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1 " Holmes says that “a man should keep his little brain-attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use”—and little else. "
― Ransom Riggs , The Sherlock Holmes Handbook
2 " Holmes was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer of no ordinary merit. —“The Red-Headed League "
3 " Above all, Holmes was a music lover. Music was his tonic: It calmed his nerves after periods of exertion and sharpened his keen mind during especially difficult cases. In "
4 " It would be an exaggeration to say that Sherlock Holmes missed his true calling as a musician, for if he had given up his magnifying glass for a bow, the world of law enforcement would have missed him sorely. But Holmes loved music as he never loved a woman; music sustained him, and his great powers of detection veritably depended on it. "
5 " In Holmes’s defense, Watson characterizes his friend’s habit as an “occasional” reaction to “the monotony of existence when cases were scanty and the papers uninteresting. "
6 " Guard their secrets closely. It is no small thing to have royal secrets entrusted to you, "
7 " I see no more than you, but I have trained myself to notice what I see. —“The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier "
8 " Education never ends Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last. —“The Adventure of the Red Circle "
9 " Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her. —The Valley of Fear "
10 " One’s ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature. —A Study in Scarlet "
11 " I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles. —“The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane "
12 " Education never ends Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last. —“The Adventure of the Red Circle” On "
13 " But there are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them. —“The Adventure of the Three Gables "
14 " Be frank with me, and we may do some good. Play tricks with me, and I’ll crush you.” — Sherlock Holmes, “The Abbey Grange "
15 " Act as though you know the truth—even if you don’t. "
16 " When one tries to rise above Nature,” Holmes pontificates, “one is liable to fall below it. "
17 " Will the Real Moriarty Please Stand Up? "
18 " owerful minds are not always drawn to the pursuit of good; there are those whose genius is tainted with criminality "
19 " A less outlandish school of thought holds that Holmes had married Irene Adler—the beautiful opera singer from “A Scandal in Bohemia” who was, famously, one of the few persons ever to outwit the detective "
20 " herlock Holmes was a man who seemed to require neither love nor companionship, who was as happy alone with his chemistry experiments and cocaine bottle as he was in the company of others. “Sometimes I found myself regarding him as . . . a brain without a heart, "