Ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity... is the Napoleon of crime, Watson.

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.

I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.

It was all love on my side, and all good comradeship and friendship on hers. When we parted she was a free woman, but I could never again be a free man.

I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance.

I trust that age doth not wither nor custom stale my infinite variety.

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