It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment. Arthur Conan Doyle More Quotes by Arthur Conan Doyle More Quotes From Arthur Conan Doyle We all learn by experience, and your lesson this time is that you should never lose sight of the alternative. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. Arthur Conan Doyle learning sight time The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home. Arthur Conan Doyle difficult crime home When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities. Arthur Conan Doyle darkness brain europe Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil Arthur Conan Doyle nucleus devil focus He [Professor Moriarty] is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order. Arthur Conan Doyle cities evil order If I had never touched Holmes, who has tended to obscure my higher work, my position in literature would at the present moment be a more commanding one. Arthur Conan Doyle obscure moments literature There was a brisk northern wind, heavy and wet with the salt of the sea, and he felt, as he turned his face to it, fresh life and strength surging in his blood and bracing his limbs. Arthur Conan Doyle ocean wind blood 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 zero education philosophy Several incidents in my life have convinced me of spiritual interposition - of the promptings of some beneficent force outside ourselves, which tries to help us where it can. Arthur Conan Doyle spiritual helping trying 'Men die of the diseases which they have studied most,' remarked the surgeon, snipping off the end of a cigar with all his professional neatness and finish. 'It's as if the morbid condition was an evil creature which, when it found itself closely hunted, flew at the throat of its pursuer. If you worry the microbes too much they may worry you. I've seen cases of it, and not necessarily in microbic diseases either. There was, of course, the well-known instance of Liston and the aneurism; and a dozen others that I could mention.' Arthur Conan Doyle evil worry men Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist, all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally, he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction. Arthur Conan Doyle eye home book The great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away through the forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell. Arthur Conan Doyle bells musical book I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. [...] It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. [...] It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones. Arthur Conan Doyle wall mistake men We surely know by some nameless instinct more about our futures than we think we know. Arthur Conan Doyle our-future instinct thinking One forms provisional theories and waits for time or fuller knowledge to explode them. A bad habit, Mr. Ferguson, but human nature is weak. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson. Arthur Conan Doyle nature waiting time His sanguine spirit turns every firefly into a star. Arthur Conan Doyle firefly stars spirit Healthy scepticism is the basis of all accurate observation. Arthur Conan Doyle observation skepticism healthy The husband was a teetotaller, there was no other woman, and the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling them at his wife. Arthur Conan Doyle teeth wife husband "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences." Arthur Conan Doyle drawing failure friendship You will ruin no more lives as you ruined mine. You will wring no more hearts as you wrung mine. I will free the world of a poisonous thing. Take that, you hound, and that! - and that! - and that! - and that! Arthur Conan Doyle ruins heart world
