♡ “The relations between us in those latter days were peculiar.
He was a man of habits, narrow and concentrated habits,
and I had become one of them. As an institution I was like the violin,
the shag tobacco, the old black pipe, the index books, and others perhaps
less excusable. When it was a case of active work and a comrade was needed
upon whose nerve he could place some reliance, my role was obvious. But apart
from this I had uses. I was a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him. He
liked to think aloud in my presence. His remarks could hardly be said to be
made to me--many of them would have been as appropriately addressed to his
bedstead--but none the less, having formed the habit, it had become in some
way helpful that I should register and interject. If I irritated him by a certain
methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own
flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly.
Such was my humble role in our alliance.”
♡ “Watson. Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.”
♡ “Excellent!" I cried.
"Elementary," said he.”
The Adventure of the Creeping Man
♡ “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.”
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs
♡ “If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.”
A Case of Identity
♡ “'When do we start?'
'You are not coming.'
'Then you are not going,' said I. 'I give you my word of honour — and I never broke it in my life — that I will take a cab straight to the police-station and give you away, unless you let me share this adventure with you.'
'You can’t help me.'
'How do you know that? You can’t tell what may happen. Anyway, my resolution is taken. Other people besides you have self-respect, and even reputations.'”
(...)
“Well, well, my dear fellow, be it so. We have shared this same room for some years, and it would be amusing if we ended by sharing the same cell.”
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
♡ “Several times during the last three years I have taken up my pen to write to you, but always I feared lest your affectionate regard for me should tempt you to some indiscretion which would betray my secret.”
The Adventure of the Empty House
♡ “The division seems rather unfair," I remarked. "You have done
all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets
the credit, pray what remains for you?"
"For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the
cocaine-bottle." And he stretched his long white hand up for
it.”
The Sign of Four
