“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.”
“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.”
“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
“Where there is no imagination, there is no horror.”
“My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis.”
“To a great mind, nothing is little.”
“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
“We can’t command our love, but we can our actions.”
“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
“You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.”
“The chief proof of man’s real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.”
“Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
“It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.”
“You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.”
“I never guess. It is a shocking habit—destructive to the logical faculty.”
“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe you have done.”
“The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.”
“Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.”
“A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use.”
“Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.”
“There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps.”
“It is quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg that you won’t speak to me for fifty minutes.”
“Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them.”
“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.”
“The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.”
“A client is to me a mere unit—a factor in a problem.”
“I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule.”
“Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.”
“The press, Watson, is a most valuable institution if you only know how to use it.”
“I follow my own methods, and tell as much or as little as I choose. That is the advantage of being unofficial.”
“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin.”
“Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner.”
“Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.”
“You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.”
“No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.”
“A trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so.”
“Work is the best antidote to sorrow.”
“It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light.”
“A change is as good as a rest.”
“The unexpected has always been my greatest ally.”
“You can tell an old master by the sweep of his brush.”
“We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.”
“The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.”
“Every man has his own little ways. That is the only way I have.”
“The game is afoot.”
“Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person.”
“An insatiable curiosity is one of the surest marks of a true detective.”