Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

I reached for the prescription. In a vigorous scrawl, he inked: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. Take ten pages, twice a day, till end of course. ~ Diane Setterfield

As I turned away, I saw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world.
- Watson. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I suppose I'm the only person who remembers one of the most exciting of his ballets-it's the fruit of an unlikely collaboration between Nijinsky on the one hand and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the other. ~ Alan Bennett

It is the Valley of Fear, the Valley of Death. The terror is in the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn. Wait, young man, and you will learn for yourself.

---Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ~ Donna Cummins

The (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) stories were great, for one. The thing that makes him a remarkable character is how he can withstand all of these different interpretations and different styles and, that's what makes a classic character a classic character; they keep coming back and you see them in a new way every time. ~ Laura Linney

Prescription: 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. Take ten pages, twice a day, til end of course. ~ Diane Setterfield

When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conceived Sherlock Holmes, why didn't he give the famous consulting detective a few more quirks: a wooden leg, say, and an Oedipus complex? Well, Holmes didn't need many physical tics or personality disorders; the very concept of a consulting detective was still fresh and original in 1887. ~ Christopher Fowler

It came with the wind through the silence of the night, a long, deep mutter, then a rising howl, and then the sad moan in which it died away. Again and again it sounded, the whole air throbbing with it, strident, wild and menacing. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I am an Irishman, sir." "Irish Irish?" "Yes, sir. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant. So says the statistician. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

It's the Baker Street division of the detective police force ... There's more work to be got out of one of those little beggars than out of a dozen of the force,' Holmes remarked. 'The mere sight of an official-looking person seals men's lips. These youngsters, however, go everywhere and hear everything. They are as sharp as needles, too; all they want is organization. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Great sorrow or great joy should bring intense hunger
not abstinence from food, as our novelists will have it. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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 amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

In rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable London, hotel London, theatrical London, literary London, commercial London, and, finally, maritime London ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Streams may spring from one source and yet some may be clear and some be foul. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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

There are times, young fellah, when every one of us must make a stand for human right and justice, or you never feel clean again. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I have wrought my simple plan
If I give one hour of joy
To the boy who's half a man,
Or the man who's half a boy. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Watson: "Get that out of my face."
Sherlock: "It's not in your face, it's in my hand."
Watson: "Get what's in your hand out of my face. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

The setting is a worthy one, if the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

The fantastic graces of Chivalry lay upon the surface of life,but beneath it was a half-savage population,fierce and animal,with little ruth or mercy. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Never mind, he answered; and, slinging his weapon over his shoulder, strode off down the gorge and so away into the heart of the mountain to the haunts of the wild beasts. Amongst them all there was none so fierce and so dangerous as himself. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

A conjurer gets no credit once he has explained his trick; ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

A mistake would have been fatal."
-Sherlock Holmes- ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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 number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

But how could you guess what the motive was? ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

My mind rebels at stagnation. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I could not wish anything better than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

There was, to my mind, something eerie and ghost-like in the endless procession of faces which flitted across these narrow bars of light, - sad faces and glad, haggard and merry. Like all human kind, they flitted from the gloom into the light, and so back into the gloom once more. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

He said that there were no traces upon the ground round the body. He did not observe any. but I did - some little distance off, but fresh and clear"
"Footprints?"
"Footprints."
"A man's or a woman's?"
Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered: "Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of s gigantic hound! ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

'It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you,' cried the Inspector, with the magnificent fair play of the British criminal law. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

There was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Who knows, Watson? Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

People might be dismissive of someone obsessed with mystery stories, as if the line between fiction and reality was so distinct. They didn't know, perhaps, that Sherlock Holmes was based on a real man, Dr. Joseph Bell, and that the methods Arthur Conan Doyle created for his fictional detective inspired generations of real-world detectives. Did they know that Arthur Conan Doyle went on to investigate mysteries in his real life and even absolved a man of a crime for which he had been convicted? Did they know how Agatha Christie brilliantly staged her own disappearance in order to exact an elegant revenge on a cheating husband? ~ Maureen Johnson, Truly Devious

The Diogenes Club is the queerest club in London, and Mycroft one of the queerest men. He's always there from quarter to five to twenty to eight. It's six now, so if you care for a stroll this beautiful evening I shall be very happy to introduce you to two curiosities. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

That the full facts have never been revealed to the general ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

The public, not unnaturally, goes upon the principle that he who would heal others must himself be whole. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

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

The note was undated, and without either signature or address. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

He has a gentle voice and a quiet manner, but behind his twinkling blue eyes there lurks a capacity for furious wrath and implacable resolution, the more dangerous because they are held in leash. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

It is true that private friends have sometimes, after listening to my effusions, gone the length of remarking, "Really, Smith, that's not half bad!" or, "You take my advice, old boy, and send that to some magazine!" but I have never on these occasions had the moral courage to inform my adviser that the article in question had been sent to well-nigh every publisher in London, and had come back again with a rapidity and precision which spoke well for the efficiency of our postal arrangements. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

All day the wind had screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like untamed beasts in a cage. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

He was too absurd to make me angry. Indeed, it was a waste of energy, for if you were going to be angry with this man you would be angry all the time. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I should dearly love that the world should be ever so little better for my presence. Even on this small stage we have our two sides, and something might be done by throwing all one's weight on the scale of breadth, tolerance, charity, temperance, peace, and kindliness to man and beast. We can't all strike very big blows, and even the little ones count for something. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

I don't take much stock of detectives in novels - chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That's just inspiration: not business. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Dogs don't make mistakes. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle