Arthur Conan Doyle

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

When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains however improbable must be the truth.

A trusty comrade is always of use, and a chronicler still more so.

Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance therefore not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.

A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem.

From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other.

The most difficult crime to track is the one which is purposeless.

For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.

I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.

Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing as when you find a trout in the milk to quote Thoreau's example.

Sir Walter with his 61 years of life although he never wrote a novel until he was over 40 had fortunately for the world a longer working career than most of his brethren.

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.

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

Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person.

As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones both before and after.

To the man who loves art for its own sake it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.

As a rule said Holmes the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace featureless crimes which are really puzzling just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.

We can't command our love but we can our actions.

When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge.

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