There are no crimes and no criminals in these days. What is the use of having brains in our profession? I know well that I have it in me to make my name famous. No man lives or has ever lived who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime which I have done. And what is the result? There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.

Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.

The grand thing is to be able to reason backwards.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.

What one man can invent, another can discover.

We surely know by some nameless instinct more about our futures than we think we know.

Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo Ipse domi stimul ac nummos contemplar in arca. (The public hiss at me, but I cheer myself when in my own house I contemplate the coins in my strong-box.)