|Sherlock considers|

"No data yet," he answered. "It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment."

It is a fool's plan to teach a man to be a cur in peace, and think that he will be a lion in war. Fleece them like sheep and sheep they will remain. Arthur Conan Doyle

A fine thought in fine language is a most precious jewel, and should not be hid away, but be exposed for use and ornament. Arthur Conan Doyle

Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering more elementary problems.

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

"It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you, " cried the inspector, with the magnificent fair-play of the British criminal law.

I believe that the witchcraft of the Middle Ages was a very real thing, and that the best way to meet such practices is to cultivate the higher powers of the spirit. To leave the thing entirely alone is to abandon the field to the forces of evil.

Perhaps, when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand.

Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing, It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different.

“On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences.”

“You said yourself that you never went to church.” "I carry my own church about under my own hat," said I. Bricks and mortar won't make a staircase to heaven. I believe with your Master that the human heart is the best temple. Arthur Conan Doyle

The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.

Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else.

“life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”

“It is founded upon the observation of trifles.”

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. Life, it turns out, is infinitely more clever and adaptable than anyone had ever supposed.

Skill is fine, and genius is splendid, but the right contacts are more valuable than either.

It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery. The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn.

Let us run down this next row, then, and I will tell you a few things which may be of interest, though they will be dull enough if you have not been born with that love of books in your heart which is among the choicest gifts of the gods.

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own. You may not appreciate them at first. You may pine for your novel of crude and unadulterated adventure. Arthur Conan Doyle

I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go. I am ready to listen.