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

As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be.

Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed.

There is nothing like first-hand evidence.

It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.

Well, sir, let us do what we can to curtail this visit, which can hardly be agreeable to you, and is inexpressibly irksome to me.

I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.