- The ideal reasoner would when he has once been shown a single fact in all its
bearing, 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. (FIVE)
- The observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents,
should be able accurately to state all the other ones, both before and after.
(FIVE)
- Problems may be solved in the study which have baffled all those who have
sought a solution by the aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to
its highest pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to utilize
all the facts which have come to his knowledge, and this in itself implies, as
you will readily see, a possession of all knowledge, which, even in these days
of free education and encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. (FIVE)
- It is not so impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge which
is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this, I have endeavoured in my
case to do. (FIVE)
- A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that
he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his
library where he can get it if he wants it. (FIVE)
- If the art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an armchair, my
brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived. (GREE)
- I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles. (LION)
- Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the
greatest for the last. (REDC)
- It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of
London. (REDH)
- I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty
attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool
takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the
knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is
jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in
laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed
as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the
tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large
assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think
that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent.
Depend upon it - there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge
you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest
importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful
ones. (STUD)
- From a drop of water a logician could infer the possibility of an
Atlantic or a Niagra without having seen or heard of one or the other. So
all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are
shown a link of it. (STUD)
- Like all other arts, the science of deduction and analysis is one
which can only be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long
enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in
it. Before turning to those moral and mental aspects of the matter which
present the greatest difficulties, let the inquirer begin by mastering
more elementary problems. Let him, on meeting a fellow-mortal, learn at a
glance to distinguish the history of man, and the trade or profession to
which he belongs. Puerile as such an exercise may seem, it sharpens the
faculties of observation, and teaches one where to look and what to look
for. (STUD)
- What the deuce is it (the solar system) to me? You say that we go
round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth
of difference to me or my work. (STUD)
- All knowledge comes useful to the detective. (VALL)
- Breadth of view is one of the essentials of our profession. The
interplay of ideas and the oblique uses of knowledge are often of
extraordinary interest. (VALL)
- In my profession all sorts of odd knowledge comes useful, and this room of
yours is a storehouse of it. (3GAR)
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