The Best Sherlock Holmes quotes

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Everything I have to say has already crossed your mind.’ ‘Then possibly my answer has crossed yours. — Arthur Conan Doyle

You know, Watson, I don’t mind confessing to you that I have always had an idea that I would have made a highly efficient criminal. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Who knows, Watson? Woman’s heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male. — Arthur Conan Doyle

A quick mind is worthless unless you can control the emotions with it as well. — Laurie R. King

You did tell me what a very superior sort of mind your friend has. What a pity he was born trapped in a man’s body. — Laurie R. King

Ah! my dear Watson, there we come into those realms of conjecture, where the most logical mind may be at fault. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Using insult instead of argument is the sign of a small mind. — Laurie R. King

When I was a kid, I loved Sherlock Holmes. I’m not interested in crimes. I’m interested in the mind of the detective and his process, which to me is a lot like the artist. — Patti Smith

Arthur Conan Doyle had to be Sherlock Holmes in order to envision how Sherlock Holmes would unravel a mystery. He had to be in Sherlock’s situations. As a writer, you have to be of two minds. — Patti Smith

And then I thought that I had to be like Sherlock Holmes and I had to detach my mind at will to a remarkable degree so that I did not notice how much it was hurting inside my head. — Mark Haddon

My mind rebels at stagnation, give me problems, give me work! — Arthur Conan Doyle

My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built. — Sherlock Holmes

I am watching bees. — Laurie R. King

Dear God, what is it like in your funny little brain? It must be so boring! — Sherlock Holmes

You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles. — Arthur Conan Doyle

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. — Sherlock Holmes

I’m living in a world of goldfish. — Mycroft Holmes

There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world. — Arthur Conan Doyle

The world of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and the world that we live in now is big enough to take more than one interpretation. — Benedict Cumberbatch

We know more about Tom [Cruise] and Katie [Holmes] than we do about global warming. We’re the most entertained, least informed people in the world. — Robert F. Kennedy

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done? — Arthur Conan Doyle

The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world. — Arthur Conan Doyle

The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest. — Arthur Conan Doyle

It’s a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brain to crime it is the worst of all. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Look at you. Why is the only woman you ever cared about a world–class criminal–are you a masochist? — Arthur Conan Doyle

As I turned away, I saw Holmes, with his back against a rock and his arms folded, gazing down at the rush of the waters. It was the last that I was ever destined to see of him in this world.–Watson. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me. — Arthur Conan Doyle

The public, not unnaturally, goes upon the principle that he who would heal others must himself be whole. — Arthur Conan Doyle

We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I am lost without my Boswell. [Sherlock Holmes on Dr. Watson.] — Arthur Conan Doyle

Jerry Jones and Chris Christie are probably the most important latent homosexual relationship since Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. — Kinky Friedman

We like to see death as an unfair conspiracy, and what we want is a magic practitioner, a combination of Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes. — A. A. Gill

Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix — Arthur Conan Doyle

Come, Watson, come!’ he cried. The game is afoot. — Arthur Conan Doyle

They are a great essay in male friendship, which has gone now. Men’s friendship has been debased. One of the lovely things about Holmes and Watson is that they do have this great platonic relationship. — Jeremy Brett

Like all Holmes’ reasoning, the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained. Dr. Watson, speaking of Sherlock Holmes. — Arthur Conan Doyle

If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive. — Arthur Conan Doyle

If the fresh facts come to our knowledge all fit themselves into the scheme, then our hypothesis may gradually become a solution. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. — Arthur Conan Doyle

That hurts my pride, Watson. It is a petty feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal matter with me now… — Arthur Conan Doyle

Work is the best antidote to sorrow, my dear Watson. — Arthur Conan Doyle

To me, the Sherlock Holmes stories are about a great friendship. Without Watson, Holmes might well have burnt out on cocaine long ago. I hope the series shows how important friendship is. — Jeremy Brett

I had,’ said he, ‘come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Having gathered these facts, Watson, I smoked several pipes over them, trying to separate those which were crucial from others which were merely incidental. — Sherlock Holmes

You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion. — Arthur Conan Doyle

There are some trees, Watson, which grow to a certain height, and then suddenly develop some unsightly eccentricity. You will see it often in humans. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I felt Holmes’s hand steal into mine and give me a reassuring shake.–Watson — Arthur Conan Doyle

Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it. — Ernest Holmes

Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill. — Arthur Conan Doyle

If in 100 years I am only known as the man who invented Sherlock Holmes then I will have considered my life a failure. — Arthur Conan Doyle

No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done. — Arthur Conan Doyle

And once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complexity of human life so pletifuly presents. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed. — Arthur Conan Doyle

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

The problem is that most people spend their lives looking but not truly seeing, or, as Sherlock Holmes, the meticulous English detective, declared to his partner, Dr. Watson, ‘You see, but you do not observe. — Joe Navarro

I would not bring one shadow on his life, and this I know would break his noble heart. — Arthur Conan Doyle

It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

These relics have a history then?’ ‘So much so that they are history. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I think one or two of the later Holmes stories are among the best. — Rex Stout

Holmes serves as an ideal model of how we can learn to see and think better. — Maria Konnikova

The provocation with Holmes is the fact that he’s described by Doyle as a man without a heart–all brain… and that’s very difficult to play, or even indicate. — Jeremy Brett

I had did so much to Larry [Holmes] in the ring that I made him respect me in the fight. — Michael Spinks

Holmes has become the dark side of the moon for me. He is moody and solitary and underneath I am really sociable and gregarious. It has all got too dangerous. — Jeremy Brett

I think that I had better go, Holmes.’ ‘Not a bit, doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Every man finds his limitations, Mr. Holmes, but at least it cures us of the weakness of self–satisfaction. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock [Holmes] is on the side of the angels, but don’t think he’s one of them. He uses similar means, but it seems to be for a better purpose, one would hope. — Benedict Cumberbatch

My fans know the name Larry Holmes and that he always gave it his all. — Larry Holmes

I am seeing all the guys, like Earnie Shavers, Tex Cobb, and Larry Holmes all the time. — Gerry Cooney

For a man who claimed not to care much for women, Mr Holmes sure found some strong ones. — Laurie R. King

Holmes: ‘I followed you.’ Sterndale: ‘I saw no one.’ Holmes: ‘That is what you may expect to see when I follow you. — Arthur Conan Doyle

We give you best, Holmes. I believe you are the devil himself. — Arthur Conan Doyle

I lost three times in my career. Losing to Holmes I could deal with, because I lost to a true champion. — Gerry Cooney

I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by my wrist and pushed me back into my chair. ‘It is both, or none,’ said he. ‘You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Show Holmes a drop of water and he would deduce the existence of the Atlantic. Show it to me and I would look for a tap. That was the difference between us. — Anthony Horowitz

The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when [Holmes] became a specialist in crime. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Johannes Cabal would kill me for saying this, but he’s my favorite Zeppelin–hopping detective. The fellow has got all the charm of Bond and the smarts of Holmes––without the pesky morality. — Daniel H. Wilson

It wasn’t about Larry Holmes, if I would have fought a brother I wouldn’t have gotten the money I got. Give me 10 black guys and I make eight dollars. Give me Gerry Cooney and I make $10 million. — Larry Holmes

Holmes is so ugly, his grandmother said when he started to cry the tears would stop and roll down the back of his head. — Muhammad Ali

There’s such a kind of complicated line between politics and the law and we don’t sit around and say, hey, you know, what would Oliver Wendell Holmes have had to say to this. — Dahlia Lithwick

Though a woman tempted man to eat, my dear Longfellow,’ said Holmes, ‘you never hear of Eve having to do with his drinking, for he took to that of his own notion. — Matthew Pearl

For Karen Holmes (in From Here to Eternity), I studied voice for three months to get rid of my English accent. I changed my hair to blonde. I knew I could be sexy if I had to. — Deborah Kerr

The period after the First World War was an extremely different time, so that Sherlock Holmes would have been a different person following 1918 than he was during the Victorian era. — Laurie R. King

It’s been a long time since Sherlock Holmes jumped off that roof–it’s time to reveal the truth about what happened between him and the pavement. — Steven Moffat

For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. — Arthur Conan Doyle

A sensation goes through Sherlock,part fear, part thrill:it is curious how danger has two sides to it; how it can excite you and scare you at the same time. — Shane Peacock

I am a . . . solitary . . . man, he said. ‘I do not suffer fools gladly, and I prefer to spend my time alone with a book and a decanter of brandy. — Andy Lane

I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation. — Sherlock Holmes

The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action I can recall in our association. I was alone. — Arthur Conan Doyle

We all learn by experience, and your lesson this time is that you should never lose sight of the alternative. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. — Arthur Conan Doyle

One forms provisional theories and waits for time or fuller knowledge to explode them. A bad habit, Mr. Ferguson, but human nature is weak. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. — Arthur Conan Doyle

Moments of pure relaxation were rare for me. There was always the nagging of books unread, work undone, time a–wasting. — Laurie R. King