limping-twerps

The following is a collection of quotes, taken from the various Sherlock Holmes stories, that illustrate House:

A STUDY IN SCARLET

"He is a little queer in his ideas — an enthusiast in some branches of science."

"His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the-way knowledge."

"He is not a man that is easy to draw out, though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him."

"Holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes — it approaches cold-bloodedness."

"He appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge."

"The reticence which he showed on all that concerned himself..." (Watson on Holmes)

"I have a lot of special knowledge which I apply to the problem, and which facilitates matters wonderfully."

"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."

THE SIGN OF THE FOUR

"I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation."

"Eliminate all other factors and the one which remains must be the truth."

"Viewing the matter as an abstract problem, I had forgotten how personal and painful a thing it might be to you."

"I could only say what was the balance of probability. I didn't at all expect to be so accurate."

"Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? ...What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material?"

"You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but percentages remain constant."

"Love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things. I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgment."

"You have done all the work in this business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for you?"
"For me," said Sherlock Holmes, "there still remains the cocaine-bottle."

(and then there is the prose on Watson's leg: "I... limped impatiently about the room with considerable bitterness in my heart.")

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

"Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of interest. They are important, you understand, without being interesting..." Holmes on Cases (A Case of Identity)

"Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little..."(The Boscombe Valley Mystery)

"Upon my word, it is a great thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are not over-pleasant." (The Man with the Twisted Lip)

"I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic." Watson on Holmes' cases (The Adventure of the Speckled Band).

"When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." (The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet.)

"As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one of his problems" Watson (The Adventure of the Copper Beeches).

"Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell." (The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.)

THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

"He only turned to the drug as a protest against the monotony of existence when cases were scanty and the papers uninteresting." (The Yellow Face)

"At a time when Europe was ringing with his name and when his room was literally ankle-deep with congratulatory telegrams I found him a prey to the blackest depression." (The Reigate Puzzle)

"His eyes kindled and a slight flush sprang into his thin cheeks. For an instant the veil had lifted upon his keen, intense nature, but for an instant only. When I glanced again his face had resumed that red-Indian composure which had made so many regard him as a machine rather than a man." (The Crooked Man)

"During my long and intimate acquaintance with Mr. Sherlock Holmes I had never heard him refer to his relations, and hardly ever to his own early life. This reticence upon his part had increased the somewhat inhuman effect which he produced upon me, until sometimes I found myself regarding him as an isolated phenomenon, a brain without a heart, as deficient in human sympathy as he was preeminent in intelligence. His aversion to women and his disinclination to form new friendships were both typical of his unemotional character, but not more so than his complete suppression of every reference to his own people." (The Greek Interpreter)

"Well, I think that under the circumstances we may enter without an invitation." Holmes on investigating a house (The Greek Interpreter).

"That is of enormous importance," said Holmes, making a note upon his shirtcuff." (The Naval Treaty)

"I never can resist a touch of the dramatic." (The Naval Treaty)

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES

"Well, he asked me for anything outside the ordinary routine."
"Exactly," said Holmes, "however foolish the incident may
seem."

There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.

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.

One of Sherlock Holmes's defects -- if, indeed, one may call it a defect -- was that he was exceedingly loath to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment.

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.

Piczo