Quotes from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I

Arthur Conan Doyle ·  1059 pages

Rating: (20.3K votes)


“How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I


“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.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I


“Miss Morstan and I stood together, and her hand was in mine. A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two, who had never seen each other until that day, between whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed, and yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other. I have marveled at it since, but at the time it seemed the most natural thing that I would go out to her so, and, as she has often told me, there was in her also the instinct to turn to me for comfort and protection. So we stood hand in hand like two children, and there was peace in our hearts for all the dark things that surrounded us.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I


“Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I


“A study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn't we use a little art jargon? There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I



“I must apologize for calling so late," said he, "and I must further beg you to be so unconventional as to allow me to leave your house presently by scrambling over your back garden wall.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I


“Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I


“It is a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a brain must have something in it.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I


“It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any of these lines which run high and allow you to look down upon the houses like this."

I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid enough, but he soon explained himself.

"Look at those big, isolated clumps of buildings rising up above the slates, like brick islands in a lead-coloured sea."

"The board-schools."

"Light-houses, my boy! Beacons of the future! Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each, out of which will spring the wiser, better England of the future.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I


“The work is its own reward”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I



About the author

Arthur Conan Doyle
Born place: in Edinburgh, Scotland
Born date May 22, 1859
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