If the reviewing of books be ... "an ungentle craft," the making of them is, for the most part, a dishonest one--and that departme...nt of literature which ought to be entrusted to those only who are distinguished for their moral qualities is, not infrequently, in the hands of authors totally devoid of good taste, good feeling, and generous sentiment. The writers of Lives have, in our time, assumed a licence not enjoyed by their more scrupulous predecessors--for they interweave the adventures of the living with the memoirs of the dead; and, pretending to portray the peculiarities which sometimes mark the man of genius, they invade the privacy and disturb the peace of his surviving associates.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make a turning point... of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting--the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I can never bring you to realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang f...rom a boot-lace.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"The ideal reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only ...all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly unders...tood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are r...eally merely commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the planning, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chain 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.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"What have I gained?" "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of value, you know; you have only to put it ...into words to gain the reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your existence."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »