Dr. J. H. Watson

A few of my past recent blogs have been a collection of quotes from the canon of Sherlock Holmes. William Crick suggested that I do a similar blog on the most famous doctor in English literature, a doctor more well-known than Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, or Dr. Moreau. I am referring, of course to  Dr. John H. Watson.

Most of these quotes are either from Holmes or Watson.

"I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air..." — A Study in Scarlet 

"The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster." — A Study in Scarlet

In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. — A Study in Scarlet

"I served at the fateful battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery" — A Study in Scarlet

“A wellplayed violin is a treat for the gods..." — A Study in Scarlet

“Oh! a mystery is it?” I cried, rubbing my hands. “This is very piquant." — A Study in Scarlet 

"I always smoke 'ship's' myself," I answered. — A Study in Scarlet 

"There is a delightful freshness about you, Watson, which  makes it a pleasure to exercise any small powers which I may possess at your expense." — The Hound of the Baskervilles

"Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it."

— The Hound of the Baskervilles

"Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes... — The Hound of the Baskervilles

"... for when I see the stub of a cigarette marked Bradley, Oxford Street, I know that my friend Watson is in the neighbourhood." — The Hound of the Baskervilles

"In an experience of women which extends over many nations and three separate continents, I have never looked upon a face which gave a clearer promise of a refined and sensitive nature." — The Sign of Four

I am not subject to impressions... — The Sign of Four

"I know my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outsit the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own little adventures." — The Red-headed League

"I have nothing to do today. My practice is never very absorbing." — The Red-headed League

"You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion." — The Man With the Twisted Lip

“Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so." — The Man With the Twisted Lip

"You are the stormy petrel of crime, Watson" — The Naval Treaty

"Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department," said Holmes with a smile. — The Second Stain

"I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I’ll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption." — The Valley of Fear

"You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson..." — The Valley of Fear

"Your native shrewdness, my dear Watson, that innate cunning which is the delight of your friends..." — The Valley of Fear

"What with your eternal tobacco, Watson, and your irregularity at meals, I expect that you will get notice to quit, and that I shall share your downfall." — The Three Students

"He was a middle-sized, strongly-built man—square jaw, thick neck, moustache... “It’s true,” said the inspector, with much amusement. “It might be a description of Watson.” — Charles Augustus Milverton

Thus as my predecessor weakened his practice declined, until when I purchased it from him it had sunk from twelve hundred to little more than three hundred a year. I had confidence, however, in my own youth and energy, and was convinced that in a very few years the concern would be as flourishing as ever... — The Stockbroker's Clerk

"I keep a bull pup,” I said, “and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I’m well, but those are the principal ones at present." — A Study in Scarlet

Here, I would like to insert a few of my own quotes regarding Dr. Watson from my stories. 

"Our maker has blessed you with a good heart, my dear friend, Watson," Holmes said lowly and slowly. "You have the kindest, stoutest heart of any man I ever knew." — Cold-Hearted Murder

I was shaken with a sudden horror as if I were looking at evil incarnate. Things came together in my mind and I believed I was onto the answer. — The Lambeth Poisoner Case

 Married life was a considerable adjustment, especially for someone who had led a somewhat vagabond lifestyle. On the whole, I liked married life, and now for the first time, I was master of my own home, which comes with its own obligations and responsibilities. — The Tired Captain 

Even in Afghanistan, I had not considered dying in a foreign land, but I had never been face to face with the murderous Ghazis as I was with these fierce-looking Indians. — Holmes, Holmes on the Range

For the first time ever I had got a glimpse of the exhilaration Sherlock Holmes himself must experience once he unlocks the key to a mystery.   — The Murder of John Stewart

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The Analytical Side of Sherlock Holmes

A short while ago I wrote a blog citing quotes from Sherlock Holmes's philosophical side. I thought I would write one showing the great detective's analytical side. Some of the quotes I chose from the canon are ones that most reveal Holmes as devoid of feeling and displaying cold-hearted reason.

"Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is the logic rather than the crime that you should dwell." —The Copper Beaches

 "A client to me is a mere unit, a factor in a problem. The emotional  qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning." — A Study in Scarlet

"There is no crime to detect, or at most, some bungling villainy with a motive so transparent that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it." — A Study in Scarlet

"When a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation." — A Study in Scarlet

"The most commonplace crime is often the most mysterious, because it presents no new or special features from which deductions may be drawn. — A Study in Scarlet

"It is one of those instances when the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed one little point which is the basis of the deduction." — The Creeping Man

"Holmes is a little too scientific for my taste—it approaches to cold-bloodedness. I could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid, not out of malevolence, you understand, but simply out of the spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects."          — Stamford, A Study in Scarlet

"I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for?" — The Sign of Four

"It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirable mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen..." — A Scandal in Bohemia

"My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built." — Wisteria Lodge

"I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule." — The Sign of Four

"His cold and proud nature..." — The Norwood Builder

"I choose to be only associated with those crimes which present some difficulty in their solution." — The Cardboard Box

"How often have I said that when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" — His Last Bow

"Women have seldom been an attraction to me, for my brain has always governed my heart." — The Lion's Mane

"Love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true, cold reason which I place above all things." — The Sign of Four

"It is a critical mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." — A Scandal in Bohemia

"I am the last and highest court of appeal in detection." — The Sign of Four 

"Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner."             — The Sign of Four 

"Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his." — A Scandal in Bohemia

Here, I would like to insert a few of my own analytical quotes of Holmes from my stories. 

"And for the next quarter of an hour Holmes gave a talk on this subject and how when inferring the cause of something one must use reason to the conclusion that something is the cause of something else." — The Bishopsgate Jewel Case

"With a playful grin still on his face Holmes said, 'A man has been murdered! Can you believe the luck?'" — Cold-Hearted Murder

"The world of London is my milieu, the study of the criminal classes my metier." — The Atkinson Brothers of Trincomalee 

"I said trifles, Watson... something small and seemingly insignificant to some but may be the key to a solution if observed by the trained reasoner." — The Red Leech

"Let us look at each instance in the cold light of reason, shall we?"   — The Mystery of Cliff's Edge

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Holmes & The Abbey School

 In The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier (1926), Holmes himself wrote; "It happened that at the moment I was clearing up the case which my friend Watson has described as that of the Abbey School, in which the Duke of Greyminster was so deeply involved."

In this case, the Abbey School should not be confused with the Priory School.

In The Abbey School, we see a murder, a centuries-old mystery, and the return of an old client of Sherlock Holmes.

Discover the mystery of The Abbey School in Holmes of Baker Street. Available on Amazon!

All of Stephen Gaspar's books can be found on Amazon!

Sherlock Holmes & Bert Stevens

 In The Adventure of the Norwood Builder (1903), Holmes says to Watson, “You remember … Bert Stevens, who wanted us to get him off in ’87? Was there ever a more mild-mannered, Sunday-school young man?”

In my latest book, Holmes of Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes is employed to help a young man, Bert Stevens, who is arrested for a series of heinous murders.

This story is loosely based on the Thames Mysteries or sometimes referred to as the Embankment Murders, that took place in London from 1887 to 1889. A number of dismembered victims, all women, whose bodies were discovered in or near the Thames. None of the murders were solved. Some speculated that these murders were linked to the Jack the Ripper killings in Whitechapel. Because of the difference in modus operandi, the police believed there was no connection between the two. Other similar murders took place between 1873 and 1902.

Stephen Gaspar's books can be found on Amazon!

 

 

Sherlock Holmes's Philosophy

When Sherlock Holmes says things such as: "A client to me is a mere unit, a factor in a problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning." It is little wonder that Watson would refer to his friend as an automaton—a calculating machine. But we know Holmes was more than that. He was human, of course. He was educated, cultured, and refined to a degree. He studied and appreciated both music and history and every once in a while, we get a glimpse at the great detective's philosophical side.

Here is a limited list of Holmes's philosophical quotes from the canon.

"The sea air, sunshine, and patience, Watson—all else will come." — The Devil's Foot 

"How small we feel, with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature." — The Sign of Four

"When one tries to rise above Nature one is liable to fall below it. The highest type of man may revert to the animal if he leaves the straight road of destiny." — The Creeping Man

"To a great mind, nothing is little." — A Study in Scarlet

"Is not all life pathetic and futile?... We reach. We grasp. And what is left in our hands at the end? A shadow. Or worse than a shadow— misery." — The Retired Colourman

"Depend upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." — A case of Identity.

"Human nature is a strange mixture, Watson. You see that even a villain and a murderer can inspire such affection that his brother turns to suicide when he learns that his neck is forfeited." — The Stockbroker's Clerk

"I think that I may go so far as to say, Watson, that I have not lived wholly in vain." — The Final Problem

"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence." — The Red-headed League

"What is the meaning of it, Watson? What object is served by this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever." — The Cardboard Box

"Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it... The example of patient suffering is in itself the most precious of all lessons to an impatient world." — The Veiled Lodger

"In a modest way I have combatted evil, but to take on the Father of Evil himself, would, perhaps, be too ambitious a task." — The Hound of the Baskervilles

"One's ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature." — A Study in Scarlet

"The ways of Fate are hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest." — The Veiled Lodger

"God help us! Why does Fate play such tricks with poor helpless worms?... There, but for the grace of God goes Sherlock Holmes!" — The Boscombe Valley Mystery

"My dear fellow, life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent." — A Case of Identity

"There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good may of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared." — His Last Bow

As I stated, this is not a definitive list. I am certain the reader can recall other philosophical quotes as well.

Here, I would like to insert a few of my own philosophical quotes of Holmes from my stories.

“What is the mark of man, Watson?” he said, his face contemplative and sober as he stared out the window of our carriage. “What makes us who we are? Is it our name, our reputation, our accomplishments? Is it some title, some award, some honour? Is it who we think we are or who others think we are?" — The Adventure of the Tired Captain

"I plan to solve Westerbrook's murder, not out of pride, or ego, or vanity, but out of some sense of justice, and because he came to me for help and I denied him. God may forgive me for this, but I cannot forgive myself." — Cold-Hearted Murder

"O Watson, Watson, if a man ever finds himself doubting his faith in a Higher Power, let him put to sea so he may experience the great oceans. Let him smell the sea air and feel the tides that also course through his own being. Let him behold the night sky ablaze with stars that came into being long before him and shall exist long after he is dust. Once he is lifted on mountainous waves, only then may the Almighty's plan for him be realized." — The Adventure Aboard the Dominion City                                    

"As for sin: sin does exist, and it is man's folly to think it does not. The world is full of sin, but it is up to every man, woman, and child to guard against sin. But there is also goodness in the world; goodness, decency, respectability, and kindness. Let us all, with the Grace of Providence, focus ourselves on those." — The Nonpareil Club Scandal

All of Stephen Gaspar's books can be found on Amazon!