“Unless you are good at guessing, it is not much use being a detective.”

“Miss Howard: Like a good detective story myself. Lots of nonsense written, though. Criminal discovered in last Chapter. Everyone dumbfounded. Real crime - you'd know at once.”

“You have a tendency, Hastings, to prefer the least likely. That, no doubt, is from reading too many detective stories.”

“You surprise me, Hastings. Do you not know that all celebrated detectives have brothers who would be even more celebrated than they are were it not for constitutional indolence?”

“And so could you know it if you would only use the brains the good God has given you. Sometimes I really am tempted to believe that by inadvertence, He passed you by.”

“There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.”

“You gave too much rein to your imagination. Imagination is a good servant, and a bad master. The simplest explanation is always the most likely.”