A Study in Scarlet quotes

On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when someone tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford, who had been a dresser under me at Barts.

The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man.

In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm, and he, in his turn, appeared to be delighted to see me.

“It is not easy to express the inexpressible,” he answered with a laugh. “Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes—it approaches to cold-bloodedness.

I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects.

To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness. He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.”

To do him justice, I think that he would take it himself with the same readiness.

He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge.

”

Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning. No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.

His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.

Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done.

“You see,” he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.

A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it.

Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic.

“You see,” he explained, “

I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.

A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty …

He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order.

It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent.

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.”

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

So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it.

Like all other arts, the Science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it.

They lay all the evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime, to set them straight.

There is a strong family resemblance about misdeeds, and if you have all the details of a thousand at your finger ends, it is odd if you can’t unravel the thousand and first.

Lestrade is a well-known detective. He got himself into a fog recently over a forgery case, and that was what brought him here.”

“No data yet,” he answered. “

It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.

”

“Read it up—you really should.

There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before.

”

It was simply a ruse to divert inquiry into a wrong channel. I’m not going to tell you much more of the case, Doctor.

You know a conjuror gets no credit when once he has explained his trick, and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.

”

My companion flushed up with pleasure at my words, and the earnest way in which I uttered them.

I had already observed that he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could be of her beauty.

“I’ll tell you one other thing,” he said. “Patent-leathers and Square-toes came in the same cab, and they walked down the pathway together as friendly as possible—arm-in-arm, in all probability.

Holmes laughed and threw his card across the table to the constable. “Don’t get arresting me for the murder,” he said. “

I am one of the hounds and not the wolf

; Mr. Gregson or Mr. Lestrade will answer for that. Go on, though. What did you do next?”

I must thank you for it all. I might not have gone but for you, and so have missed the finest study I ever came across: 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.

And now for lunch, and then for Norman Neruda. Her attack and her bowing are splendid. What’s that little thing of Chopin’s she plays so magnificently: Tra-la-la-lira-lira-lay.”

“Oh, bless you, it doesn’t matter in the least. If the man is caught, it will be on account of their exertions; if he escapes, it will be in spite of their exertions.

It’s heads I win and tails you lose.

Whatever they do, they will have followers. ‘Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l’admire.’ ”

If the man is caught, it will be on account of their exertions; if he escapes, it will be in spite of their exertions. It’s heads I win and tails you lose. Whatever they do, they will have followers. ‘

Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l’admire.

’ ”

“

To a great mind, nothing is little,

” remarked Holmes, sententiously.

Hence things which have perplexed you and made the case more obscure, have served to enlighten me and to strengthen my conclusions.

It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery.

The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn.

Hence things which have perplexed you and made the case more obscure, have served to enlighten me and to strengthen my conclusions. It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery.

The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn.

This murder would have been infinitely more difficult to unravel had the body of the victim been simply found lying in the roadway without any of those outré and sensational accompaniments which have rendered it remarkable.

“Why didn’t you say so before?” she said, laughing gleefully. “You gave me such a fright.

Why, of course, now as long as we die we’ll be with mother again.

”

“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.

”

The very friend to whom you communicated your misgivings as to the Prophet and his mission, might be one of those who would come forth at night with fire and sword to exact a terrible reparation.

Hence every man feared his neighbour, and none spoke of the things which were nearest his heart.

One fine morning, John Ferrier was about to set out to his wheatfields, when he heard the click of the latch, and, looking through the window, saw a stout, sandy-haired, middle-aged man coming up the pathway.

“Twenty-nine days are given you for amendment, and then—”

The dash was more fear-inspiring than any threat could have been.

How this warning came into his room puzzled John Ferrier sorely, for his servants slept in an outhouse, and the doors and windows had all been secured.

After the lapse of time that has passed since their crime, it was impossible for me to secure a conviction against them in any court. I knew of their guilt though, and

I determined that I should be judge, jury, and executioner all rolled into one.

You’d have done the same, if you have any manhood in you, if you had been in my place.

I had my enemies within my power. Together they could protect each other, but singly they were at my mercy. I did not act, however, with undue precipitation. My plans were already formed.

There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.

I had my plans arranged by which I should have the opportunity of making the man who had wronged me understand that his old sin had found him out.

He staggered back with a livid face, and I saw the perspiration break out upon his brow, while his teeth chattered in his head. At the sight, I leaned my back against the door and laughed loud and long.

I had always known that vengeance would be sweet, but I had never hoped for the contentment of soul which now possessed me.

“ ‘You dog!’ I said; ‘I have hunted you from Salt Lake City to St. Petersburg, and you have always escaped me. Now, at last your wanderings have come to an end, for either you or I shall never see tomorrow’s sun rise.’

“ ‘There is no murder,’ I answered. ‘

Who talks of murdering a mad dog?

What mercy had you upon my poor darling, when you dragged her from her slaughtered father, and bore her away to your accursed and shameless harem.’

That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practise it much. In the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forwards, and so the other comes to be neglected.

There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically.

”