Sherlock Holmes Quotations

“But you, Holmes — you have changed very little — save for that horrible goatee.”

“These are the sacrifices one makes for one's country, Watson,” said Holmes, pulling at his little tuft. “To-morrow it will be but a dreadful memory.”

— Watson and Holmes, in “His Last Bow”

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

— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”

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"'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and you have a quick eye for color. Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself […]

“It was most suggestive,” said Holmes. “It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”

— From “A Case of Identity”

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It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen to write these the last words in which I shall ever record the singular gifts by which my friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes was distinguished.

— Opening line of “The Final Problem”

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He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened. “It is cocaine,” he said, — “a seven-percent solution. Would you care to try it?”

— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Sign of the Four”

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

— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of the Red Circle”

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“You reasoned it out beautifully,” I exclaimed in unfeigned admiration. “It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.”

— Watson, in “The Red Headed League”

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“No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit, — destructive to the logical faculty.”

— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Sign of the Four”

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“My health is somewhat fragile,” he remarked, as he led the way down the passage. “I am compelled to be a valetudinarian.”

— Thaddeus Sholto, in “The Sign of the Four”

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I happened to look out of the window, and perceiving two gentlemen advancing rapidly along Baker Street asked him who they were. He immediately lit his pipe, and, twisting himself on a chair into the figure 8, replied:

“They are two collaborators in comic opera, and their play has not been a […]

“When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession.”

— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”

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Barker beat his head with his clenched fist in his impotent anger. “Do not tell me that we have to sit down under this? Do you say that no one can ever get level with this king devil?”

“No, I don't say that,” said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to be looking far into the future. “I don't say that […]

“You say he was affable?”

“A purring cat who thinks he sees prospective mice. Some people's affability is more deadly than the violence of coarser souls.”

— Watson and Holmes, discussing Baron Gruner, in “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client”

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“I travelled for two years in Tibet, therefore, and amused myself by visiting Lhassa, and spending some days with the head lama. You may have read of the remarkable explorations of a Norwegian named Sigerson, but I am sure that it never occurred to you that you were receiving news of your friend […]

“See the value of imagination,” said Holmes. “It is the one quality which Gregory lacks. We imagined what might have happened, acted upon the supposition, and find ourselves justified. Let us proceed.”

— Sherlock Holmes, in “Silver Blaze”

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“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing,” answered Holmes thoughtfully. “It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.”

— From “The Boscombe […]

In the whirl of our incessant activity, it has often been difficult for me, as the reader has probably observed, to round off my narratives, and to give those final details which the curious might expect. Each case has been the prelude to another, and the crisis once over, the actors have passed […]

The friends of Mr. Sherlock Holmes will be glad to learn that he is still alive and well, though somewhat crippled by occasional attacks of rheumatism. He has, for many years, lived in a small farm upon the downs five miles from Eastbourne, where his time is divided between philosophy and […]

“Snap goes our third thread, and we end where we began.”

— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Hound of the Baskervilles”

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“My mind,” he said, “rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental […]

Come at once if convenient — if inconvenient come all the same.

— A note from Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of the Creeping Man”

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“My dear Mr. Grant Munro—” began Holmes.

Our visitor sprang from his char. “What!” he cried, “you know my mane?”

“If you wish to preserve your incognito,' said Holmes, smiling, “I would suggest that you cease to write your name upon the lining of your hat, or else that you turn the crown […]

“As you are aware, E is the most common letter in the English alphabet, and it predominates to so marked an extent that even in a short sentence one would expect to find it most often. Out of fifteen symbols in the first message, four were the same, so it was reasonable to set this down as E.” […]

My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable perfomer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and […]

A formidable array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the chemical work which was so dear to him.

“Well, have you solved it?” I asked as I entered.

“Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta.”

— From “A Case of […]

“He made the country down in Illinois, and He made the Missouri,” the little girl continued. “I guess somebody else made the country in these parts. It's not nearly so well done. They forgot the water and the trees.”

— Lucy Ferrier, in “A Study in Scarlet”

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“I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a […]

She was fond of him, too, for he had a remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent.

— Watson, describing Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of the Dying Detective”

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“You will not, I am sure, be offended if I say that any reputation for sharpness which I may possess has been entirely gained by the admirable foil which you have made for me. Have I not heard of debutantes who have insisted on plainness in their chaperones?”

— Holmes, to Watson, in “The Field […]