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.

It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery.

Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.

I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think that I am a better one than you have given me credit for being.

It is more than possible; it is probable.

Data!data!data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay.

All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience.