It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.

A study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn’t we use a little art jargon? There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate...

Her cuisine is limited but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman.”[Sherlock Holmes, on Mrs. Hudson’s cooking.]

You see, but you do not observe.

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...

My horror at his crimes was lost in my admiration at his skill.

…I cannot live without brain-work. 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...

We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception.

The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest.

Miss Morstan and I stood together, and her hand was in mine. A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two, who had never seen each other until that day, between whom no...

Yes, the setting (Dartmoor) is a worthy one. If the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men.Sherlock Holmes

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 game is afoot.

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...

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.

Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.

Problems may be solved in the study which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest pitch, it is necessary...

‎A change of work is the best rest.

From my boyhood I have had an intense and overwhelming conviction that my real vocation lay in the direction of literature. I have, however, had a most unaccountable difficulty in getting any responsible person to...

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...

I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go.

Speaking of my old friend and biographer, I would take this opportunity to remark that if I burden myself with a companion in my various little inquiries it is not done out of sentiment or...

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...

The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.

To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.

[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.

He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his...

To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces.

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

It was at such moments that for an instant he ceased to be a reasoning machine and betrayed his human love for admiration and applause. The same singularly proud and reserved nature which turned away...

There were no footmarks.”Meaning that you saw none?”I assure you, sir, that there were none.”My good Hopkins, I have investigated many crimes, but I have never yet seen one which was committed by a flying...

There is a danger there – a very real danger to humanity. Consider, Watson, that the material, the sensual, the worldly would all prolong their worthless lives. The spiritual would not avoid the call to...

Because it is my desire. Is that not enough? [Sherlock Holmes on his raison d’être.]

On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large...

When a man does a queer thing, or two queer things, there may be a meaning to it, but when everything he does is queer, then you begin to wonder

To a great mind, nothing is little,’ remarked Holmes, sententiously.

When Dr. Mortimer had finished reading this singular narrative he pushed his spectacles up on his forehead and stared across at Mr. Sherlock Holmes. The latter yawned and tossed the end of his cigarette into...

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

What, indeed? It is art for art’s sake, Watson.

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...

It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.

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.

You will not apply my precept,” he said, shaking his head. “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? We know...

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...

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...

There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book.

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.

I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain,” said he. “Results without causes are much more impressive.

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...