One forms provisional theories and waits for time or fuller knowledge to explode them. A bad habit, Mr. Ferguson, but human nature is weak. Sherlock Holmes speaking with Dr. Watson.

But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things.

The approach to the offices of Girdlestone and Co. was not a very dignified one, nor would the uninitiated who traversed it form any conception of the commercial prosperity of the firm in question.

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.

There is a mystery about this which stimulates the imagination; where there is no imagination there is no horror.

There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.