The quotations of

Arthur Conan Doyle

British writer and physician

1859–1930

34 quotes, most often on Thinking, Knowledge and Facts.

One’s ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature
A Study in Scarlet (1887), Part I, Chapter VIn context
- Ideas
- Nature
When a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.
A Study in Scarlet (1887), Part I, Chapter VIIIn context
- Facts
- Thinking
What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion, bitterly. “The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done.
A Study in Scarlet (1887), Part II: The Country of the Saints, Chapter VIIIn context
- Fame
- Truth & Lies
In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backwards.
A Study in Scarlet (1887), Part II: The Country of the Saints, Chapter VIIIn context
- Thinking
There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically.
A Study in Scarlet (1887), Part II: The Country of the Saints, Chapter VIIIn context
- Intelligence
- Thinking
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.
The Sign of the Four (1890), Chapter IIn context
- Thinking
- Work
I never guess. It is a shocking habit,⁠—destructive to the logical faculty.
The Sign of the Four (1890), Chapter IIn context
- Thinking
The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellant man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor.
The Sign of the Four (1890), Chapter IIIn context
I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule.
The Sign of the Four (1890), Chapter IIIn context
- Thinking
How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
The Sign of the Four (1890), Chapter VIIn context
- Thinking
- Truth & Lies
Winwood Reade is good upon the subject,” said Holmes. “He remarks that, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant.
The Sign of the Four (1890), Chapter XIn context
- Science
- Thinking
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892), A Scandal in BohemiaIn context
You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892), A Scandal in BohemiaIn context
- Thinking
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892), A Scandal in BohemiaIn context
- Facts
- Thinking
Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892), A Case of IdentityIn context
- Life & Death

Most quoted

People A to Z

C. S. Lewis1898–1963151 quotes

Mark Twain1835–1910151 quotes

Benjamin Franklin1706–179098 quotes

Martin Luther King Jr.1929–196884 quotes

Albert Einstein1879–195595 quotes

Dave Barryborn 1947100 quotes