Quote collection
426 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers?"
"A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem."
"It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes."
"As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after."
"Might I trouble you to open the window, for chloroform vapour does not help the palate."
"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."
"There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world."
"He spoke wistfully of a sudden leaving, a breaking of old ties, a flight into a strange world, ending in this dreary valley, and Ettie listened, her dark eyes gleaming with pity and with sympathy - those two qualities which may turn so rapidly and so naturally to love."
"Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning."
"The grand thing is to be able to reason backwards."
"You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles."
"Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth."
"I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge."
"No violence, gentlemen — no violence, I beg of you! Consider the furniture!"
"horses: dangerous on both ends and crafty in the middle"
"The best way of successfully acting a part is to be it."
"His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge."
"Sir Walter, with his 61 years of life, although he never wrote a novel until he was over 40, had, fortunately for the world, a longer working career than most of his brethren."
"I have mastered the principles of several religions. They have all shocked me by the violence which I should have to do to my reason to accept the dogmas of any one of them."
"Depend upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace."