Literary Birthday – 22 May – Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle Quotes

1. It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.
2. Anything is better than stagnation.
3. Each [of Poe’s detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed… Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?
4. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
5. 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. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.
6. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.
7. I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.
8. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognises genius.
9. ‘As a rule,’ said Holmes, ‘the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.’
10. Where there is no imagination there is no horror.
11. I think of slaying Holmes, … and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things.
12. The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.

Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish physician and author who is best known for his novels featuring Sherlock Holmes. Holmes, the ‘world’s first and only ‘consulting detective’, uses his skills in observation and deductive reasoning to solve criminal cases. The series began with A Study in Scarlet. Conan Doyle wrote four novels and 56 short stories featuring Holmes, including popular stories such as The Hound of the Baskervilles. He was a prolific writer who penned crime, fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. He wrote his speculative fiction in several sub-genres in novels like The Lost World and The Poison Belt. He was knighted in 1902 for his service in the South African War. Conan Doyle wrote about his life in his autobiography, Memories and Adventures, and the importance that books in Through the Magic Door.

Read more about the author in these posts:

1. 17 Things You Probably Never Knew About Arthur Conan Doyle
2. 10 Elementary Tips For Writers From Sherlock Holmes
3. How To Write A Sherlock Holmes Story

Image: Arnold Genthe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conan_doyle.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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