He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He has one positive virtue. Furthermore, he is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone.

— Arthur Conan Doyle

He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city, He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. Furthermore, he has a brain of the first order. Furthermore, he sits motionless, like a spider in the center of its web, but that web has a thousand radiations, and he knows well every quiver of each of them. Furthermore, he does little himself. Furthermore, he only plans.

— Arthur Conan Doyle

Her cuisine is limited, but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotch

— Arthur Conan Doyle

He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer-excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained observer to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his.

— Arthur Conan Doyle

He was the best shot in India, and I expect that there are few better in London. Have you heard the name?'' No, I have not.'' Well, well, such is fame!

— Arthur Conan Doyle

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.

— Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes,” I cried, “this is impossible.” “Admirable!” he said. “A most illuminating remark. It IS impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respects have stated it wrong. Yet you saw for yourself. Can you suggest any fallacy?

— Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes took up the stone and held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "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's pet baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found in the banks of the Amos River in southern China and is remarkable in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallized charcoal. Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the gallows and the prison?

— Arthur Conan Doyle

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

— Arthur Conan Doyle

How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!

— Arthur Conan Doyle