Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

British writer and physician1859–1930 22 quotes

Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician, best known for his four novels and fifty-six short stories about the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson, which are milestones in crime fiction. His Professor Challenger novel The Lost World gave its name to a subgenre of speculative fiction.

A prolific writer, he produced over 200 stories and articles, four volumes of poetry and a number of works for the stage. He was knighted by King Edward VII in the 1902 Coronation Honours. Born in Edinburgh, he published his first stories while studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, served as a doctor on two sea voyages, and then set up an unsuccessful medical practice in Portsmouth. The Return of Sherlock Holmes and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are among his most quoted works in our library.
Most quoted works
  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 13
  • The Return of Sherlock Holmes 13
  • The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes 12
  • The Sign of Four 11
  • The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes 10
  • A Study in Scarlet 8
British writer and physician

A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman's love, however badly he may have treated her.

— The Musgrave Ritual

British writer and physician

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.

— Silver Blaze

British writer and physician

The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?

— The Hound of the Baskervilles

British writer and physician

It is easy to be wise after the event.

— The Complete Sherlock Holmes

British writer and physician

A sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony.

— The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

British writer and physician

I think that I had better go, Holmes.""Not a bit, doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Boswell.

— The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

British writer and physician

It is a pity he did not write in pencil. As you have no doubt frequently observed, the impression usually goes through -- a fact which has dissolved many a happy marriage.

— The Return of Sherlock Holmes

British writer and physician

It was easier to know it than to explain why I knew it.

— A Study in Scarlet

British writer and physician

Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.

— Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the Creeping Man

British writer and physician

‎A change of work is the best rest.

— The Sign of Four

British writer and physician

How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature!

— The Sign of Four

British writer and physician

A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.

— The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

British writer and physician

My correspondence has certainly the charm of variety, and the humbler are usually the more interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie.

— The Adventure Of The Noble Bachelor

British writer and physician

It was amusing to me to see how the detective's overbearing manner had changed suddenly to that of a child asking questions of its teacher.

— The Return of Sherlock Holmes

British writer and physician

I don't take much stock of detectives in novels - chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That's just inspiration: not business.

— The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol 2

British writer and physician

She was weak and helpless, shaken in mind and nerve. It was to take her at a disadvantage to obtrude love upon her at such a time.

— The Sign of Four

British writer and physician

In my inmost heart I believed that I could succeed where others failed, and now I had the opportunity to test myself.

— The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

British writer and physician

There is a soul-jealousy that can be as frantic as any body-jealousy.

— The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

British writer and physician

It is only when you touch the higher that you realize how low we may be among the possibilities of creation.

— The Maracot Deep