Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

Biography

Type: Novelist short story writer poet, physician

Born: 22 May 1859

Died: 7 July 1930

On May 22, 1859, Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 1890 his novel, "A Study in Scarlet", introduced the character of Detective Sherlock Holmes. Doyle would go on to write 60 stories about Sherlock Holmes. He also strove to spread his Spiritualism faith through a series of books that were written from 1918 to 1926. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels.

Arthur Conan Doyle Full Biography

Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.

Anything is better than stagnation.

‎A change of work is the best rest.

A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman's love, however badly he may have treated her.

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.

Picnics are very dear to those who are in the first stage of the tender passion.

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?

It is a pity he did not write in pencil. As you have no doubt frequently observed, the impression usually goes through - a fact which has dissolved many a happy marriage.

There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book.

The bent head, the averted eye, the faltering voice, the wincing figure- these, and not the unshrinking gaze and frank reply, are the true signals of passion.

Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.

The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.

Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?'

'To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.'

'The dog did nothing in the night-time.'

'That was the curious incident,' remarked Sherlock Holmes.

There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

My dear Watson," said [Sherlock Holmes], "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers.

There are heroisms all round us waiting to be done.

Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.

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

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

There is a danger there - a very real danger to humanity. Consider, Watson, that the material, the sensual, the worldly would all prolong their worthless lives. The spiritual would not avoid the call to something higher. It would be the survival of the least fit. What sort of cesspool may not our poor world become?

I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but is is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)

A sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony.

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

. . . and meanwhile take my assurance that the clouds are lifting and that I have every hope that the light of truth is breaking through

What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson.

Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain from it?'
'What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson. I suppose when you doctored, you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?'
'For my education, Holmes.'
'Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.

It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.

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

It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.

You will, I am sure, agree with me that... if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.

It is a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a brain must have something in it.

She was as good as she was beautiful and as intelligent as she was good.

Who knows, Watson? Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male.

I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.

Jealousy is a strange transformer of characters.

A study in scarlet, eh? Why shouldn't we use a little art jargon? There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it.

To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.

It is only when you touch the higher that you realize how low we may be among the possibilities of creation.

These relics have a history then?'
'So much so that they are history.

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.

Some believe what separates men from animals is our ability to reason. Others say it’s language or romantic love, or opposable thumbs. Living here in this lost world, I’ve come to believe it is more than our biology. What truly makes us human is our unending search, our abiding desire for immortality.

I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity, it is certainly beyond me.

There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen.

Because it is my desire. Is that not enough?"

[Sherlock Holmes on his raison d'être.]

Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.

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.

By the way, Doctor, I shall want your cooperation.'
'I shall be delighted.'
'You don't mind breaking the law?'
'Not in the least.'
'Nor running a chance of arrest?'
'Not in a good cause.'
'Oh, the cause is excellent!'
'Then I am your man.'
'I was sure that I might rely on you.

I felt Holmes's hand steal into mine and give me a reassuring shake.

- Watson

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

My correspondence has certainly the charm of variety, and the humbler are usually the more interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie.

The country inspector's face had shown his intense amazement at the rapid and masterful progress of Holmes' investigation. At first he had shown some disposition to assert his own position, but now he was overcome with admiration, and ready to follow without question wherever Holmes lead.

It was amusing to me to see how the detective's overbearing manner had changed suddenly to that of a child asking questions of its teacher.

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

I think that I had better go, Holmes."
"Not a bit, doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell.

Accounts are not quite settled between us," said she, with a passion that equaled my own. "I can love, and I can hate. You had your choice. You chose to spurn the first; now you must test the other.

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