I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.

[Sherlock Holmes:] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.

One dumb-bell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumb-bell. Picture to yourself the unilateral development - the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!

There is no scent so pleasant to my nostrils as that faint, subtle reek which comes from an ancient book.

The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.

Just as an octopus may have his den in some ocean cave, and come floating out a silent image of horror to attack a swimmer, so I picture such a spirit lurking in the dark of the house which he curses by his presence, and ready to float out upon all whom he can injure.

The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest.