The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes quotes

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman.

I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler.

But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results.

Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his.

And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.

“Quite so,” he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into an armchair. “

You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.

For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”

“I have no data yet.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

But the note itself. What do you deduce from it?”

“Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are.

I am lost without my Boswell.

And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity to miss it.”

“Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul of steel.

She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men.

Rather than I should marry another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not go—none.”

His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume.

His expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every fresh part that he assumed.

The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.

John Hare alone could have equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every fresh part that he assumed.

The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.

It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Serpentine Avenue.

“Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But I am inclined to think neither.

Women are naturally secretive, and they like to do their own secreting.

Why should she hand it over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be brought to bear upon a business man.

It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the Darlington Substitution Scandal it was of use to me, and also in the Arnsworth Castle business.

A married woman grabs at her baby; an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box.

Now it was clear to me that our lady of today had nothing in the house more precious to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. The alarm of fire was admirably done.

“I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement.

Fleet Street was choked with redheaded folk, and Pope’s Court looked like a coster’s orange barrow.

I should not have thought there were so many in the whole country as were brought together by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they were—straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay;

‘There is water in your eyes,’ said he as he released me. ‘I perceive that all is as it should be. But we have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and once by paint.

I could tell you tales of cobbler’s wax which would disgust you with human nature.

’ He stepped over to the window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the vacancy was filled.

“As a rule,” said Holmes, “the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be.

It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.

But I must be prompt over this matter.”

“To smoke,” he answered. “

It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won’t speak to me for fifty minutes.

” He curled himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird.

“Smart fellow, that,” observed Holmes as we walked away. “

He is, in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third.

I have known something of him before.”

“This fellow Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. He has one positive virtue.

He is as brave as a bulldog and as tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone.

Here we are, and they are waiting for us.”

“You reasoned it out beautifully,” I exclaimed in unfeigned admiration. “

It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings true.

”

“It saved me from ennui,” he answered, yawning. “Alas! I already feel it closing in upon me.

My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.

”

“This is wanting in the police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter.

Depend upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.

”

“It was most suggestive,” said Holmes. “

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?”

“

Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson.

You did not know where to look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumbnails, or the great issues that may hang from a bootlace.

“Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to look, and so you missed all that was important.

I can never bring you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumbnails, or the great issues that may hang from a bootlace.

Now, what did you gather from that woman’s appearance? Describe it.”

“ ’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 colour.

Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.

My first glance is always at a woman’s sleeve. In a man it is perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most useful material for showing traces.

“If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old Persian saying, ‘

There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.

’ There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world.”

“But it is profoundly true.

Singularity is almost invariably a clue.

The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they have established a very serious case against the son of the murdered man.”

“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.

It must be confessed, however, that the case looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very possible that he is indeed the culprit.

“

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact

,” he answered, laughing. “Besides, we may chance to hit upon some other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to Mr. Lestrade.

“

So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged.

”

“

Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog,

” said Holmes, laughing. “But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley Farm upon the left.”

“

You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.

”

“God help us!” said Holmes after a long silence. “Why does fate play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such a case as this that I do not think of Baxter’s words, and say, ‘

There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.

’ ”

“God help us!” said Holmes after a long silence. “

Why does fate play such tricks with poor, helpless worms?

I never hear of such a case as this that I do not think of Baxter’s words, and say, ‘There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.’ ”

“

None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of appeal.

”

“To tell the truth”—he sank his face into his thin, white hands—“I have felt helpless.

I have felt like one of those poor rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it.

I seem to be in the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight and no precautions can guard against.”

“

No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may take the flies, but not before.

”

“I didn’t know what to do, so I came straight to you.” That was always the way.

Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds to a lighthouse.

“It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or should you rather that I sent James off to bed?”

I should recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait outside, I shall be with you in five minutes.”

It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes’ requests, for they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with such a quiet air of mastery.

I felt, however, that when Whitney was once confined in the cab my mission was practically accomplished;

“

Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so.

My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one.”

“I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can get nothing to go upon.

There’s plenty of thread, no doubt, but I can’t get the end of it into my hand.

Now, I’ll state the case clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a spark where all is dark to me.”

This man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not familiar with it.

It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.

Let us now see the letter. Ha! there has been an enclosure here!”

“

I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner.

And in this letter you certainly have a very strong piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away from you?”

“I want to test a little theory of mine,” said he, pulling on his boots. “

I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve to be kicked from here to Charing Cross.

But I think I have the key of the affair now.”

“It has been in some points a singular case,” said Holmes, flicking the horse on into a gallop. “

I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.

”

… can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous work at £2 a week when I knew that I could earn as much in a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on the ground, and sitting still.

It was a long fight between my pride and the money, but the dollars won at last

, and I threw up reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets with coppers. Only one man knew my secret.

“As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a suspicion as to my real occupation.

My dear wife knew that I had business in the City. She little knew what.

“Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the street, with her eyes fixed full …

“No, no. No crime,” said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. “

Only one of those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have four million human beings all jostling each other within the space of a few square miles.

Amid the action and reaction of so dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be presented which may be striking and bizarre without being criminal.

“On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything.

You fail, however, to reason from what you see.

You are too timid in drawing your inferences.”

When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and held it against the light. “It’s a bonny thing,” said he. “Just see how it glints and sparkles.

Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil’s pet baits.

In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old.

In spite of its youth, it has already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal.

Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the gallows and the prison?

I’ll lock it up in my strong box now and drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it.”

“My name is Sherlock Holmes.

It is my business to know what other people don’t know.

”

“No, no; the real name,” said Holmes sweetly. “

It is always awkward doing business with an alias.

”

but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened.

Send him to gaol now, and you make him a gaol-bird for life.

Besides, it is the season of forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward.

This fellow will not go wrong again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of forgiveness.

Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward.

If you will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief feature.”

Holmes chuckled heartily.

“Your conversation is most entertaining,” said he. “When you go out close the door, for there is a decided draught.”

“I will go when I have said my say. Don’t you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here.”

so if you are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket.

An Eley’s No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots.

That and a toothbrush are, I think, all that we need.”

“That is not quite so common, is it?

Ah, me! it’s a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst of all.

I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn.”

“Subtle enough and horrible enough.

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. This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough before the night is over;

“It is a swamp adder!” cried Holmes; “the deadliest snake in India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten.

Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

Let us thrust this creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to some place of shelter and let the county police know what has happened.”

“That’s better!” said he. “

And now, Doctor, perhaps you would kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb used to be.

”

“Experience,” said Holmes, laughing. “

Indirectly it may be of value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your existence.

”

“

They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt as this.

Pray let me have the details.”

“

I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was amused.

”

“

American slang is very expressive sometimes.

And what did your wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?”

“

Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters.

Pray what is your own theory as to what took place?”

“I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination served to turn my conjecture into a certainty.

Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau’s example.

”

“

By the same brilliant reasoning, every man’s body is to be found in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe.

And pray what did you hope to arrive at through this?”

“Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I’d have done my duty by him.

We can’t command our love, but we can our actions.

I went to the altar with him with the intention to make him just as good a wife as it was in me to be.

“

By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive hotels.

There are not many in London which charge at that rate. In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H.

“God knows I have!—a trouble which is enough to unseat my reason, so sudden and so terrible is it.

Public disgrace I might have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet borne a stain.

Private affliction also is the lot of every man; but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone.

The police have openly confessed that they can at present make nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think necessary. I have already offered a reward of £1,000. My God, what shall I do!

I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son in one night.

Oh, what shall I do!”

“Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie?

His silence appears to me to cut both ways.

There are several singular points about the case. What did the police think of the noise which awoke you from your sleep?”

“

A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door so as to wake a household.

What did they say, then, of the disappearance of these gems?”

“

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in their place?

“No, it is not selfishness or conceit,” said he, answering, as was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. “If I claim full justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing—a thing beyond myself.

Crime is common. Logic is rare.

Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales.”

“

Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of analysis and deduction!

But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality.

But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. 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.

I think that I have touched bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my zero-point, I fancy. Read it!” He tossed a crumpled letter across to me.

Holmes shook his head gravely. “

It would cease to be a danger if we could define it

,” said he. “But at any time, day or night, a telegram would bring me down to your help.”

As to Holmes, I observed that he sat frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his hand when I mentioned it.

“Data! data! data!” he cried impatiently. “I can’t make bricks without clay.”

And yet he would always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever have accepted such a situation.

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.

”

“They always fill me with a certain horror.

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.

”

“

I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would cover the facts as far as we know them.

But which of these is correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has to tell.”