On this page are some of the most famous quotes from the Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These quotes and sayings are from the great Detective Sherlock Holmes, his friend, Dr. John Watson, and others.

Sherlock Holmes Quotes

1. ‘My name is Sherlock Holmes.  It is my business to know what other people don’t know.’ Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle
2. ‘I am the last and highest court of appeal in detection.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Sign of Four
3. ‘There is nothing like first-hand evidence.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Study in Scarlet
4. 'The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.' - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Hound of the Baskervilles
5. ‘You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Scandal in Bohemia
6. ‘It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Scandal in Bohemia
7. ‘I never guess. It is a shocking habit,— destructive to the logical faculty.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Sign of Four
8. ‘You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Bascombe Valley Mystery
9. ‘There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Bascombe Valley Mystery
10. 'Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?’ - ‘To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.’ - ‘The dog did nothing in the night-time.’ - ‘That was the curious incident,’ remarked Sherlock Holmes.'” - Exchange between Inspector Gregory &Sherlock Holmes - Silver Blaze
11. ‘Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Sign of Four
12. ‘How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,however improbable, must be the truth?’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Sign of Four
13. ‘…when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Blanched Soldier
14. ‘It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Beryl Coronet
15. ‘Come, Watson, come!’ he cried. ‘The GAME is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Adventure of the The Abbey Grange
16. 'Data! Data! Data!' he cried impatiently. 'I can’t make bricks without clay.' - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Adventure of the Copper Beeches
17. ‘I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for?’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Sign of Four
18. ‘They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains,’ he remarked with a smile. ‘It’s a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Study in Scarlet
19. ‘There is nothing new under the sun. It has all been done before.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Study in Scarlet
20. ‘I ought to know by this time that when a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Study in Scarlet
21. ‘I never make exceptions.  An exception disproves the rule.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Sign of Four - Holmes took his revolver from his drawer and slipped it in his pocket.  It was clear that he thought that our night’s work might be a serious one. - Observation of Dr. Watson - The Sign of Four
22. So silent and furtive were his movements, like those of a trained bloodhound picking out a scent, that I could not but think what a terrible criminal he would have made had he turned his energy and sagacity against the law instead of exerting them in its defence. - Observation of Dr. Watson - The Sign of Four
23. ‘I listen to their story, they listen to my comments, and then I pocket my fee.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Study in Scarlet
24. ‘What one man can invent another can discover.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Adventure of the Dancing Man
25. ‘The emotional qualities are atagonistic to clear reasoning.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Sign of Four
26. ‘I think that there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
27. ‘What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear?  It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Cardboard Box
28. When I glanced again his face had resumed that red-Indian composure which had made so many regard him as a machine rather than a man. - Dr. Watson Observing Sherlock Holmes - The Crooked Man
29. ‘Having gathered these facts, Watson, I smoked several pipes over them, trying to separate those which were crucial from others which were merely incidental.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Crooked Man
30. He [Holmes] loved to lie in the very centre of five millions of people, with his filaments stretching out and running through them, responsive to every little rumor or suspicion of unsolved crime. - Dr. Watson’s Observation of Sherlock Holmes - The Resident Patient
31. ‘My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Man with the Twisted Lip 'My mind,' he said, '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. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession,—or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.' - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Sign of Four
32. ‘When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals.  He has the nerve and he has the knowledge.’  - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Adventure of the Speckled Band
33. ‘Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person.’  - Sherlock Holmes Quote - Silver Blaze
34. ‘I think that you know me well enough, Watson, to understand that I am by no means a nervous man. At the same time, it is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Final Problem
35. ‘I confess that I have been blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Man with the Twisted Lip
36. ‘A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants.’  - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Five Orange Pips
37. ‘I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.  A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands on it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic.  He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order.  It is a mistake to think that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent.  Depend upon it – there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before.  It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.’  - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Study in Scarlet
38. ‘It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - A Case of Identity
39. ‘It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.’ - Sherlock Holmes Quote - The Copper Beeches