It is curious - but you cannot make a revolution without honest men. ... Every revolution has had its honest men. They are soon disposed of afterwards.

I have always admired the Esquimaux (Eskimos). One fine day a delicious meal is cooked for dear old mother, and then she goes walking away over the ice, and doesn't come back.

There is no detective in England equal to a spinster lady of uncertain age with plenty of time on her hands.

A great many men are mad, and no one knows it. They do not know it themselves

The tragedy of life is that people do not change.

It often seems to me that's all detective work is, wiping out your false starts and beginning again." Yes, it is very true, that. And it is just what some people will not do. They conceive a certain theory, and everything has to fit into that theory. If one little fact will not fit it, they throw it aside. But it is always the facts that will not fit in that are significant.

Never go back to a place where you have been happy. Until you do it remains alive for you. If you go back it will be destroyed.