The Hound of the Baskervilles Quotes

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle; Corrections And Editor Edgar W. Smith; Illustrators, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“Evil indeed is the man who has not one woman to mourn him.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“presume nothing”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“He burst into one of his rare fits of laughter as he turned away from the picture. I have not heard him laugh often, and it has always boded ill to somebody.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“He said that there were no traces upon the ground round the body. He did not observe any. but I did - some little distance off, but fresh and clear"
"Footprints?"

"Footprints."

"A man's or a woman's?"

Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered: "Mr Holmes, they were the footprints of s gigantic hound!”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Le chien des Baskerville

“That which is clearly known hath less terror than that which is but hinted at and guessed.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“...Recognising, as I do, that you are the second highest expert in Europe--"
"Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?" Asked Holmes, with some asperity.
"To the man of precised, scientific mind the work of Monsieur Bertillon must always appeal strongly."
"Then had you not better consult him?"
"I said, sir, to the precisely scientific mind. But as a practical man of affairs it is acknowledged that you stand alone. I trust, sir, that I have not inadvertently--"
"Just a little," said Holmes.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“It seems to leave the darkness rather blacker than before.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“The past and the present are within my field of inquiry, but what a man may do in the future is a hard question to answer.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle Sir, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“To his eyes all seemed beautiful, but to me a tinge of melancholy lay upon the countryside, which bore so clearly the mark of the waning year, Yellow leaves carpeted the lanes and fluttered down upon us as we passed, The rattle of our wheels died away as we drove through drifts of rotting vegetation--sad gifts, as it seemed to me, for Nature to throw before the carriage of the returning heir of the Baskervilles.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“It came with the wind through the silence of the night, a long, deep mutter, then a rising howl, and then the sad moan in which it died away. Again and again it sounded, the whole air throbbing with it, strident, wild and menacing.”
― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“Watson: "You may be right."

Holmes: "The probability lies in that direction.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“You say that your fare told you that he was a detective?"
"Yes, he did."
"When did he say this?"
"When he left me."
"Did he say anything more?"
"He mentioned his name."
Holmes cast a swift glance of triumph at me.
"Oh, he mentioned his name, did he? That was imprudent. What was the name that he mentioned?"
“His name," said the cabman, "was Mr. Sherlock Holmes.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“The more outré and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“When Dr. Mortimer had finished reading this singular narrative he pushed his spectacles up on his forehead and stared across at Mr. Sherlock Holmes. The latter yawned and tossed the end of his cigarette into the fire.
"Well?" said he.
"Do you not find it interesting?"
"To a collector of fairy-tales.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“A strong wind sang sadly as it bent the trees in front of the Hall. A half moon shone through the dark, flying clouds on to the wild and empty moor.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Le chien des Baskerville

“I must thank you,' said Sherlock Holmes, 'for calling my attention to a case which certainly presents some features of interest. I had observed some newspaper comment at the time, but I was exceedingly preoccupied by that little affair of the Vatican cameos, and in my anxiety to oblige the Pope I lost touch with several interesting English cases.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“Some people without possesing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“The more outre and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“Far away on the path we saw Sir Henry looking back, his face white in the moonlight, his hands raised in horror, glaring helplessly at the frightful thing which was hunting him down. But that cry of pain from the hound had blown all our fears to the winds. If he was vulnerable he was mortal, and if we could wound him we could kill him. Never have I seen a man run as Holmes ran that night.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“The longer one stays here the more does the spirit of the moor sink into one’s soul, its vastness, and also its grim charm. When you are once out upon its bosom you have left all traces of modern England behind you, but on the other hand you are conscious everywhere of the homes and the work of prehistoric people. On all sides of you as you walk are the houses of these forgotten folk, with their graves and the huge monoliths which are supposed to have marked their temples. As you look at their grey stone huts against the scarred hillsides you leave your own age behind you, and if you were to see a skin-clad, hairy man crawl out from the low door, fitting a flint-tipped arrow on to the string of his bow, you would feel that the presence there was more natural than your own. The strange thing is that they should have lived so thickly on what must always have been most unfruitful soil. I am no antiquarian, but I could imagine that they were some unwarlike and harried race who were forced to accept that which none other would occupy.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

“I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous. When I said that you stimulated me I meant, to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong in this instance”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Le chien des Baskerville

“WATSON: Then you are yourself inclining to the supernatural explanation.     
HOLMES: if Dr. Mortimer's surmise should be correct, and we are dealing with forces outside the ordinary laws of Nature, there is an end of our investigation. But we are bound to exhaust all other hypotheses before falling back upon this one.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles