How wise and how merciful is that provision of nature by which his earthly anchor is usually loosened by many little imperceptible tugs, until his consciousness has drifted out of its untenable earthly harbor into the great sea beyond!

"I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur."

Data!data!data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay.

Anything seems commonplace, once explained.

I had ... come to an entirely erroneous conclusion, which shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from insufficient data.

Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner.

A fine horse or a beautiful woman, I cannot look at them unmoved, even now when seventy winters have chilled my blood.