"I should have more faith," he said; "I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears opposed to a long train of deductions it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation."

My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.

Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed.

I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the duncoloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material?

Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.

[Sherlock Holmes:] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.

I think that I had better go, Holmes." "Not a bit, doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell.