I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.

A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience.

It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.

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

That which is clearly known hath less terror than that which is but hinted at and guessed.