Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes - Page 10

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Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Real, Discovery, Law

Arthur Conan Doyle (2016). “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”, p.162, My Ebook Publishing House

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

Arthur Conan Doyle

Smoking, Three, Fifty

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) "Red-Headed League"

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I have wrought my simple plan If I give one hour of joy To the boy who’s half a man, Or the man who’s half a boy.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Boys, Simple, Men

Arthur Conan Doyle (2011). “The Lost World”, p.8, House of Stratus

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Clouds of insects danced and buzzed in the golden autumn light, and the air was full of the piping of the song-birds. Long, glinting dragonflies shot across the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleaming bodies.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Song, Autumn, Light

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2013). “Collected Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Delphi Classics)”, p.2052, Delphi Classics

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if i could be assured of your destruction, i would in the interest of the public, cheerfully accept my death.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Destruction, Accepting, Interest

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It isn't true that the laws of nature have been capriciously disturbed; that snakes have talked; that women have been turned into salt; that rods have brought water out of rocks.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Rocks, Law, Snakes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2013). “Collected Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Delphi Classics)”, p.4043, Delphi Classics

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Still, it is an error to argue in front of your data. You find yourself insensibly twisting them round to fit your theories.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Errors, Data, Finding Yourself

"Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Stories".

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A fine horse or a beautiful woman, I cannot look at them unmoved, even now when seventy winters have chilled my blood.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Beautiful, Horse, Humorous

Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, Rudyard Kipling, Philip K. Dick, Jules Verne (2011). “The Military MEGAPACK ®: 25 Great Tales of War”, p.295, Wildside Press LLC

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On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Art, Book, Eight

Arthur Conan DOYLE (2010). “Les Aventures de Sherlock Holmes”, p.690, Omnibus

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I get in the dumps at times, and don't open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I'll soon be right.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Thinking, Mouths, Sulky

Arthur Conan Doyle (2016). “Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate Collection”, p.14, Lulu.com

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The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Events, Literature, Facts

"The Five Orange Pips" (1891). The key words here are "in all its bearings" and "thoroughly." In real life, of course, it's deucedly difficult.

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Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the mud stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime records unique, violin player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Education, Zero, Philosophy

Arthur Conan Doyle, Scott McKowen (2004). “The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes”, p.117, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.

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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, Interesting, Littles

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[Sherlock Holmes:] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Data, Temptation, Form

Arthur Conan Doyle (1993). “The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes”, p.852, Wordsworth Editions

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The setting is a worthy one, if the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Book, Men, Hands

Arthur Conan Doyle (2010). “Hound of the Baskervilles”, p.32, Bibliolis Books

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Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Lying, Wife, Inspire

Arthur Conan Doyle (2013). “The Complete Sherlock Holmes”, p.834, Race Point Publishing

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Well, sir, let us do what we can to curtail this visit, which can hardly be agreeable to you, and is inexpressibly irksome to me.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Humorous, Sarcasm, Wells

Arthur Conan Doyle (2015). “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Dover Reader”, p.301, Courier Dover Publications

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The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

Arthur Conan Doyle

Silly, Adventure, Noble

Arthur Conan Doyle (2015). “The adventure of the noble bachelor (low cost). Limited edition”, p.5, Arthur Conan Doyle

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'There's no need for fiction in medicine,' remarks Foster... 'for the facts will always beat anything you fancy.'

Arthur Conan Doyle

Science, Medicine, Needs

Arthur Conan Doyle (2007). “Around the Red Lamp: Medical Life As It Used to Be”, p.86, Fireship Press

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Perhaps, when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Men, Hands, Special

Arthur Conan Doyle (2013). “The Complete Sherlock Holmes”, p.769, Race Point Pub

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Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Common, Logic, Crime

1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,'The Copper Beeches'.

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I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Shoes, Lazy, Devil

Arthur Conan Doyle (2012). “The Sherlock Holmes Archives (incl. The Truth About Sherlock Holmes)”, p.34, Jazzybee Verlag

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The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?

Arthur Conan Doyle

Blood, Devil, Agents

Arthur Conan Doyle (2010). “Hound of the Baskervilles”, p.32, Bibliolis Books

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There is a soul-jealousy that can be as frantic as any body-jealousy.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Soul, Body, Frantic

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2014). “Sherlock Holmes Complete Collection With illustrated Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - 4 Novels, 56 Short Stories and 120+ illustrations”, p.1607, Ageless Reads

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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. These strange details, far from making the case more difficult, have really had the effect of making it less so.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Mistake, Lying, Special

Study in Scarlet (1888) ch. 7

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Born: May 22, 1859
Died: July 7, 1930
Occupation: Physician
Cite this Page: Citation

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