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

It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognise out of a number of facts which are incidental and which are vital.

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

There are heroisms all round us waiting to be done.

On general principles, it is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes.

You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!" It was worth a wound -- it was worth many wounds -- to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.

There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.