Sherlock Holmes is one of my favorite literary characters of all time; so much that I made time during my two-day tour of London to visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street. I recently bought a new copy of the Sherlock Holmes complete collection since I lent out my old copy and never got it back. While rereading the two volumes a few weeks ago, I decided to highlight my favorite parts. If you want to read my post on my favourite Sherlock Holmes stories, please click here.

The first two quotations below are my absolute favorites, and I can still distinctly remember the first time I read these parts when I was in high school. I believe I have quoted or referred to these quotes in conversation at least ten times since then.

“There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion,” said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. “It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”  – From The Adventure of the Naval Treaty

“I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers.”  – From The Greek Interpreter

Here are my other favorite quotes, which I only noticed upon re-reading the stories:

“There are in me the makings of a very fine loafer, and also of a pretty spry sort of fellow.” – From The Sign of Four (I can definitely relate to the part about the makings of a very fine loafer. I’m not so sure if I could be spry.)

“You have a grand gift of silence, Watson,” said he. “It makes you quite invaluable as a companion.” – From The Man with a Twisted Lip

“I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.” – From The Man with a Twisted Lip

“I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just possible that I am saving a soul.” – From The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (reminds me of the good bishop from Les Miserables)

“We can’t command our love, but we can our actions.” – From The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor

“I have no doubt that she loved you, but there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all other loves…” – From The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

“The public not unnaturally goes on the principle that he who would heal others must himself be whole, and looks askance at the curative powers of the man whose own case is beyond the reach of his drugs.” – From The Stock-broker’s Clerk

“I have taken to living by my wits.” – From The Musgrave Ritual

“I have usually found that there was method in his madness.”
“Some folk might say there was madness in his method.” – From The Reigate Puzzle

“Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.” – From The Greek Interpreter

“What one man can invent another can discover.” – from The Adventure of the Dancing Men

“Well,” said I, “you call that love, Mr. Carruthers, but I should call it selfishness.”
“Maybe the two things go together.” – From The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist

“If your heart is as big as your body, and your soul as fine as your face, then I’d ask for nothing better.” – From The Valley of Fear

“Never mind the reward. Just do it for the honour of the thing.” – From The Valley of Fear

“I play the game for the game’s sake.” – From The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans

“Such slips are common to all mortals, and the greatest is he who can recognize and repair them.” – From The Disappearance of the Lady Frances Carfax

“Some people’s affability is more deadly than the violence of coarser souls.” – From The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

“If a man has a hobby he follows it up, whatever his other pursuits may be.” – From The Adventure of the Illustrious Client”

But is it coincidence? Are there not subtle forces at work of which we know little?” – From The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

“To accept such praise was to lower one’s standards.” – From The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane

“The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world.” – From The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger

“But is not all life pathetic and futile? Is not his story a microcosm of the whole? We reach. We grasp. And what is left in our hands at the end? A shadow. Or worse than a shadow – misery.” – From The Adventure of the Retired Colourman

“Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn for him.” – From The Hound of the Baskervilles

 And here’s my new favorite quote only because I’m at this sweet age already:

“… she must be seven-and-twenty now – a sweet age, when youth has lost its self-consciousness and become a little sobered by experience.” – from The Sign of Four