30 Sherlock Holmes Quotes That Will Change The Way You Think

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous detective and most portrayed literary character in film and TV. Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock first appeared in print in 1887 with A Study in Scarlet.

Doyle is a British author who wrote across multiple genres. However, he is best known for his stories on legendary private detective Sherlock Holmes. Most of the stories take place during the Victorian or Edwardian era and are narrated by Holmes’ sidekick and best friend -- Dr. Watson.

The world’s first and

only “consulting detective” was inspired by the real-life figure of

Joseph Bell -- a surgeon for whom the author had worked for as a clerk.

Sherlock is a mastermind and he loves

solving mysteries. His reasoning, eye for detail and power of deduction make

for suspenseful and captivating plots. The friendship between the famous

detective and Dr. Watson is one of the literature’s greatest. The constant

bickering and banter between the two brings delicious and unexpected humor.

Sherlock is a brilliant man with a

strong penchant for challenging cases. While he’s usually brutally honest and

quite cold, the detective can sometimes become very emotional in a righteous

cause.

Here are 30 Sherlock Holmes quotes that

will intrigue and captivate you:

You see, but you do not observe.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

To a great mind, nothing is little.

I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world.

Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.

Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.

It's a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brain to crime it is the worst of all.

I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.

But it is better to learn wisdom late than never learn it at all.

Where there is no imagination, there is no horror.

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

It is a mistake to confound strangeness with mystery.

I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers.

Work is the best antidote of sorrow, my dear Watson.

It is stupidity rather than courage to refuse to recognize danger when it is close upon you.

Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable.

Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule.

Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.

Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

It’s every man’s business to see justice done.

But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.

My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.

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.