“For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry. Yes, indeed.”
Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook, 1994
Tag: Quick Quotes (Page 7 of 10)
“I suppose, Watson, we must look upon you as a man of letters,” said [Sherlock Holmes]. “How do you define the word ‘grotesque’?”
“Strange – remarkable,” I suggested.
He shook his head at my definition.
“There is surely something more than that,” said he; “some underlying suggestion of the tragic and the terrible. If you cast your mind back to some of those narrative with which you have afflicted a long-suffering public, you will recognize how often the grotesque has been deepened into the criminal. Think of that little affair of the red-headed men. That was grotesque enough in the outset, and yet it ended in a desperate attempt at robbery. Or, again, there was that most grotesque affair of the five orange pips, which led straight to a murderous conspiracy. The word puts me on alert.”
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, “Wisteria Lodge”, The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock HOlmes, circa 1908
“The heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion)”
Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook, 1994
“One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects – if, indeed, one may call it a defect – was that he was exceedingly loth to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfillment. Partly it came no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to dominate and surprise those who were around him. Partly also from his professional caution, which urged him never to take any chances. The result, however, was very trying for those who were acting as his agents and assistants.”
Dr Watson, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1902
“Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.”
Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902
“”Pass me the looking-glass.”
“What are you going to do with the looking-glass, Sholmes?” I asked, in surprise.
“Reflection is necessary before we act in this case, Jotson.”
Herlock Sholmes and Dr Jotson, “The Mysterious Bottle”, The Complete Casebook of Herlock Sholmes, Charles Hamilton, circa 1920
Do you remember that I posted the definition of Venerable not long ago? I came across the word again in The Valley of Fear, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It was neat that, having previously looked the word up, I knew exactly what Dr Watson meant when he said this.
“Three centuries had flowed past the old Manor House, centuries of births and homecomings, of country dances and of the meetings of fox-hunters. Strange that now in its old age this dark business should have cast its shadow upon the venerable walls!”
Dr Watson, The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1914
Here are two words that I could tell the definition of by the context. But they are such cool words and used to describe Holmes’ nemesis. I had to share them with you. In The Valley of Fear, Holmes and Watson begin speaking of Professor Moriarty, and Holmes describes the Professor’s underworld genius in the quote below. The Valley of Fear is printed in my volume of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Solatium – a thing given to someone as a compensation or consolation
Traduce – to slander
Usage:
“But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law – and there lies the glory and the wonder of it. The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every delivery, 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. Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor – such would be your respective rôles! That’s genius, Watson! But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come.”
Sherlock Holmes, The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1914
“All this, however, is foreign to the mission on which you sent me and will probably be very uninteresting to your severely practical mind. I can still remember your complete indifference as to whether the sun moved round the earth or the earth round the sun.”
Dr Watson writing a letter to Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1902
I’ve made it to chapter six of The Valley of Fear, one of The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. It is a kind of locked-door mystery, except in this case, instead of a door, it is a moat. But I wanted to share this quote with you from the local inspector.
“I said it was a snorter!” he cried. “A real snorter it is!”
White Mason, The Valley of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, circa 1914
(A snorter, informally, is “a thing that is an extreme or remarkable example of its kind.)
Hi! I'm Cadie. Welcome to my Collection of Bookish Thoughts where I will share with you everything I love about books.