All right, Watson. Donโt look so scared,โ he muttered in a very weak voice. โItโs not as bad as it seems.โ โThank God for that!โ โIโm a bit of a single-stick expert, as you know. I took most of them on my guard. It was the second man that was too much for me.โ โWhat can I do, Holmes? Of course, it was that damned fellow who set them on. Iโll go and thrash the hide off him if you give the word.โ โGood old Watson!(...)
Arthur Conan DoyleIt is not really difficult to construct a series of inferences, each dependent upon its predecessor and each simple in itself. If, after doing so, one simply knocks out all the central inferences and presents one's audience with the starting-point and the conclusion, one may produce a startling, though perhaps a meretricious, effect.
Arthur Conan DoyleIf the man who observes the myriad stars, and considers that they and their innumerable satellites move in their serene dignity through the heavens, each swinging clear of the other's orbit-if, I say, the man who sees this cannot realise the Creator's attributes without the help of the book of Job, then his view of things is beyond my understanding.
Arthur Conan Doyle