1. How slow-witted I have been, and how nearly I have committed the blunder of my lifetime! (ABBE)

  2. My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know. (BLUE)

  3. The air of London is sweeter for my presence. (FINA)

  4. That hurts my pride, Watson. It is a petty feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. (FIVE)

  5. I have been beaten four times - three times by men and once by a woman. (FIVE)

  6. I take a short cut when I can get it. (GOLD)

  7. What has become of any brains that God has given me? (LADY)

  8. My well of English seems to be permanently defiled. (LAST)

  9. I have taken to living by my wits. (MUSG)

  10. I read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The latter is always instructive. (NOBL)

  11. I am a poor man. (PRIO)

  12. My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. (REDH)

  13. Don't be hurt, my dear fellow. You know that I am quite impersonal. (RETI)

  14. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by work, though idleness exhausts me completely. (SIGN)

  15. 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. (SIGN)

  16. I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? (SIGN)

  17. Because I made a blunder, my dear Watson - which is, I am afraid, a more common occurrence than anyone would think who only knew me through your memoirs. (SILV)

  18. I have a turn both for observation and for deduction. (STUD)

  19. 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. (STUD)

  20. 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. (STUD)

  21. I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the presence of one of the absolute fools in Europe. (TWIS)

  22. I confess that I have been as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all. (TWIS)

  23. Would you be afraid to sleep in the same room with a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip? (VALL)
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