Quotes from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“Everything I have to say has already crossed your mind."
"Then possibly my answer has crossed yours.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“I never can resist a touch of the dramatic.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“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. He has a brain of the first order. 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. He does little himself. He only plans.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime; and when Homes, in one of his queer humours, would sit in an armchair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V.R. done in bullet pocks, I felt strongly that neither the atmosphere nor the appearance of our room was improved by it.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“To underestimate oneself is as much an exaggeration of one's powers than the other.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“It’s every man’s business to see justice done.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“In my inmost heart I believed that I could succeed where others failed, and now I had the opportunity to test myself.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“If you are clever enough to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I shall do as much to you.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“Watson," said he, "if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little over-confident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“I follow my own methods, and tell as much or as little as I choose. That is the advantage of being unofficial.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“...to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old lovers are the worst.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“we are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture, and hypothesis.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from flowers.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman’s love, however badly he may have treated her.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“Save for the occasional use of cocaine he had no vices, and he only turned to the drug as a protest against the monotony of existence when cases were scanty and the papers uninteresting.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“These relics have a history then?'
'So much so that they are history.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“The statesman received us with that old-fashioned courtesy for which he is remarkable, and seated us on the two luxuriant lounges on either side of the fireplace. Standing on the rug between us, with his slight, tall figure, his sharp features, thoughtful face, and curling hair prematurely tinged with gray, he seemed to represent that not too common type, a nobleman who is in truth noble.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“The difficulty is to detach the framework of fact—of absolute undeniable fact—from the embellishments of theorists and reporters.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“for nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person,”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“Save for the occasional use of cocaine he had no vices,”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

“...above all, do not fret until you know that you really have a cause for it.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

About the author

Popular quotes

“Jack, you're a switch in every sense of the word.”
― Jack L. Pyke, quote from Backlash

“Good people?” Hangfire repeated. “Are you sure about that, Snicket? Would good people chop down a tree that was hundreds of years old, to erect a statue in honor of bloodshed? Would good people drain the sea, just so they could force ink out of the last few octopi? What do you think happened to the water that drained away? A whole valley was flooded. Countless creatures of Killdeer Fields were drowned, and an entire village was forced to leave their homes, just so the Knight family could add a few pennies to their ink fortune and the town could limp along for a little while longer.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?

“The stone is not a plaything for little girls, Camille.” He hardened his stare. She tried to keep her eyes equally fierce. “The path to the stone is said to be riddled with traps, endless holes in the earth where you fall forever. Deep caves shelter a species of enormous beasts that protect the stone. Men who set out to find it are usually never seen again.”
She sat back, surprised by his intensity and passion.
“Well, then,” she said, and watched him puff out his chest victoriously. “I do hope you set out to find it.”
He glowered at her. “Oh, I most certainly will. The map and stone will be mine.”
Camille stood, pushing her chair back. “It looks like you have some competition, then. I won’t give up until I’ve brought my father back to life.”
McGreenery flashed his white smile and roared with laughter. “Bring him back? Oh yes, you would actually use the stone.”
She lifted her chin. “And you wouldn’t?”
He laughed at her again. “Dear child, you don’t know a thing about it, do you? You don’t have the faintest clue how the stone will work. If you think this is some short journey without risks or sacrifices, you should sail home right now. The magic of that stone is but a fraction of the everlasting power it leads to. A clever businessman would sell that power to the highest bidder.”
― Angie Frazier, quote from Everlasting

“I'd rather be in danger with you than be safe without you.”
― Fuyumi Ono, quote from The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow

“No he probado la ejecución ni la reclusión perpetua, pero si se puede juzgar a priori, la pena de muerte, a mi juicio, es más moral y humana que la reclusión. La ejecución mata de golpe, mientras que la reclusión vitalicia lo hace lentamente. ¿Cuál de los verdugos es más humano? ¿El que lo mata a usted en pocos minutos o el que le quita la vida durante muchos años?”
― Anton Chekhov, quote from Racconti

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.