For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.

Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example.

It was in the days when France's power was already broken upon the seas, and when more of her three-deckers lay rotting in the Medway than were to be found in Brest harbour. But her frigates and corvettes still scoured the ocean, closely followed ever by those of her rival. At the uttermost ends of the earth these dainty vessels, with sweet names of girls or of flowers, mangled and shattered each other for the honour of the four yards of bunting which flapped from the end of their gaffs.

It is a pity he did not write in pencil. As you have no doubt frequently observed, the impression usually goes through -- a fact which has dissolved many a happy marriage.

The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action I can recall in our association. I was alone.

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.

'There's no need for fiction in medicine,' remarks Foster... 'for the facts will always beat anything you fancy.'