We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception.

Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.

As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be.

Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he.

Amberley excelled at chess - a mark, Watson, of a scheming mind.

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

It is, I admit, mere imagination; but how often is imagination the mother of truth?