“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

“It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.”

“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”

“You see, but you do not observe.”

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”

“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.”

“Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.”

“You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.”

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

“The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.”

“Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.”

“My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people do not know.”

“A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.”

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

“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.”

“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.”

“The game is afoot.”

“To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.”

“Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting.”

“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.”

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

“There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.”

“There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book.”

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”

“Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.”

“What one man can invent, another can discover.”

“A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman's love, however badly he may have treated her.”

“Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.”

“Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.”

“I wanted to end the world, but I'll settle for ending yours.”

“My dear Watson," said [Sherlock Holmes], "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers.”

“From the first day I met her, she was the only woman to me. Every day of that voyage I loved her more, and many a time since have I kneeled down in the darkness of the night watch and kissed the deck of that ship because I knew her dear feet had trod it. She was never engaged to me. She treated me as fairly as ever a woman treated a man. I have no complaint to make. It was all love on my side, and all good comradeship and friendship on hers. When we parted she was a free woman, but I could never again be a free man.”

“The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name.”

“Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson.”

“Where there is no imagination, there is no horror.”

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

“There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen.”

“I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather.”

“No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.”

“My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.”

“Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.”

“Come, Watson, come!" he cried. The game is afoot.”

“Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.”

“Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”

“The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.”

“Everything I have to say has already crossed your mind."

“You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.”

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

“It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”