Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows

Cynicism is simply realism with a veneer of irony.

There was no tune as such, just arrhythmic sequences of harsh intervals and atonalities. It was all clash and dissonance. It was the kind of music, I thought, that would be played in Hell.

An addict of any kind is always on the lookout for newer, more intense experiences. After a time he builds up an immunity to the rush of sensation he receives from his addiction. He seeks greater heights, higher stakes.

You are far too stolid and unimaginative, Watson, to invent a tale like that.

Civilizaton rests on the assumption that the universe is kindly disposed towards mankind and intended for our benefit. Imagine the upheaval were it to become widespread knowledge that that is not so.

I'm a connoisseur of the poppy. I know my stuff. This diluted muck barely passes muster.

the many sites of great archaeological interest to be found in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Hindoo Kush, and lamented how he should be exploring them while he was here, rather than spending the time skirmishing with the natives, all for the sake of controlling a country which was of little strategic importance to Britain and of which our government sought control only because they were unwilling to cede it to Russia, just another square on the board of the Great Game to tussle over and occupy.

London, however, was where he discovered the truth: that the gods are amongst us, and want only our lives and our destruction.