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.

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.

It was amusing to me to see how the detective’s overbearing manner had changed suddenly to that of a child asking questions of its teacher.

It’s every man’s business to see justice done.

My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built. Life is commonplace; the papers are sterile; audacity and romance...

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...

‘Rache,’ is the German for ‘revenge;’ so don’t lose your time looking for Miss Rachel.” With which Parthian shot he walked away, leaving the two rivals open-mouthed behind him.

The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure- these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion.

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.

I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, or how lonely the room which it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with it all the cares of the outer...

The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals.

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.

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.

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.

Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so completely overtopped every other consideration that we both burst out into a roar...

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...

I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me.

There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world.

I trust that age doth not wither nor custom stale my infinite variety.

You’re not hurt, Watson? For God’s sake, say that you are not hurt!”It was worth a wound — it was worth many wounds — to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind...

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...

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...

…above all, do not fret until you know that you really have a cause for it.

Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning.

The big blank spaces in the map are all being filled in, and there’s no room for romance anywhere.

To underestimate oneself is as much an exaggeration of one’s powers than the other.

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.

One should always look for a possible alternative, and provide against it. -Sherlock Holmes

The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.

Picnics are very dear to those who are in the first stage of the tender passion.

It is only when you touch the higher that you realize how low we may be among the possibilities of creation.

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 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...

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...

I am lost without my Boswell.[Sherlock Holmes on Dr. Watson.]

The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.

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...

It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.

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...

What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is...

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...

I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?

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 best way of successfully acting a part is to be it.

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...

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done.

Meu caro amigo (…), a vida é infinitamente mais estranha que qualquer coisa que a mente do homem possa inventar. Não nos atreveríamos a conceber coisas que são, afinal, lugares-comuns da existência. Se pudéssemos sair...

Take a pinch of snuff, doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over you in your example.

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...