Arthur Conan Doyle > Quotes

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes

“You see, but you do not observe.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

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

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels & 56 Short Stories

“The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

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

“Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“The game is afoot.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“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

“There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Red Headed League

“What one man can invent, another can discover.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels & 56 Short Stories

“The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“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.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

“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, A Study in Scarlet

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

“I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

“There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“I followed you.'

I saw no one.'

That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“My dear Watson," said [Sherlock Holmes], "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone

“What a lovely thing a rose is!"

He walked past the couch to the open window and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects.

"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty

“As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“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, The Sign of Four

“Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

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

“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“presume nothing”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“Come, Watson, come!" he cried. The game is afoot.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the Creeping Man

“if i could be assured of your destruction, i would in the interest of the public, cheerfully accept my death.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels & 56 Short Stories

“To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

“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.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“By George!" cried the inspector. "How did you ever see that?"

Because I looked for it.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four

“There are heroisms all round us waiting to be done.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“Everything comes in circles. [...] The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It's all been done before, and will be again.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Valley of Fear

“Picnics are very dear to those who are in the first stage of the tender passion.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing. It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

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