“There are no crimes and no criminals in these days. What is the use of having brains in our profession? I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. 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. And what is the result? There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.”

“Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning.”

“It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”

“One likes to think that there is some fantastic limbo for the children of imagination, some strange, impossible place where the beaux of Fielding may still make love to the belles of Richardson, where Scott’s heroes still may strut, Dickens’s delightful Cockneys still raise a laugh, and Thackeray’s worldlings continue to carry on their reprehensible careers. Perhaps in some humble corner of such a Valhalla, Sherlock and his Watson may for a time find a place, while some more astute sleuth with some even less astute comrade may fill the stage which they have vacated.”

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

“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.”

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

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”

“Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.”

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

“His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.”