Every man finds his limitations, Mr. Holmes, but at least it cures us of the weakness of self-satisfaction.

I carry my own church about under my own hat," said I. "Bricks and mortar won't make a staircase to heaven. I believe with your Master that the human heart is the best temple.

It is with nations as it is with individuals. A book of history is a book of sermons.

He spoke wistfully of a sudden leaving, a breaking of old ties, a flight into a strange world, ending in this dreary valley, and Ettie listened, her dark eyes gleaming with pity and with sympathy - those two qualities which may turn so rapidly and so naturally to love.

How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!

...while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty.

It's quite exciting," said Sherlock Holmes, with a yawn.