It seems very strange ... that in the course of the world's history so obvious an improvement should never have been adopted. ... The next generation of Britishers would be the better for having had this extra hour of daylight in their childhood.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Categorized in : History Science Childhood

It's quite exciting," said Sherlock Holmes, with a yawn.

Arthur Conan Doyle

holmes exciting said

Come, Watson, come!" he cried. The game is afoot.

Arthur Conan Doyle

watson cried games

What a creature he was! Never have I felt such a horse between my knees. His great haunches gathered under him with every stride, and he shot forward ever faster and faster, stretched like a greyhound, while the windbeat in my face and whistled past my ears.

Arthur Conan Doyle

horse ears past

Ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity... is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.

Arthur Conan Doyle

mathematical professors crime

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

Arthur Conan Doyle

watson holmes convenient

Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.

Arthur Conan Doyle

dramatic fate steps

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

Arthur Conan Doyle

picnics passion firsts

By a man's finger-nails, by his coat-sleeve, by his boots, by his trouser-knees, by the callosities of his forefinger and thumb, by his expression, by his shirt-cuff — By each of these things a man's calling is plainly revealed. That all united should fail to enlighten the competent inquirer in any case is almost inconceivable. You know that a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.

Arthur Conan Doyle

expression men book

No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.

Arthur Conan Doyle

matter mind men

...it is only when a man goes out into the world with the thought that there are heroisms all round him, and with the desire all alive in his heart to follow any which may come within sight of him, that he breaks away... from the life he knows, and ventures forth into the wonderful mystic twilight land where lie the great adventures and the great rewards.

Arthur Conan Doyle

twilight heart lying

It isn't true that the laws of nature have been capriciously disturbed; that snakes have talked; that women have been turned into salt; that rods have brought water out of rocks.

Arthur Conan Doyle

snakes rocks law

Do you know anything on earth which has not a dangerous side if it is mishandled and exaggerated?

Arthur Conan Doyle

earth danger sides

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?

Arthur Conan Doyle

real humanity spiritual

My business is that of every other good citizen - to uphold the law.

Arthur Conan Doyle

good-citizen citizens law

I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go.

Arthur Conan Doyle

power law justice

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.

Arthur Conan Doyle

violence principles should-have

We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.

Arthur Conan Doyle

balance imagination use

It is more than possible; it is probable.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt.

Arthur Conan Doyle

light giving people

Violence is sometimes a duty.

Arthur Conan Doyle

violence war peace