“Anything is better than stagnation.”

“My mind rebels at stagnation, give me problems, give me work!”

“better to be a repulsed lover than an accepted brother”

“…but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.”

“I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being.”

“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.”

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