Sherlock Says: Oh, you don't know Sherlock Holmes yet!

A few of the 'golden oldies'

"You see, but you do not observe."
"It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts..."
"They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains. It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work. "
"I suppose I am the only one in the world. I'm a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is."
"Cut out the poetry, Watson."
"Everything comes in circles - even Professor Moriarty. . . It's all been done before, and will be again."

What does Holmes say about himself?

"My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know."
~Sherlock Holmes to James Ryder: The Blue Carbuncle

"I get in the dumps at times, and don't open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just let me alone, and I'll soon be right."
~Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson: A Study in Scarlet

"I have been beaten four times - three times by men and once by a woman."
~Sherlock Holmes to John Openshaw: The Five Orange Pips

"I have a turn both for observation and for deduction."
~Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson: A Study in Scarlet

"My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. "
~Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson: The Sign of Four

"I am the most incurably lazy devil that ever stood in shoe leather - that is, when the fit is on me, for I can be spry enough at times."
~Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson: A Study in Scarlet

"My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built."
~Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson: The Man with the Twisted Lip

"No,no; I never guess. It is a shocking habit- destructive to the logical faculty."
~Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson: The Sign of Four

Various angles to Holmes

I know that Sherlock Holmes has way too many aspects to be discussed here. However, here is hard core evidence of some of the well known and some of the more hidden traits in our cold and calculating friend:

First, an introduction...

"There was only one student in the room, who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work. At the sound of our steps he glanced around and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure. 'I've found it! I've found it,' he shouted to my companion, running towards us with a test-tube im his hand. 'I have found a re-agent which is precipitated by haemoglobin, and by nothing else.' Had he discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not hae shone upon his features."
~ A Study in Scarlet

His ignorance:

"My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled around the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
'You appear to be astonished,' he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. 'Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it.'
'To forget it!'
......
'But the Solar System!' I protested.
'What the deuce is it to me?' he interrupted impatiently: ' you say that we go round the sun. If we went around the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.' "
~ A Study in Scarlet

His ego :

"'....I even embodied it in a small brochure, with the somewhat fantastic title of "A Study in Scarlet".'
He shook his head sadly.
'I glanced over it,' said he. 'Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid.'
'But the romance was there,' I remonstrated. 'I could not tamper with the facts.'
'Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it.'
I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please him."

His disguises (and the trouble it caused) :

"I had not been in my study five minutes when the maid entered to say that a person desired to see me. To my astonishment it was none other than my strange old book-collector, his sharp, wizened face peering out from a frame of white hair, and his precious volumes, a dozen of them at least, wedged under his right arm.
"You're surprised to see me, sir," said he, in a strange, croaking voice.
I acknowledged that I was.
"Well, I've a conscience, sir, and when I chanced to see you go into this house, as I came hobbling after you, I thought to myself, I'll just step in and see that kind gentleman, and tell him that if I was a bit gruff in my manner there was not any harm meant, and that I am much obliged to him for picking up my books."
"You make too much of a trifle," said I. "May I ask how you knew who I was?"
"Well, sir, if it isn't too great a liberty, I am a neighbour of yours, for you'll find my little bookshop at the corner of Church Street, and very happy to see you, I am sure. Maybe you collect yourself, sir; here's 'British Birds,' and 'Catullus,' and 'The Holy War'- bargain every one of them. With five volumes you could just fill that gap on the second shelf. It looks untidy, does it not, sir?"
I moved my head to look at the cabinet behind me. When I turned again Sherlock Holmes was standing smiling at me across my study table. I rose to my feet, stared at him for some seconds in utter amazement, and then it appears that I must have fainted for the first and the last time in my life."
~ The Adventure of the Empty House

His rare and emotional side :

"...Then my friend's wiry arms were around me and he was leading me to a chair.
'You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!"
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.
..........
His face set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. "By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive. Now, sir, what have you to say for yourself?"
~ The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

His humanity and humility :

"Watson," said he," if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little overconfident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you."
~ The Adventure of the Yellow Face

His exciting nature (with a touch of humour) :

He had uttered a cry and bent over the body. Now he was dancing and laughing and wringing my hand. Could this be my stern, self-contained friend? These were hidden fires, indeed!
~ The Hound of the Baskervilles

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