. “Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician.” - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Sign of Four