This page is for quotes from the Sherlock Holmes series of stories, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Arrangement is chronological, where possible, with some similar or related quotations listed beneath the earliest occurrence.
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- It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.
- A Study in Scarlet (1887)
- Variant: 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. ~ A Scandal in Bohemia (1891)
- What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is what can you make people believe that you have done.
- A Study in Scarlet (1887)
- London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
- A Study in Scarlet (1887)
- How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
- The Sign of Four (1890)
- Variants on this theme:
- Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth. ~ The Sign of Four (1890)
- It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ~ The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet (1892)
- Improbable as it is, all other explanations are more improbable still. ~ Silver Blaze (1892)
- It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong. ~ The Adventure of The Priory School (1904)
- We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ~ The Adventure of Bruce-Partington Plans (1908)
- When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ~ The Adventure of The Blanched Soldier (1926)
- Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.
- A Case of Identity (1891)
- There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.
- A Case of Identity (1891)
- The little things are infinitely more important.
- A Case of Identity (1891)
- You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.
- The Boscombe Valley Mystery (1891)
- Variants:
- It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.
- The Man with the Twisted Lip (1891)
- I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.
- The Adventure of The Lion's Mane (1926)
- "Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."
- The Adventure of the Copper Beeches (1892)
- What one man can invent another can discover.
- The Adventure of the Dancing Men (1903)
- So you can put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Busybody Holmes!
- The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist (1903)
- Perhaps when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand.
- The Adventure of the Abbey Grange (1904)
- Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs.
- The Adventure of the Three Students (1904)
- There is but one step from the grotesque to the horrible.
- The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge (1908)
- There should be no combination of events for which the wit of man cannot conceive an explanation.
- The Valley of Fear (1914-1915)
- Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.
- The Valley of Fear (1914-1915)
- That the dog should die was after the beautiful, faithful nature of dogs.
- The Adventure of The Lion's Mane (1926)
- I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go.
- The Adventure of The Three Gables (1926)
- Dogs don't make mistakes.
- The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place (1927)
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