... obsessions are always dangerous.

Talk and tea is his specialty," said Giles. "He has about five cups of tea a day. But he works splendidly when we are looking.

the detective's highest talent lay in the gentle art of seeking favours under the guise of conferring them!

Very few of us are what we seem.

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.

If only-if only, Hastings, you would part your hair in the middle instead of at the side! What a difference it would make to the symmetry of your appearance. And your moustache. If you must have a moustache, let it be a real moustache-a thing of beauty such as mine.

I can think of nothing more soul destroying in life than to persist in trying to do a thing you want desperately to do well, and to know that you are at the best second rate.