You have been in Afghanistan I perceive.

This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie.

It seems to leave the darkness rather blacker than before.

Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the mud stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime records unique, violin player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco.

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

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.