"I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences."

A study of family portraits is enough to convert a man to the theory of reincarnation.

I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather.

The fair sex is your department.

I have wrought my simple plan If I give one hour of joy To the boy who’s half a man, Or the man who’s half a boy.

On general principles, it is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes.

Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.