"You mentioned your name, as if I should recognize it, but I assure you that, beyond the obvious facts that you are a bachelor, a solicitor, a Freemason, and an asthmatic, I know nothing whatever about you."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder"
"Arrest you!" said Holmes. "This is really most grati-- most interesting."
From "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder"
"But he had not that supreme gift of the artist, the knowledge of when to stop."
Sherlock Holmes, on Jonas Oldacre, in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder"
"These hieroglyphics have evidently a meaning. If it is a purely arbitrary one, it may be impossible for us to solve it. If, on the other hand, it is systematic, I have no doubt that we shall get to the bottom of it."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men"
"I have no desire to make mysteries, but it is impossible at the moment of action to enter into long and complex explanations."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men"
"I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyze one hundred and sixty separate ciphers, but I confess that this is entirely new to me."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men"
"As you are aware, E is the most common letter in the English alphabet, and it predominates to so marked an extent that even in a short sentence one would expect to find it most often. Out of fifteen symbols in the first message, four were the same, so it was reasonable to set this down as E."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men"
"What one man can invent another can discover."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men"
"I nearly fell into the error of supposing that you were typewriting. Of course, it is obvious that it is music. You observe the spatulate finger-ends, Watson, which is common to both professions? There is a spirituality about the face, however" -- she gently turned it towards the light -- "which the typewriter does not generate. This lady is a musician."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist"
"Well," said I, "you call that love, Mr. Carruthers, but I should call it selfishness."
"Maybe the two things go together."
Watson and Bob Carruthers, in "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist"
In the whirl of our incessant activity, it has often been difficult for me, as the reader has probably observed, to round off my narratives, and to give those final details which the curious might expect. Each case has been the prelude to another, and the crisis once over, the actors have passed for ever out of our busy lives.
From "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist"
His card, which seemed too small to carry the weight of his academic distinctions, preceded him by a few seconds, and then he entered himself -- so large, so pompous, and so dignified that he was the very embodiment of self-possession and solidity. And yet his first action, when the door had closed behind him, was to stagger against the table, whence he slipped down upon the floor, and there was that majestic figure prostrate and insensible upon our bearskin hearth-rug.
The entrance of Thorneycroft Huxtable, M.A., Ph.D., in "The Adventure of the Priory School"
"Now," said Holmes, when the rejoicing lackey had disappeared, "having secured the future, we can afford to be more lenient with the past."
From "The Adventure of the Priory School"
So unworldly was he -- or so capricious -- that he frequently refused his help to the powerful and wealthy where the problem made no appeal to his sympathies, while he would devote weeks of most intense application to the affairs of some humble client whose case presented those strange and dramatic qualities which appealed to his imagination and challenged his ingenuity.
Watson's description of Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Black Peter"
"There, Watson, this infernal case had haunted me for ten days. I hereby banish it completely from my presence."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Black Peter"
"There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Black Peter"
"If you could have looked into Allardyce's back shop, you would have seen a dead pig swung from a hook in the ceiling, and a gentleman in his shirt sleeves furiously stabbing at it with this weapon. I was that energetic person, and I have satisfied myself that by no exertion of my strength can I transfix the pig with a single blow. Perhaps you would care to try?"
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Black Peter"
"They appear to be lists of Stock Exchange securities. I thought that `J.H.N.' were the initials of a broker, and that `C.P.R.' may have been his client."
"Try Canadian Pacific Railway," said Holmes.
Hopkins and Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Black Peter"
It was a long and melancholy vigil, and yet brought with it something of the thrill which the hunter feels when he lies beside the water-pool, and waits for the coming of the thirsty beast of prey. What savage creature was it which might steal upon us out of the darkness? Was it a fierce tiger of crime, which could only be taken fighting hard with flashing fang and claw, or would it prove to be some skulking jackal, dangerous only to the weak and unguarded?
From "The Adventure of Black Peter"
"Do you feel a creeping, shrinking sensation, Watson, when you stand before the serpents in the Zoo, and see the slithery, gliding, venomous creatures, with their deadly eyes and wicked, flattened faces? Well, that's how Milverton impresses me."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"
"I am aware that what you say is true about the lady's resources," said he. "At the same time you must admit that the occasion of a lady's marriage is a very suitable time for her friends and relatives to make some little effort upon her behalf. They may hesitate as to an acceptable wedding present. Let me assure them that this little bundle of letters would give more joy than all the candelabra and butter-dishes in London."
Charles Augustus Milverton, in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"
"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. This is the chance of my lifetime in that direction. See here!" He took a neat little leather case out of a drawer, and opening it he exhibited a number of shining instruments. "This is a first-class, up-to-date burgling kit, with nickel-plated jemmy, diamond-tipped glass-cutter, adaptable keys, and every modern improvement which the march of civilization demands."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"
"You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of the Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
No. 131 was one of a row, all flat-chested, respectable, and most unromantic dwellings. As we drove up, we found the railings in front of the house lined by a curious crowd. Holmes whistled.
"By George! It's attempted murder at the least. Nothing less will hold the London message-boy. There's a deed of violence indicated in that fellow's round shoulders and outstretched neck."
From "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
In rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable London, hotel London, theatrical London, literary London, commercial London, and, finally, maritime London, till we came to a riverside city of a hundred thousand souls, where the tenement houses swelter and reek with the outcasts of Europe.
From "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
"The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know how to use it."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
Lestrade and I sat silent for a moment, and then, with a spontaneous impulse, we both broke at clapping, as at the well-wrought crisis of a play. A flush of colour sprang to Holmes's pale cheeks, and he bowed to us like the master dramatist who receives the homage of his audience. It was at such moments that for an instant he ceased to be a reasoning machine, and betrayed his human love for admiration and applause. The same singularly proud and reserved nature which turned away with disdain from popular notoriety was capable of being moved to its depths by spontaneous wonder and praise from a friend.
From "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
"Well," said Lestrade, "I've seen you handle a good many cases, Mr. Holmes, but I don't know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one than that. We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow, there's not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand."
From "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
"By Jove! my dear fellow, it is nearly nine, and the landlady babbled of green peas at seven-thirty."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Three Students"
As I turn over the pages, I see my notes upon the repulsive story of the red leech and the terrible death of Crosby, the banker. Here also I find an account of the Addleton tragedy, and the singular contents of the ancient British barrow. The famous Smith-Mortimer succession case comes also within this period, and so does the tracking and arrest of Huret, the Boulevard assassin -- an exploit which won for Holmes an autograph letter of thanks from the French President and the Order of the Legion of Honour.
From "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez"