Sherlockian Quotes

I have many, many quotes from the books of Sherlock Holmes for anyone who is interested . . .

"Populus me sibilat, at mibi plaudo ipse domi simul ac nummos contemplor in arca"
(The people hiss me, but I applaud myself as I count the money in my strong box at home)

Women and Love
Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.

Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male.

One of the most dangerous classes in the world is the drifting and friendless woman.

My brain has always governed my heart.

Jealousy is a strange transformer of characters.

When a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values most. . . A married woman grabs at her baby - an unmarried one reaches for her jewel box.

Women are never to be entirely trusted - not the best of them.

Crime and Law
I don't mind confessing to you that I have always had an idea that I would have made a highly efficient criminal. This is the chance of my lifetime in that direction.

He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.

From the point of view of the criminal expert, London has become a singularly uninteresting city since the death of the late lamented Professor Moriarty.

When a man embarks upon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which may spring from it.

Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official detective force.

There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.

If criminals would always schedule their movements like railway trains, it would certainly be more convenient for all of us.

On Doctor Watson
The same old Watson! You never learn that the gravest issues may depend upon the smallest things.

You mean well, Watson. Shall I demonstrate your own ignorance?

I never get your limits, Watson. There are unexplored possibilities about you.

You have a grand gift of silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.
There is an appalling directness about your questions, Watson. They come at me like bullets.

On Himself
My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know.

That hurts my pride, Watson. It is a petty feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride.

My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence.

Don't be hurt, my dear fellow. You know that I am quite impersonal.

I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for?

I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the presence of one of the absolute fools in Europe.

I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.

Would you be afraid to sleep in the same room with a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip?


Philosophy
When one tries to rise above Nature one is liable to fall below it. The highest type of man may revert to the animal if he leaves the straight road of destiny.

Work is the best antidote to sorrow.

There are some trees, Watson, which grow to a certain height and then suddenly develop some unsightly eccentricity. You will see it often in humans.

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

Intense mental concentration has a curious way of blotting out what has passed.

There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion.

The work is its own reward.

There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before.

Is not all life pathetic and futile? Is not his story a microcosm of the whole? We reach. We grasp. And what is left in our hands at the end? A shadow. Or worse than a shadow - misery.

Education and Knowledge
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.

Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last.

What the deuce is it (the solar system) to me? You say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or my work.




I know it was probably pointless me putting these her, but there might be someone out there who is as crazy as me and decides they could use them!

Very interesting, indeed! :nod: :thumbs_up

My favourite quote of all time is Dr Watson's in "The Valley of Fear" which is

"Mediocrity sees nothing higher than itself. But Talent recognizes Genius"

Thanks Reichenbach, these were very enjoyable. It has been many years since I read any Sherlock Holmes. These did bring back some memories. I've always felt the longer works, A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles, rose to a higher level than the short stories. Perhaps Doyle needed the space to flesh out the charactes and situation better. Let me end with a quote myself: "You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear."

"Elementary particles, my dear Watson."
-- Sherlock Holmes in "The Case of the Missing Atom Smasher"

Bet you guys never read that one.

I like:
"Waston!"

mine is :
"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."
- Sherlock Holmes (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1859-1930)

A favorite? Which of my children do I like most? But here is one. Like a lot of fiction it is only good because it is fiction. In real life such a man would be insufferable.

A character in the Three Students says something which Holmes considers a bit dopey. Holmes turns to Watson and says "There are others."

I have read over and again all of the Holmes stories. The Hound of the Baskervilles is a wonderful story. BUT... If I was to spend 30 minutes with somebody who was really like Sherlock Holmes we would probably find out by actual experince just how good he was at boxing or the ancient martial art of Baritsu. But of course I would be taken away in a dog cart at the end.

here is one i like:
"But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them."
(The Adventure of the Three Gables)

Amusing and wise quotes :nod:
What I like about reading Sherlock Holmes stories is that you can always read them a second time and still be entertained, like.. it never loses its flavour.. gah! I always find difficulties expressing myself = /
Anyway I shall quote Sherlock Holmes, quoting Gustave Flaubert :D :
" 'L'homme c'est rien - l'oeuvre c'est tout' "
Translation = The man is nothing - his work is everything.