Favorite Story Quote
Arthur Conan Doyle is responsible for at least 60 published stories about Sherlock Holmes, and is filled with literally thousands of notable Story Quotes. Here is your chance to share your favorite Story Quote with other Sherlockians, and explain the reason you chose that particular quote. Please complete the form below to submit your favorite or most memorable Story Quote. Your entry will be displayed on this page.
NOTE: If you wish to comment on a Story Quote that someone else has posted, please enter the information on the form as it you are submitting it for the first time. I will add your comments to the quote.
Submitted Story Quotes with Comments
"It was worth a wound — it was worth many wounds — to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation."
TOM C: " Dr. John H. Watson in The Three Garridebs - The Canon is full of examples of Sherlock Holmes being critical of Watson. But this Story Quote reveals the true feelings that Sherlock Holmes has for his best friend. It's refreshing and endearing to see the more human side of Holmes expressed in such as meaningful way."
JAYMES R: "It's rare in these stories to see the true depth of Holmes' love and appreciation for his partner and friend. This is my favourite example, because it is written so earnestly and with so much emotion that it strikes me every time I read it."
“The dog did nothing in the night-time.” “That was the curious incident”
SANDY K: "Colonel Ross & Sherlock Holmes in Silver Blaze. - I love that it's the clue because the dog didn't leave a clue! It really is my favorite, because of all the clues, this is the clue that is ......nothing! It tickles my brain that an absence of clue should be the best clue in a story, maybe the best in the Canon! Guess I have an odd relationship with words!"
PHIL A: "Doyle and Holmes at their best"
"To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman."
SCOTT B: "Dr. John H. Watson in Scandal in Bohemia - It appears in the very first story and sets our understanding of Sherlock and his relationship (or non) with women. It also rings true with those of us that have had truly only one love."
“To smoke,” he answered. “It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won’t speak to me for fifty minutes.”
KIRK W: "Sherlock Holmes in The Red Headed League - There are many times I like to smoke my pipe and just think. My pipe is like a counselor and a friend."
“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."
KIRK W: "Sherlock Holmes in The Naval Treaty - This quote comes out of nowhere. It gives a sense of humanity to the Great Detective. He's not a machine, he's human and he can take the time to smell the flowers."
TOM C: "I think it's interesting that Doyle proposes that deduction is such a necessary part of religion. And he is right, or course, because true religion is based on faith without proof."
“Come at once if convenient – if inconvenient come all the same”
MIKE D: "Sherlock Holmes in The Creeping Man - I think of Watson, self-deprecating as ever, describing himself as one of Holmes’s 'narrow and concentrated habits'. What an endearing and understated way of portraying their great friendship."
“You have been to Afghanistan, I perceive.”
STEVE S: " Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet - This is the first deduction in the Canon. It is a tease and a precursor of many wonderful things to come."
“I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained."
STEVE S: "Dr. John H. Watson in A Study in Scarlet - John Watson succinctly sums up Victorian London. It is the first and best social commentary in the Canon."
"He had a fine flow of language, and his adjectives were very vigorous. He ended a string of abuse by a vicious back-hander which I failed to entirely avoid. The next few minutes were delicious. It was a straight left against a slogging ruffian. I emerged as you see me. Mr. Woodley went home in a cart."
RICH K: "Sherlock Holmes in The Solitary Cyclist - The fight was "delicious." I think it shows how cool Sherlock Holmes is. He has just been involved in a fight and his comment is just so matter of fact. No one should mess with Holmes."
"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"
DOUGLAS V: "Sherlock Holmes in Sign of Four - An excuse for some pretty bizarre, and entertaining, pastiches!"
"Keep your revolver near you night and day, and never relax your precautions."
CAROLYN C: "Sherlock Holmes in Hound of the Baskervilles - Such an elegant way of saying that one must always look after their own safety."
“My name is Sherlock Holmes. Possibly it is familiar to you. In any case, my business is that of every other good citizen -- to uphold the law."
STEVE M: "Sherlock Holmes in The Shoscombe Old Place - It pretty much summarizes the entire Canon in 3 sentences."
"I am not a very good man, Effie, but I think I am a better one than you have given me credit for being."
ANDREW T: "Grant Monro in The Yellow Face - It reminds me to always be the best version of myself."
TOM C: "To me, this quote reveals a great deal about Conan Doyle's character. He is certainly an optimist, and has a strong faith in the good side of human nature."
"You see, but you do not observe"
WAYNE F: "Sherlock Holmes in Scandal in Bohemia - This Story Quote provides the key to Sherlock’s method and insight to his thought process."
BARRY B: "This one reflects Holmes's extraordinary skills and confidence that those skills set him apart from others less endowed."
“Two of these have been smoked from a holder and two without,” said he. “Two have been cut by a not very sharp knife, and two have had the ends bitten off by a set of excellent teeth. This is no suicide, Mr. Lanner. It is a very deeply-planned and cold-blooded murder.”
TONY O: "Sherlock Holmes in The Resident Patient - This Story Quote demonstrates the extraordinary mind of Conan Doyle. How in heaven’s name could a cigar take centre stage in a story? Wonderful."
"Watson, if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you."
BARRY B: "Sherlock Holmes in The Yellow Face - This Story Quote refers to the rare desertion of those skills resulting in an error in Holmes's deduction, and an even rarer expression of humility about himself."
Story Quote Score:
21 Comments about quotes from 13 stories:
- The Three Garidebs - 2
- Silver Blaze - 2
- Scandal in Bohemia - 3
- The Red Headed League - 1
- The Naval Treaty - 2
- The Creeping Man - 1
- Study in Scarlet - 2
- Solitary Cyclist - 1
- Sign of Four - 1
- Hound of the Baskervilles - 1
- Shoscombe Old Place - 1
- The Yellow Face - 3
- The Resident Patient - 1