"Do you feel a creeping, shrinking sensation, Watson, when you stand before the serpents in the Zoo, and see the slithery, gliding, venomous creatures, with their deadly eyes and wicked, flattened faces? Well, that's how Milverton impresses me."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"
"I am aware that what you say is true about the lady's resources," said he. "At the same time you must admit that the occasion of a lady's marriage is a very suitable time for her friends and relatives to make some little effort upon her behalf. They may hesitate as to an acceptable wedding present. Let me assure them that this little bundle of letters would give more joy than all the candelabra and butter-dishes in London."
Charles Augustus Milverton, in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"
"You know, Watson, I don't mind confessing to you that I have always had an idea that I would have made a highly efficient criminal. This is the chance of my lifetime in that direction. See here!" He took a neat little leather case out of a drawer, and opening it he exhibited a number of shining instruments. "This is a first-class, up-to-date burgling kit, with nickel-plated jemmy, diamond-tipped glass-cutter, adaptable keys, and every modern improvement which the march of civilization demands."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"
"You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of the Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
No. 131 was one of a row, all flat-chested, respectable, and most unromantic dwellings. As we drove up, we found the railings in front of the house lined by a curious crowd. Holmes whistled.
"By George! It's attempted murder at the least. Nothing less will hold the London message-boy. There's a deed of violence indicated in that fellow's round shoulders and outstretched neck."
From "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
In rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable London, hotel London, theatrical London, literary London, commercial London, and, finally, maritime London, till we came to a riverside city of a hundred thousand souls, where the tenement houses swelter and reek with the outcasts of Europe.
From "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
"The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know how to use it."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
Lestrade and I sat silent for a moment, and then, with a spontaneous impulse, we both broke at clapping, as at the well-wrought crisis of a play. A flush of colour sprang to Holmes's pale cheeks, and he bowed to us like the master dramatist who receives the homage of his audience. It was at such moments that for an instant he ceased to be a reasoning machine, and betrayed his human love for admiration and applause. The same singularly proud and reserved nature which turned away with disdain from popular notoriety was capable of being moved to its depths by spontaneous wonder and praise from a friend.
From "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
"Well," said Lestrade, "I've seen you handle a good many cases, Mr. Holmes, but I don't know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one than that. We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow, there's not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand."
From "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons"
"By Jove! my dear fellow, it is nearly nine, and the landlady babbled of green peas at seven-thirty."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Three Students"
As I turn over the pages, I see my notes upon the repulsive story of the red leech and the terrible death of Crosby, the banker. Here also I find an account of the Addleton tragedy, and the singular contents of the ancient British barrow. The famous Smith-Mortimer succession case comes also within this period, and so does the tracking and arrest of Huret, the Boulevard assassin -- an exploit which won for Holmes an autograph letter of thanks from the French President and the Order of the Legion of Honour.
From "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez"
Outside the wind howled down Baker Street, while the rain beat fiercely against the windows. It was strange there, in the very depths of the town, with ten miles of man's handiwork on every side of us, to feel the iron grip of Nature, and to be conscious that to the huge elemental forces all London was no more than the molehills that dot the fields.
From "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez"
"It is indeed, Mr. Holmes. I've had a bustling afternoon, I promise you. Did you see anything of the Yoxley case in the latest editions?"
"I've seen nothing later than the fifteenth century to-day."
Stanley Hopkins and Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez"
Holmes rose. Taking the forms, he carried them over to the window and carefully examined that which was uppermost.
"It is a pity he did not write in pencil," said he, throwing them down again with a shrug of disappointment. "As you have no doubt frequently observed, Watson, the impression usually goes through -- a fact which has dissolved many a happy marriage."
From "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter"
"He is big enough and old enough to look after himself, and if he is so foolish as to lose himself, I entirely refuse to accept the responsibility of hunting for him."
Lord Mount-James, on his nephew, in "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter"
"Come, Watson," said he, and we passed from that house of grief into the pale sunlight of the winter day.
Sherlock Holmes's words in the last paragraph of "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter"
"Come, Watson, come!" he cried. "The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!"
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange"
"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."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange"
"We have not yet met our Waterloo, Watson, but this is our Marengo, for it begins in defeat and ends in victory."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange"
"Once or twice in my career I feel that I have done more real harm by my discovery of the criminal than ever he had done by his crime. I have learned caution now, and I had rather play tricks with the law of England than with my own conscience."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange"
"And yet the motives of women are so inscrutable. You remember the woman at Margate whom I suspected for the same reason. No powder on her nose -- that proved to be the correct solution. How can you build on such a quicksand? Their most trivial action may mean volumes, or their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin or a curling tongs."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Adventure of the Second Stain"
"I am inclined to think--" said I.
"I should do so," Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently.
Opening lines of "The Valley of Fear"
"You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?"
"The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as--"
"My blushes, Watson!" Holmes murmured in a deprecating voice.
"I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public."
"A touch! A distinct touch!" cried Holmes. "You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself.
Sherlock Holmes and Watson, in "The Valley of Fear"
"But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law -- and there lie the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations -- that's the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year's pension as a solatium for his wounded character."
Sherlock Holmes, in "The Valley of Fear"