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The Books of Magic

The Books of Magic is the title of a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, and a comic book series based upon it written by other authors. The Gaiman work chronicled the experiences of twelve-year-old Timothy Hunter, who is led by several guides (The Phantom Stranger, John Constantine (Hellblazer), Dr. Occult/Rose and Mr. E) on a tour of the role of magic in the past, the present, alternate universes, and possible futures. The later series explores the further problems and adventures he encounters as a magician of growing powers.

The Books of Magic (1990 - 1991)

 * The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman - ISBN 1563890828

 * This is a work of fiction. Any resemblence to any real people (living, dead, or stolen by fairies), or to any real animals, gods, witches, countries, and events (magical or otherwise) is just blind luck, or so we hope.
 * Disclaimer

 * From a mundane standpoint, one might merely observe that Neil has arranged appearances here by every major occult figure in DC's history, to the possible end of introducing a new series character. And I do wonder whether Timothy will be back. It is more than a clever story however. It is rich and resonant. Like all good writing it causes the mind to wander off down byways by arousing speculations and leaving them to simmer... Neil Gaiman is a writer I have resolved to watch, and so far the effort has never failed to return more than the price of admission to his worlds.
 * Introduction by Roger Zelazny (1993)

Book I: The Invisible Labyrinth

 * Dr. Occult: The boy is a natural force, for good or evil, for magic or for science, and it is up to us to channel that force for good. And perhaps, for magic.
 * Mr. E: I say that we should kill him. End the matter there.
 * The Phantom Stranger: There will be no killing. Our role is only to educate, to offer him the choice.

 * The Phantom Stranger: Constantine, if he is to choose the path of magic then he must choose responsibly, he must know enough about the labyrinth to walk a true path through it.

 * John Constantine: All we know for sure is that we don't know anything for sure. The Phantom Stranger: That is a particularly foolish thing to say, John Constantine. Light and darkness, life and death. These things are eternally certain.

 * The Phantom Stranger: Enlighten the child. Show him what magic truly is, and what it was, and what it may become. He has the potential to become the most powerful human adept of this age. It is up to the four of us to ensure that he chooses correctly. That is our mission and our burden.

 * John Constantine: Just what the world's been waiting for. The charge of the Trenchcoat Brigade.
 * The Phantom Stranger: I heard that, Constantine.

 * Mr. E: Boy! Do you believe in magic?

 * Timothy Hunter: Nobody catches me. Not cops. Not perverts. Not weirdos. Not teachers. Not anybody. Nobody.
 * John Constantine: Gotcha! 'Lo Tim. Nice board you got there. Now, don't try to bite me. There are things in my bloodstream you really don't want in your mouth.

 * The Phantom Stranger: Timothy Hunter. My associate asked you a question. Tell me... do you believe in magic?
 * Timothy Hunter: Yeah. And I believe in the Tooth Fairy and the Great Pumpkin... don't be stupid.

 * The Phantom Stranger: Child, magic exists. There are powers and forces and realms beyond the fields you know.

 * John Constantine: First rule of magic: Don't let anyone know your real name. Names have power.

 * Dr. Occult: Never ask for a name. Ask instead what those you meet would like to be called. It will save you problems.

 * The Phantom Stranger: I claim neither a name or a title, Timothy Hunter, although I hope one day, perhaps, you will call me friend. Until that time I must remain a Stranger.

 * Timothy Hunter: This is stupid. Four loonies... there's no such thing as magic.

 * The Phantom Stranger: Our role is to educate, Timothy. To show you the path of enchantment, of the art, of gramarye and glamour — whether you choose to walk it after that will be your own affair.

 * The Phantom Stranger: This is the Void, the space before there was any where to travel to, the time before there was change... Your pain is only the tiniest fraction of the pain that brought forth from the Void... Light. Time. Heat. Life. Everything.

 * Timothy Hunter: Wow. That's wicked! Like Star Wars.
 * The Phantom Stranger: A strange analogy, child. But indeed, there was a war in Heaven, and you see the vanquished now, burning as they fall, like stars. In the darkness before the first dawn, theirs was the first folly: theirs the first rebellion.
 * Timothy Hunter: They look like... angels.
 * The Phantom Stranger: Indeed.
 * Timothy Hunter: Who's he?
 * The Phantom Stranger: The proudest of them all, and the most beautiful.
 * Timothy Hunter: What's his name?
 * The Phantom Stranger: Lucifer, the Lightbringer, also called Morningstar.
 * Timothy Hunter: Oh. Bloody Hell.
 * The Phantom Stranger: Exactly.

 * Mage-Lord of Atlantis: Where humanity gets it wrong by your time, is in imagining Atlantis as having any kind of quantifiable existence. Which of course it hasn't; not in the way they imagine anyway. There have been quite a few Atlantises, will be quite a few more. It is just a symbol. A symbol of the art. The true Atlantis is inside you, just as it's inside all of us. The sunken land is lost beneath the dark sea, lost beneath the waves of wet, black stories and myths that break upon the shores of our minds. Atlantis is the shadow-land, the birth-place of civilization. The fair land in the west that is lost to us, but remains forever, true birthplace and true goal.

 * Mage-Lord of Atlantis: Now about the art itself. About magic... I think I speak with some authority. By means of magic I have lived for many...millions...of years. And I've had the time to do a great deal of thinking. And what I think is this. The whole thing is a crock of dirt. Not worth the price I paid. Nor for one second.

 * From meetings and partings none can ever escape. Nor from magic.
 * The Dream of the Wu Woman

 * Myrddin (Merlin): I must do as I will do. Magic grants no freedoms, friend pupil. Everything it buys must be paid for.

 * The Phantom Stranger: People kill what they fear, Timothy. They burned, drowned and hanged those they saw as witches, the devil's servants: the wise women and the cunning men, the unfortunate, the lost and the strange. While in the forests, and the high places and beside great stones the old religions endured.

 * The Phantom Stranger: Science is a way of talking about the universe in words that bind it to a common reality. Magic is a method of talking to the universe in words that it cannot ignore. The two are rarely compatible.

 * The Phantom Stranger: Since there are always those who would burn those who they perceive as witches, many true magicians adopted new garb, avoiding recognition by disguising their plumage.

 * The Phantom Stranger: Often the best hiding place is in plain view.

 * Zatara: I thought that I had found my way to the center of the Invisible Labyrinth; and I had — perhaps — discovered no more than the entrance. Watch my dust.... There is no walking backwards, and I am lost in the Labyrinth Invisible. I cannot retrace my steps. I wrote my name on the wall of the Invisible Labyrinth. I was so diligent in my studies; gave my whole time and heart to the pursuit. I wrote my name but I can find it no longer; My ashes blow like dust around the Invisible Labyrinth.

 * Mr. E: I still say we should kill him.

Book II: The Shadow World

 * Boston Brand: I was just talkin' to a dude got himself killed trying to find out where you were.
 * Timothy Hunter: Look I hate to be personal, but... are you mad?
 * Boston Brand: Not that I'm aware of.
 * Timothy Hunter: It's just that I figured it was you or me, and that means its probably me.
 * Boston Brand is an disembodied "dead man" who is active in the physical world by temporarily possessing the bodies of others.

 * Timothy Hunter: I don't know what you're talking about and to be honest, I don't care.
 * Boston Brand: Famous last words, kiddo. Mine were: "Gee, from up here it almost looks like that guy with the hook's holding a rifle..."

 * Madame Xanadu: Four cards: Everything is here, child. Elements, humors, and the corners of the world. Hmm. All major arcana, although I'd've been surprised had they been anything else...

 * John Constantine: He's been dead since the late 1930s as I understand it. Only he got brought back. And something else got brought back with him — there's a difference of opinion about exactly what. I mean there's a school of thought that says it's his soul, supercharged as it were. And another school of thought that suggests it's something far older. Whatever it is, sometimes it's practically the most powerful thing in the universe. Sometimes it's little more than a bloke in white tights and a green hood...
 * On Jim Corrigan and The Spectre

 * The Spectre: The forces of darkness are always among us, child. And the light cries out ever for vengeance. There is light and there is darkness, and I cannot rest until the darkness is destroyed and the light shines into the hearts of all.

 * Timothy Hunter: That Spectre thing. When the man in black showed me the beginning of time, there were these angels. Big as worlds. He looked like one of them.
 * John Constantine: Could be. Angels have always given me the creeps.
 * Timothy Hunter: Known a lot of them, have you? John Constantine: A few.

 * Doctor Fate: All things are divided into the twin forces of Order and Chaos, forever contending for dominance. Life is something that occurs in the interface; not in the writhing discord of utter chaos, nor in the flatline perfection of pure order, but somewhere in between. … The imposition of order on formless chaos, the release of joyous chaos into the grey monotony of order... this is the true magic. All else is shadow.

 * John Constantine: Chaos versus Order indeed. I thought everyone had heard of fractals these days. There's no chaos, no order; just patterns of different levels of complexity.

 * Boston Brand: So what do you make of Constantine?
 * Timothy Hunter: He's all right, I spose... easier to talk to than the other three. Only thing is I can't figure out how we get from place to place... Boston Brand: That one's easy, kiddo. He's riding the synchronicity freeway, and so everything just falls into place; time, movement, even distance just sit up and beg for him. You're having an adventure, kiddo. If you survive it, it'll be fun.

 * Timothy Hunter: Are you sure you're one of the good guys?
 * John Constantine: There aren't any good guys, and there aren't any bad guys. There's just us. People. Doing our best to get by. Can you drive?
 * Timothy Hunter: I'm only twelve, John.
 * John Constantine: I suppose it will have to be me, then.

 * Doctor Thirteen: I've been professionally investigating the occult for fifteen years, now, lad. Magic, spooks, witch-cults. You might call me a professional debunker. In fifteen years, I haven't seen one thing that was not susceptible to rational explanation. Either it was a hoax, or a fraud, or — often — people wanting so much to believe in powerful forces outside of our ken that they'd convince themselves of the existence of magic, taking simple coincidence or delusion as proof of their superstitions...

 * John Constantine: He doesn't believe in magic. And he's right. Magic doesn't exist, for him. You have to choose it, you see. That's what we're offering you: the choice.

 * Timothy Hunter: Look, I'm sorry about all this. I can go.
 * Zatanna: No. You're twelve and they're trying to kill you.

 * Timothy Hunter: Um, this may be a silly question, but where did you get the clothes? In my size?
 * Zatanna: Magic.
 * Timothy Hunter: Oh.
 * Zatanna: Okay, I've made you breakfast. It's vegetarian, I'm afraid, but I think you'll like it. Yo-Yo's asleep in the attic for the day.
 * Timothy Hunter: How'd you know his name's Yo-Yo?
 * Zatanna: Magic.
 * Timothy Hunter: Oh. (He eats) This food is amazing. I wish my dad could cook like this. Did you make the food by magic?
 * Zatanna: No.

 * Boston Brand: Some hot tomato, huh?
 * Timothy Hunter: Does the word "incomprehensible" mean anything to you?
 * Boston Brand: That Zatanna. Oh, oh, oh, what a gal! Pleasures of the flesh, how I miss ya.
 * Timothy Hunter: You're really starting to get on my nerves Mister Brand. If you don't mind me saying so.
 * Boston Brand: After what I did for you already? I saved your life twice, kiddo. You should thank God that she kept me around after I was snuffed.

 * Tannarak: It's not black magic versus white magic. I tend to think of it as live magic versus dead magic. But even that's simple dualism... additionally, magic, even dark magic isn't Satanism — although I've dealt with the odd devil in my time. Magic is about power. It's seeing through the shadows to the real world beyond.

 * Zatanna: This boy is under my protection. Anyone who wishes to hurt him must first reckon with me.
 * Tannarak: My dear Zatanna. Face facts — there's one of you, and over a hundred of us. The child is history.

 * John Constantine: The boy's mine. And in thirty seconds, me, and him, and the witch, are going to walk out of here. You know who I am. Or you ought to. You know my reputation. Now... does anyone here really want to start something?

 * Zatanna: John, you don't have any power to speak of. Any one of them could have torn you to shreds. But they... were scared of you. I don't understand what happened back there.

 * Zatanna: Speak english, can't you?
 * John Constantine: I speak perfect english. So does Tim. It's you that's got the funny accent.

 * John Constantine: You've been introduced to, insulted, or threatened by some of the most powerful practitioners of the art in existence. What have you learned?
 * Timothy Hunter: I dunno, that all of them except Zatanna are about as well-balanced as upturned eggs.
 * John Constantine: Yeah — that's a good beginning.

Book III: The Land of Summer's Twilight

 * Dr. Occult: Remember your manners: etiquette will be important where we go, and good manners are gold. For a trivial impoliteness you could find yourself gifted with asses ears, or worse. Lastly, never stray from the path. No matter what you see, or hear, or feel.

 * Dr. Occult: John Constantine . . . Yes. He dances on the edge of the known, like a crazy man, pitting himself against heaven and the pit, because he is John Constantine; and because he is alive.

 * Timothy Hunter: Constantine said we were going to Fairyland. He was kidding, wasn't he?
 * Dr. Occult: We travel through the Fair Lands, child. Call them Avalon, or Elvenhome, or Domdaniel, or Faerie, it matters not. It is the Land of Summer's Twilight.

 * Dr. Occult: Look behind you, child. We have already left your world. This wooden gate exists in both worlds — here and there. There are many such places common to more than one plane, accessible to those who know the path to walk.

 * Rose: I am no longer Doctor Occult, although we share certain purposes in common. He is himself, as I am me. But I am still your guide.

 * Rose: Find a name for me... it's a test, of sorts.
 * Timothy Hunter: I bet it's bloody Rumpelstiltskin. I'll call you Rose.
 * Rose: That's good, Tim. And fast. The Stranger was right — you have the potential for power.

 * Rose: You mustn't eat anything in Faerie, Tim. Not if you want to get back — or at least, to get back to the time that you left. A day in Faerie can be a hundred years in mortal lands.
 * Timothy Hunter: So I stay hungry?
 * Rose: You get even hungrier.

 * Timothy Hunter: A sea of blood? Why?
 * Rose: Why? That's a strange question. Perhaps because there is some level on which we are sitting on a hillside in Sussex, exploring a world within ourselves. Perhaps because it is a metaphor for Woman's power, for fertility and mystery. And perhaps because this is no metaphor: We're in Faerie, and this is what happens in Faerie.
 * Timothy Hunter: It didn't feel like a metathingie to me. It was horrible.

 * Rose: We must stay on the path, Timothy. Once we have begun to walk our road, we must walk it all the way. Or we are lost. And all may be lost.

 * Maugys: When there is fire in me then I am still cold; When I own your true love's face then you will not see me; To all things I give no more than I am given; In time I may have all things and yet I may keep nothing.
 * Dr. Occult: Er... would you mind repeating that? Maugys: I have stated my riddle, solve it, and enter, or fail, and die.

 * True Thomas: Every nation has it's king who sleeps beneath the hill. And in it's time of greatest pain He'll wake, and war, prevail, and reign, And happy days are here again... But for now he sleeps under the hill — the hill — For legends are buggers to kill.

 * True Thomas: Arthur sleeps in Avalon; and he sleeps here, as they all do. And perhaps he sleeps in your world also. Sometimes, I suspect he sleeps inside a waking mind, waiting for the day to rise and free his ancient kingdom. Perhaps he sleeps inside thee, boy?

 * Baba Yaga: Now, what's Baba Yaga caught for herself, then? Is it stew? Is it roast? Is it blood pudding? Is it tender cutlets? Oh yes. All of them. Juicy, and meaty and toothsome and sweet.
 * After catching Timothy.

 * Master Leveret (A hare): You're going to be stew. I mean me and Master Redlaw here, we're fairly used to the idea of endin' up in a cookpot.
 * Master Redlaw (A hedgehog): So to speak, Master Leveret, although mostly us hedge-pigs is encased in clay and roasted in embers, 'cos of us havin' us's prickles.
 * Master Leveret: Stands corrected, Master Redlaw. Stands corrected and grateful to yer, I mus' say.

 * Rose: I know your true name Baba Yaga. Do you wish me to shout it now, so that all of the animals of the forest, all the birds of the air, every passing nixie and boggart will know it too? Your name will be as common as crab-grass. Would you like that Baba Yaga?
 * Baba Yaga: You're lying. You do not know my name.
 * Rose: Perhaps. Do you wish to find out how loudly I can shout?
 * Baba Yaga: [pause] No...

 * Titania: Who rides the wind must go where their steed will take them.
 * Rose: Who treads the way of stars must walk in silence.

 * Titania: You wish to see the distant realms? Very well. But know this first: the places you will visit, the places that you will see, do not exist. For there are only two worlds — your world, which is the real world, and the other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this are worlds of human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. These worlds provide an alternative. Provide escape. Provide a dream, and power, provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters. Do you understand?
 * Timothy Hunter: No.
 * Titania: You are honest. I'll say that for you.

 * Dr. Occult: This is Hell, Tim. One tiny aspect of it, anyway. Here do many demons make their homes, the twisted geometries conforming with their own dark internal vistas. They can be called to your world, for a price... the price is too much. This is a place of punishment, Timothy. Those who believe they must atone, inflict this place and its tortures upon themselves... until they understand that. Until they realize that they, and only they, — not gods or demons — create their Hell; and by this they are freed, and take their leave... This place is evil, Timothy. But perhaps a necessary evil.

 * Timothy Hunter: Where are we?
 * Dr. Occult: The Dreaming. A realm comprising tales and nightmares, woven on the fragile looms of sleeping minds.
 * Cain: And we are its guardians and protectors, its heroes and its lords. My brother and I — Lord Cain and Lord Abel. Remember us when you come into your full power, Timothy.
 * Morpheus (Dream): "Lord" Cain? "Lord" Abel? Tell me when did this elevation in rank occur? Are my congratulations in order Tale-keepers?
 * Abel: Amuh-muh-um-ba-bah-uwuhwuh-ahwuuh...
 * Cain: Shut up, nitwit. Just our little, heh-heh, jest, with young Timothy here, sire.

 * Titania: Timothy, boy, will you stay with me? Will you be my page and servant, here in the lands of summer's twilight. where there is no age or death? You have not seen a fraction of the marvels of this world, Tim. You have not tasted our fruit, nor drunk our wine, nor danced to your soul's delight in our revelries. Stay. Be my page. And in return I will be all things to you.

 * Dr. Occult: Rules are rules, here as much as anywhere else. An eye for an island, a tooth for a tooth fairy. Rules are rules.

 * Dr. Occult: What did you get at the market, Tim?
 * Timothy Hunter: An ordinary egg, he called it. Doctor, made of amber, or something.
 * Dr. Occult: The Mundane Egg.
 * Timothy Hunter: That's what I meant. Normal. Boring. Mundane. I knew it was one of those words.
 * Dr. Occult: No Timothy. It is not one of those words at all. Not in this context... Inside this egg is a part of creation as yet unborn. One day the egg will hatch — and from it a world will emerge. Every world is hatched from a Mundane Egg, Timothy. And they are valuable.

Book IV: The Road to Nowhere

 * John Constantine: I take it you hammer first and ask questions afterwards.
 * Mr. E.: The only good vampire is a dead vampire, Constantine.
 * John Constantine: I'm sure they'd agree with you on that score. You ought to watch it, you know. One day the boogeymen are going to come out of their closets and start parading down the high street. They'll be marching for equal rights, free blood, and your head on a platter.

 * John Constantine: I don't know about you two, but I have a bad feeling about this. He's not exactly what you'd call well-balanced is he?
 * About Mr. E, after his departure with Tim.

 * Mr. E: There are very few stable futures, boy. The way my father told it to me, the future is a series of infinitely branching possibilities. When we walk it, we walk down the most probable paths, those with the greatest likelihood of occurring. But nothing in the future is definite. Some are periods of great flux — the next hundred years or so are a wash of conflicting events. Others are relatively stable — so that almost any path you walk takes you to the same universe.

 * Mr. E: It's sad but true that the dividing line between good and evil blurs, in the realm of magic. Sometimes I think that I alone am pure.

 * Timothy Hunter: I don't like you, Mister E — or whatever your name is.
 * Mr. E: And I do not permit affection or lack thereof to influence my actions. There is good, and there is evil. The good must be protected, the evil eradicated. I have shown you the triumph of evil as a a caution.

 * Mr. E: Where magic is concerned, there is always an initial decision, an initial willingness to let it enter your life. If that is not there neither is magic.

 * Mr. E: The Earth in the sixtieth century. The pendulum has swung back once more. This world has been segregated from the rest of the universe — by whose will I do not know. The people of earth practice something that is neither magic nor science, but partakes of both in equal measure. Imagine computers composed partly of gleaming silicon, partly of a net of spells.

 * Mr. E: I have... never come this far forward. I have only heard rumors. I met a great man in my youth — blind, like myself, who claimed he had walked from the far future, seeking something — but even he no longer remembered what. It was he who taught me the art of walking forward.

 * John Constantine: I can't believe it — you'd trust Tim to a loony whose dad popped out his eyes with a sharpened spoon? I mean after what happened to him and his sister, it's hardly surprising that he's not dealing with a full deck, is it?

 * The Hierophant: What spirits were you? Of how many souls are you composed? … Within me I have many … souls? … perhaps. I am all the hierophants there ever were. All the popes and priests and shamans and wizards. All of them.

 * The Fool: A riddle. I sat with my love, and I drank with my love, and my love she gave me light. I'll give any man a pint o' wine, that'll read my riddle right. Only I don't have a pint of wine. Do you give up?
 * Timothy Hunter: I don't even understand the question.
 * The Fool: How about your friend?
 * Mr. E.: It is an evil rhyme, and it has an evil answer. [...] I sat in a chair made of my love's bones, drank from her skull, and saw by the light of a candle made from her fat.
 * p. 33 (issue) or p. 184 (collection), panel 4-6l this passage quotes an old rhyme (a British variation on the so-called "Ilo riddle" common to Saxon people) and its adult answer (children being told "a bottle of wine" or "the moon" instead; see, Popular Rhymes of Scotland: with illustrations, chiefly collected from oral sources (1826, 1st ed.; another 1826 printing's title ends "collected from tradition"), Edinburgh: William Hunter & al., chapter [8] "Specimens of unpublished classes of popular rhymes", section VIII "Riddles", p. 299 (via Google Books), sic for "licht" and "richt": "I sat wi' my love, and I drank wi' my love, / And my love she gave me licht; / I'll give any man a pint o' wine, / That'll read my riddle richt! / Solution. – I sat in a chair made of my mistress's bones; drank out of her skull; and was lighted by a candle made from her tallow." (sic)

 * The Fool: What do I know of magic? Why, nothing, my masters. Nothing at all. Save that a little magic is a most dangerous thing.
 * p. 34 (issue) or p. 185 (collection), panel 1-6.

 * Destiny: So my day is done. How strange. We called ourselves The Endless; but only two of us are left, here at the end of everything.

 * Death: I'm sorry. I can't let either of you stay here and watch. You see, this really is it. The universe is over. Its my job to put it all in order, now, and lock the place behind me as I leave.

 * The Phantom Stranger: If you choose magic you will never be able to return to the life you once lived. Your world may be more … exciting … but it will also be more dangerous. Less reliable. And once you begin to walk the path of magic, you can never step off of it. Or you can choose the path of science, of rationality. Live in a normal world. Die a normal death. Less exciting, undoubtedly. But safer. … It is your choice Timothy. Always and forever your choice.

 * Dr. Occult: You showed him the world was, indeed, not the rational place he believed. I have shown him the world that is not this world, where it is always summer's twilight; and other places besides. E gave him a few choice fragments of possibility; and then Tim returned to the fields we know. He has seen magic. He knows it works. he has already walked a harder path than most initiates will ever dream of...

 * The Phantom Stranger: They say humanity only gets one chance at the carousel's golden ring. But the carousel goes round and round, and round and round. And the golden ring is not going anywhere.

Bindings (1994)

 * The Books of Magic series (1-4) by John Ney Rieber

 * In this film, this loony preacher says that there's love and there's fear. And that's what makes the world like it is. I think that's almost right. I think it really comes down to love and fear. Sort of. Even though nobody ever talks about love and fear in science lessons.
 * Timothy Hunter

 * Love is the stuff that keeps things moving so they stay together. Fear is the stuff that makes things hold so still they fall apart. And sometimes you can have both of them inside you pushing and pulling you around, and thats when you cry or laugh.
 * Timothy Hunter

 * I don't know what holds the bloody world together. Unless it's Magic.
 * Timothy Hunter

 * In Faerie, there is only one time : Now. Twilight.
 * Timothy Hunter

Summonings (1995)

 * The Books of Magic series (5-13) by John Ney Rieber

 * The war has been shaping up quite nicely on all fronts, with no more than a nudge here and a tickle there. … People do insist on making life difficult for themselves. Peculiar things people... dead certain they know what they  need. Dead wrong, more often than not. Stubborn as goats in a herd. Still even the dissidents have their uses. No need to search far for viable offerings these days...
 * "Alternate Tim" (1 March 2012)

title: The Books of Magic


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Talk:The Sandman (comic book)

This is just a start… I intend to be dividing this up into sections based upon the Trade Paperback editions, and correcting any errors in the next day or two. — Kalki 22:06, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Why is Fables & Reflections before A Game Of You? I'm sure that A Game Of You is # 5, not the other way around.

 * I believe I began the article with that sequence because Fables & Reflections has a few of stories that came before A Game of You, as well as a few that came after. I'm not sure if if matters a great deal. I haven't read them in quite a while and might scan through them again within the next month or so. I know there are many gems of expression and insight in Gaiman's works that haven't been used here yet. ~ Kalki 23:27, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Reformatting
Any objections if I reformat this page to fit the same format of the Y: the Last Man page. I think it would be much cleaner.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:The Sandman (comic book)


text:
Metallica

Metallica is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California. Metallica was formed in 1981 when vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield responded to an advertisement posted by drummer Lars Ulrich in a local newspaper. The band's current line-up comprises founding members Hetfield and Ulrich, longtime lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Lead guitarist Dave Mustaine and bassists Ron McGovney, Cliff Burton and Jason Newsted are former members of the band. Metallica collaborated over a long period with producer Bob Rock, who produced all of the band's albums from 1990 to 2003 and served as a temporary bassist between the departure of Newsted and the hiring of Trujillo.

Song lyrics

All lyrics written by James Hetfield unless noted.

Kill 'Em All (1983)

 * No life 'til leather We're gonna kick some ass tonight!
 * Hit the Lights

 * When we start to rock we never wanna stop again!
 * Hit the Lights

 * Time Has taken it's toll on you The lines that crack your face Famine Your body it has torn through Withered in every place Pestilence For what you had to endure And what you have put others through Death Deliverance for you for sure There is nothing you can do
 * The Four Horsemen

 * Living and dying, laughing and crying Once you have seen it you will never be the same.
 * Motorbreath

 * So come on Jump in the fire!
 * Jump in the Fire, lyrics by James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine

 * Jump by your will or be taken by force I'll get you either way.
 * Jump in the Fire

 * But we'll never stop We'll never quit 'Cause we're Metallica
 * Whiplash

 * The leathered armies have prevailed The Phantom Lord has never failed Smoke is lifting from the ground The riding volume Metal sound
 * Phantom Lord

 * No mercy for what we are doing No thought to even what we have done We don't need to feel the sorrow No remorse for the helpless one
 * No Remorse

 * Another day, another death Another sorrow, another breath
 * No Remorse

 * Scanning the scene in the city tonight We're looking for you to start up a fight
 * Seek & Destroy

 * Searching Seek and destroy!
 * Seek & Destroy

 * Joining together to take on the world with our heavy metal Spreading the message to everyone here, Come let yourself go
 * Metal Militia

Ride the Lightning (1984)

 * Do unto others as they have done to you, but what the hell is this world coming to?
 * Fight Fire with Fire

 * Blow the universe into nothingness
 * Fight Fire with Fire

 * Nuclear warfare shall lay us to rest
 * Fight Fire with Fire

 * Fight fire with fire Ending is near Fight fire with fire Bursting with fear... We all shall die
 * Fight Fire with Fire

 * Who made you God to say I'll take your life from you
 * Ride the Lightning

 * Guilty as charged But damn it That ain't right!
 * Ride the Lightning

 * Flash before my eyes Now it's time to die
 * Ride the Lightning

 * Burning in my brain I can feel the flame
 * Ride the Lightning

 * Take a look to the sky Just before you die It's the last time he will
 * For Whom the Bell Tolls

 * Yesterday seems as though it never existed Death greets me warm Now I will just say good-bye
 * Fade to Black

 * Life it seems to fade away Drifting further everyday Getting lost within myself nothing matters no one else
 * Fade to Black

 * No one but me Can save myself But it's too late
 * Fade to Black

 * From deep sleep, I have broken away No one knows, no one hears what I say
 * Trapped Under Ice

 * Life is for my own, to live my own way.
 * Escape

 * No damn chains can hold me to the ground!
 * Escape

 * So let it be written So let it be done I'm sent here by the Chosen one So let it be written So let it be done To kill the first born Pharaoh's Son I'm Creeping Death!
 * Creeping Death, lyrics by James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett

Master of Puppets (1986)

 * Crushing all deceivers, mashing non-believers!
 * Battery

 * Smashing through the boundaries Lunacy has found me cannot stop the battery!
 * Battery

 * Taste me, you will see, more is all you need
 * Master of Puppets

 * Master of puppets I'm pulling your strings Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
 * Master of Puppets

 * Master, Master Where's the dreams that I've been after? Master, Master You promised only lies Laughter, Laughter All I hear and see is laughter Laughter, Laughter Laughing at my cries
 * Master of Puppets

 * Hell is worth all that Natural habitat Just a rhyme without a reason Never-ending maze Drift on numbered days Now your life is out of season
 * Master of Puppets

 * Messenger of fear in sight Dark deception kills the light!
 * The Thing That Should Not Be

 * Not dead which eternal lie Stranger eons death may die! (from H.P. Lovecraft. First appeared in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu" as a line from the book of the dead, "Necronomicon".)
 * The Thing That Should Not Be

 * Fearless wretch, insanity He watches, lurking beneath the sea Great old one, forbidden sight He searches, hunter of the shadows is rising.
 * The Thing That Should Not Be

 * Fearless wretch, insanity He watches, lurking beneath the sea Time of sleep, has been upset His waiting, hunter of the shadows is rising.
 * The Thing That Should Not Be

 * Dream the same thing every night, I see our freedom in my sight, no locked doors, no windows barred, no things to make my brain seem scarred.
 * Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

 * They keep me locked up in this cage, can't they see it's why my brain says rage?
 * Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

 * Mirror stares back hard Kill, it's such a friendly word, seems the only way for reaching out again.
 * Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

 * Got some death to do!
 * Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

 * No more can they keep us in listen, damn it! We will win
 * Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

 * Mutiny in the air!
 * Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

 * I was born for dying!
 * Disposable Heroes

 * Back to the front! You will do, what I say, when I say Back to the front! You will die, when I say, you must die Back to the Front! You coward, you servant...you blindman.
 * Disposable Heroes

 * Soldier boy Made of clay Now an empty shell Twenty-one Only son but he served us well bred to kill not to care Do just as we say Finished here Greetings death He's yours to take away
 * Disposable Heroes

 * Life planned out before my birth, nothing could I say had no chance to see myself, molded day by day Looking back I realize, nothing have I done left to die with only friend. Alone I clench my gun
 * Disposable Heroes

 * Spineless from the start
 * Leper Messiah

 * Send me money, send me green Heaven you will meet Make a contribution And you'll get a better seat Bow to leper messiah
 * Leper Messiah

 * Lie! Lie! Lie! Lie!
 * Leper Messiah

 * Honesty is my only Excuse
 * Damage Inc.

 * Slamming through don't fuck with razorback Stepping out? You'll feel our hell on your back!
 * Damage Inc.

 * Blood will follow blood Dying time is here (whispering) Damage, Incorporated.
 * Damage Inc.

 * Fuck it all and fucking no regrets!
 * Damage Inc.

...And Justice for All (1988)

 * Blackened is the end Winter it will send
 * Blackened

 * See our mother Put to death See our mother die!
 * Blackened

 * Fire Is the outcome of hypocrisy Darkest potency To the exit of humanity Color our world blackened!
 * Blackened

 * Hammer of Justice crushes you Overpower
 * ...And Justice for All

 * Seeking no truth Winning is all Fighting so grim, so true, so real!
 * ...And Justice for All

 * Nothing can save us!
 * ...And Justice for All

 * Freedom of choice is made for you my friend Freedom of speech is words that they will bend Freedom no longer frees you!
 * Eye of the Beholder

 * Truths to you are lies to me
 * Eye of the Beholder

 * I can't remember anything, can't tell if this is true or dream, deep down inside I feel to scream, this terrible silence stops me.
 * One

 * Hold my breath as I wish for death oh please God wake me!
 * One

 * Darkness Imprisoning me All that I see Absolute horror I cannot live I cannot die Trapped in myself Body, my holding cell... Landmine Has taken my sight Taken my speech Taken my hearing Taken my arms Taken my legs Taken my soul Left me with life in hell
 * One

 * Suspicion is your name Your honesty to blame Put dignity to shame Dishonor!
 * The Shortest Straw

 * Anger, Misery You'll suffer unto me
 * Harvester of Sorrow

 * Drink up Shoot in Let the beatings begin
 * Harvester of Sorrow

 * Old habits reappear, fighting the fear of fear, growing conspiracy, everyone's after me, frayed ends of sanity, hear them calling.... hear them calling me!
 * The Frayed Ends of Sanity

 * Twisting under schizophrenia! Falling deep into dementia!
 * The Frayed Ends of Sanity

 * When a man lies he murders some part of the world These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives All this I cannot bear to witness any longer Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home - borrowed from the chronicles of Thomas the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
 * To Live Is to Die

 * Dear mother, dear father You clipped my wings before I learned to fly Unspoiled, outspoken I've outgrown that fucking lullaby!
 * Dyers Eve

 * Same thing I've always heard from you do as I say not as I do!
 * Dyers Eve

 * Innocence, torn from me without your shelter Barred reality, I'm living blindly
 * Dyers Eve

 * I'm in hell without you Cannot cope without you two Shocked at the world that I see Innocent victim please rescue me!
 * Dyers Eve

Metallica (1991)

 * Exit light Enter night Take my hand We’re off to never never land!
 * Enter Sandman

 * Dreams of war Dreams of Liars Dreams of Dragon's Fire And of things that will bite!
 * Enter Sandman

 * I'm your dream, make you real I'm your eyes when you must steal I'm your pain when you can't feel sad but true
 * Sad but True

 * Hate! I'm you're hate! I'm your hate when you want love!
 * Sad but True

 * You lie so much, you believe yourself Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself!
 * Holier Than Thou

 * What I've felt, what I've known, never shined through in what I've shown Never be, never see, won't see what might have been What I've felt, what I've known, never shined through in what I've shown Never free, never me, so I dub thee Unforgiven
 * The Unforgiven

 * The Old Man then prepares To die regretfully The old man here is me
 * The Unforgiven

 * Rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond / call me what you will!
 * Wherever I May Roam

 * But I'll take my time anywhere I'm free to speak my mind anywhere And I'll redefine anywhere. Anywhere I roam Where I lay my head is home Carved upon my stone My body lies but still I roam
 * Wherever I May Roam

 * Love it or leave it
 * Don't Tread on Me

 * On through the never We must go On through the never Out to the Edge of forever We must go On through the never Then never comes
 * Through the Never

 * "Forever trusting who we are and nothing else matters
 * Nothing Else Matters

 * Never cared for what they say Never cared for games they play Never cared for what they do Never cared for what they know And I know
 * Nothing Else Matters

 * Wildness is the preservation of the world so seek the wolf in thyself!
 * Of Wolf and Man

 * Pride you took Pride you feel Pride that you felt when you'd kneel
 * The God That Failed

 * Broken is the promise, betrayal The healing hand, held back by the deepened nail Follow the God that failed!
 * The God That Failed

 * You just stood there screaming Fearing no one would listen to you
 * My Friend of Misery

 * You insist that the weight of the world, it should be on your shoulders
 * My Friend of Misery

 * Home is not a home, it becomes a hell Turning it into your prison cell
 * The Struggle Within

Load (1996)

 * Outta my way Outta my day Out of your mind and into mine Into no one Into not one Into your step but out of time
 * Ain't My Bitch

 * Damn it all down Damn it unbound Damn it all down to hell again
 * Ain't My Bitch

 * I'm gonna make you, shake you, take you I'm gonna be the one who breaks you
 * 2 X 4

 * Friction, fusion, retribution!
 * 2 X 4

 * The higher you are the farther you fall the longer the walk the farther you crawl
 * The House Jack Built

 * Open my eyes just to have them closed again.
 * The House Jack Built

 * It hates you so hold me until it sleeps
 * Until It Sleeps

 * So tear me open, but beware! There's things inside without a care.
 * Until It Sleeps

 * Then it all crashes down And you break your crown And you point your finger but there's no one around! Just want one thing, just to play the king Then the castles crumble and you're left with just a name Where's your crown, King Nothing!
 * King Nothing

 * Careful what you wish Careful what you say Careful what you wish, you may regret it Careful what you wish, you just might get it!
 * King Nothing

 * Mama they try and break me
 * Hero of the Day

 * The window burns To light the way back home
 * Hero of the Day

 * Caught under wheels roll Oh the bleeding of me
 * Bleeding Me

 * I'm diggin' my way... I'm digging my way to something better.
 * Bleeding Me

 * The man takes another bullet He's been fooled again
 * Cure

 * I drown without a sea Lungs fill with sorrow Lungs fill with misery
 * Poor Twisted Me

 * Ain't gonna waste my hate But I'm so greedy when they say Better to give than to receive
 * Wasting My Hate

 * Son, your life's an open book, don't close it 'fore it's done
 * Mama Said)

 * The brightest flame burns quickest
 * Mama Said

 * Mama, now I'm coming home, I'm not all you wished of me
 * Mama Said

 * Forgive me father for I have sinned Find me guilty of the life I feel within
 * Thorn Within

 * All things wash away But blood stained the sun red today
 * Ronnie

 * The more I search, the more my need For you The more I bless, the more I bleed For you
 * The Outlaw Torn

Reload (1997)

 * Gimme fuel Gimme fire Gimme that which I desire
 * Fuel

 * Fuck'em man White knuckle tight
 * Fuel

 * Fortune fame, mirror vain, gone insane But the Memory Remains
 * The Memory Remains

 * Ash to ash dust to dust fade to black
 * The Memory Remains

 * Snake! I am the snake! Tempting, that bite you take!
 * Devil's Dance

 * Black heart scarring darker still
 * The Unforgiven II

 * I take this key and I bury it in you, because you're Unforgiven too
 * The Unforgiven II

 * Oh, can't stop this train from rolling Oh, no, nothing brings me down No, I couldn't stop this train from rolling on and on on No, no, forever holding on
 * Better Than You

 * Don't go looking for snakes
 * Slither

 * See you crawling in
 * Slither

 * Draw lead Piss wine Sink teeth All mine Stoke fire Break neck Suffer through this Cheat on death
 * Carpe Diem Baby

 * Live to win Dare to fail
 * Carpe Diem Baby

 * Swing the noose again Pierce the apple skin You bit more than you need Now you're choking on the bad seed
 * Bad Seed

 * Off the veil, stand revealed Bring it on, break the seal At the mercy, the cat is out Spit it up, spit it out
 * Bad Seed

 * Steal dream and give to you Shoplift a thought or two
 * Where the Wild Things Are

 * I'm the filthy one on Bourbon Street, you walk on by I'm the little boy that pushes hard and makes him cry
 * Prince Charming

 * My eyes seek reality My fingers seek my veins
 * Low Man's Lyric

 * So I cry to the alley way, confess all to the rain, but I lie, straight to the mirror, one I've broken to match my face.
 * Low Man's Lyric

 * The trash fire is warm, but nowhere safe from the storm, and I can't bear to see, what I've let me be, so wicked and worn
 * Low Man's Lyric

 * Throw all your bullets in the fire And run like hell
 * Attitude

 * Why cure the fever? Whatever happened to sweat?
 * Attitude

 * Renew our faith which way we can To fall in love with life again
 * Fixxxer

St. Anger (2003)

 * My life-style determines my death-style
 * Frantic

 * Birth is pain Life is pain Death is pain It's all the same
 * Frantic

 * You live it or lie it.
 * Frantic

 * Fuck it all and fucking no regrets.
 * St. Anger

 * I'm madly in anger with you!
 * St. Anger

 * This is the voice of silence no more
 * Some Kind of Monster

 * Are we the people Some kind of monster
 * Some Kind of Monster

 * This monster lives!
 * Some Kind of Monster

 * Ominous, I am in us!
 * Some Kind of Monster

 * My court is in session and now I slam my gravel down!
 * Dirty Window

 * I'm judge and I'm jury and I'm executioner too.
 * Dirty Window

 * I'm ok, just go away Into distance let me fade I'm ok, just go away I'm ok, but please don't stray too far
 * Invisible Kid

 * The motherfuckers got in my head tried to make me someone else instead
 * My World

 * Not only do I not know the answer I don't even know what the question is
 * My World

 * Shoot me again, I ain't dead yet.
 * Shoot Me Again

 * All the shots I take I spit back at you. All the shit you fake Comes back to haunt you. All the shots, all the shots. All the shots I take What difference did I make? All the shots I take I spit back at you.
 * Shoot Me Again

 * She holds my hand and I lie to get a smile
 * Sweet Amber

 * Wash your back so you don't stab mine.
 * Sweet Amber

 * Cross my heart hope not to die Swallow evil, ride the sky I lose myself in a crowded room You fool, you fool, it'll be here soon
 * The Unnamed Feeling

 * Get the fuck out of here I just wanna get the fuck away from me I rage, I glaze I hurt I hate I hate it all why why why me?
 * The Unnamed Feeling

 * Tear it down! Strip the layers off!
 * Purify

 * Truth and dare Peeling back the skin Acid wash Ghost white Ultra clean Wanna be skeleton Clear eyes Diamond eyes Strip the past of mine My sweet turpentine Super white bones Bones of you and I
 * Purify

 * I'll die if I let go control is love love is control
 * All Within My Hands

 * I will only let you breathe My air that you receive Then we'll see if I let you love me
 * All Within My Hands

Death Magnetic (2008)

 * Almost like your life almost like your endless fight curse the day is long realize you don't belong disconnect somehow never stop the bleeding now almost like your fight and there it went almost like your life!
 * That Was Just Your Life

 * Drop the hourglass of time Spilling sand, we will not find As we gather here today We bid farewell The slave becomes the master
 * The End of the Line

 * Death Contagious Deity
 * The End of the Line

 * They scratch me They scrape me They cut and rape me!
 * Broken, Beat & Scarred

 * You rise You fall You're down and you rise again What dont kill ya make ya more strong
 * Broken, Beat & Scarred

 * Love is a four-letter word And never spoken here Love is a four-letter word here in this prison.
 * The Day That Never Comes

 * I suffer this no longer I'll put an end to This I swear This I swear the sun will shine This I swear! This I swear! This I Swear!
 * The Day That Never Comes

 * We hunt you down without mercy hunt you down all nightmare long
 * All Nightmare Long

 * Still lies immolation still lies infamy Hallucination Heresy Still you run What's to come What's to be?
 * All Nightmare Long

 * Suicide I've already died you're just the funeral I've been waiting for Cyanide Living dead inside break this empty shell forever more.
 * Cyanide

 * Say is that rain, or are they tears? They stain your concrete face for years The crying weeping shedding strife Year after year, life after life
 * Cyanide

 * How can I be lost if I've got nowhere to go? Search for Seas of Gold, how come it's got so cold? How can I be lost? In remembrance I relive So how can I blame you, when it's me I can't forgive?
 * The Unforgiven III

 * Forgive me... Forgive me not... Forgive me... Forgive me not... Forgive me... Forgive me not... Forgive me... Forgive me! Why can't I forgive me!
 * The Unforgiven III

 * Judas lives recite this vow I’ve become your new god now!
 * The Judas Kiss

 * Deadly vision Prophecy reveal Death Magnetic Pulling closer still
 * My Apocalypse

 * Tyrant awaken my apocalypse! Demon awaken my apocalypse! Heaven awaken my apocalypse! Suffer forever My apocalypse!
 * My Apocalypse

Other

 * Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel was just a freight train comin' your way
 * No Leaf Clover

 * Squeeze the world, and drip it down my throat again!
 * -Human, from the 1999 live album S&M

 * Coming up for air!
 * -Human

 * Do you bury me when I'm gone? Do you teach me while I'm here? Just as soon as I belong, then it's time I disappear!
 * I Disappear

 * Hey hey hey, here I go now, here I go into new days.
 * I Disappear

title: Metallica


text:
Sherlock Holmes

This page is for quotations from the Sherlock Holmes series of stories, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Quotes

 * Page numbers refer to The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes (1981) ISBN 0713914440

A Study in Scarlet (1887)

 * I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air — or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained. There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless, meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought
 * Dr. Watson, in Part 1, chap. 1, p. 15
 * You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive
 * Part 1, chap. 1

 * Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him; but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night.
 * Part 1, chap. 2
 * His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth traveled round the sun appeared to me to be such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.
 * Part 1, chap. 2

 * 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 skillful 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 this little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for any 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.
 * Part 1, chap. 2

 * "But the Solar System!" I protested. "What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently; "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 to my work."
 * Part 1, chap. 2

 * 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.
 * Part 1, chap. 2, p. 23

 * The theories which I have expressed there, and which appear to you to be so chimerical, are really extremely practical — so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese.
 * Part 1, chap. 2, pp. 23-24

 * It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it. If you were asked to prove that two and two made four, you might find some difficulty, and yet you are quite sure of the fact.
 * Part 1, chap. 3, p. 26

 * It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.
 * Part 1, chap. 3, p. 27
 * See also The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, "A Scandal in Bohemia", below.

 * "They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, but it does apply to detective work."
 * Part 1, chap. 3, p. 31

 * You know a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.
 * Part 1, chap. 4, p. 33

 * One's ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.
 * Part 1, chap. 5

 * When a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.
 * Part. 1, chap. 7

 * "What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence," returned my companion, bitterly. "The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?"
 * Part 2, chap. 7, p. 83

 * I have already explained to you that what is out of the common is usually a guide rather than a hindrance. In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practice it much. In the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically.
 * Part 2, chap. 7, p. 83

 * There is no branch of detective science which is so important and so much neglected as the art of tracing footsteps.
 * Part 2, chap. 7, p. 84

 * I had no idea that such individuals exist outside of stories.
 * Dr. Watson about Holmes

The Sign of the Four (1890)

 * "Which is it to-day," I asked, "morphine or cocaine?" He raised his eyes languidly from the old black-letter volume which he had opened. "It is cocaine," he said, "a seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?"
 * Chap. 1, p. 89

 * "My mind," he said, "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. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen my own particular profession, or rather created it, for I am the only one in the world"
 * Chap. 1
 * He possesses two out of the three qualities necessary for the ideal detective. He has the power of observation and that of deduction. He is only wanting in knowledge.
 * Chap. 1

 * I have been guilty of several monographs. They are all upon technical subjects. Here, for example, is one 'Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccos'. In it I enumerate a hundred and forty forms of cigar, cigarette, and pipe tobacco, with coloured plates illustrating the difference in the ash.
 * Chap. 1, p. 91

 * Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.
 * Chap. 1, p. 92; similar expressions occur in The Sign of Four, chap. 6; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet"; The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, "Silver Blaze"; The Return of Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure of the Priory School"; His Last Bow, "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans"; The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier".

 * I never guess. It is a shocking habit — destructive to the logical faculty.
 * Chap. 1, p. 93

 * Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon earth.
 * Chap. 1, p. 93

 * He smiled gently. "It is of the first importance," he cried, "not to allow your judgment to be biased by personal qualities. A client is to me a mere unit, a factor in a problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance-money, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor."
 * Chap. 2, p. 96

 * I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule.
 * Chap. 2, p. 96

 * "Holmes," I said in a whisper, "a child has done this horrid thing!"
 * Chap. 6

 * How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
 * Chap. 6, p. 111

 * You know my methods. Apply them.
 * Chap. 6, p. 112

 * "What do you think of this, Holmes? Sholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off with the treasure? How's that?" "On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the inside."
 * Chap. 6, p. 113

 * It is the unofficial force — the Baker Street irregulars.
 * Chap. 8, p. 126

 * "Winwood Reade is good upon the subject," said Holmes. "He remarks that, while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. 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. So says the statistician."
 * Chap. 10, p. 137; this actually differs from Reade's remarks in his The Martyrdom of Man (1872), where he states: "As a single atom man is an enigma: as a whole he is a mathematical problem."

A Scandal in Bohemia

 * You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.
 * Page 162

 * It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
 * Page 163
 * See also A Study in Scarlet, Part 1, chap. 3, above.

 * To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. 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 admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer — excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. 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. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.

The Red-Headed League

 * ...but none the less you must come round to my view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you, until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to be right.
 * I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life.
 * Page 176
 * As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be.

 * It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.
 * Page 184
 * I hardly looked at his face. His knees were what I wished to see.

A Case of Identity

 * Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.
 * Page 190

 * There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.
 * Page 191

 * It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
 * Page 194

 * Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details.
 * Page ?

 * [Sherlock Holmes quoting:] "There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman."
 * Page ?

The Boscombe Valley Mystery

 * Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult it is to bring it home.
 * Page 202

 * "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different."
 * Page 204

 * There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.
 * Page 204

 * You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of trifles.
 * Page 214

The Five Orange Pips

 * As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after.
 * Page 225

 * 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.
 * Page 225

 * 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.
 * Page 225

The Man with the Twisted Lip

 * It is, of course, a trifle, but there is nothing so important as trifles.
 * Page 238

 * It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes’ requests, for they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with such a quiet air of mastery.
 * Page 240

The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle

 * On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences.
 * Page 246

 * My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know.
 * Page 254

The Adventure of the Speckled Band

 * "You are Holmes, the meddler." My friend smiled. "Holmes, the busybody!" His smile broadened. "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" Holmes chuckled heartily.
 * Pages 264-265

 * "When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals. He has the nerve and he has the knowledge."
 * Page

 * Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.
 * Page 272

The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet

 * It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
 * Page 315

The Adventure of the Copper Beeches

 * "Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."
 * Page 322

 * The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.
 * Page 323

 * "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they seem to you to be relevant or not."
 * Page 324

 * "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."

Silver Blaze

 * Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person.
 * Page 336

 * It is more than possible; it is probable.
 * Page 339

 * That is the case as it appears to the police, and improbable as it is, all other explanations are more improbable still.
 * Page 339

 * "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." "The dog did nothing in the night-time." "That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
 * Page 347

The Yellow Face

 * Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.
 * Page 360

The Stockbroker's Clerk

 * I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain. Results without causes are much more impressive.
 * Page 363

The Reigate Puzzle

 * It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated.
 * Page 407

The Crooked Man

 * "I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. "When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansom. As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom." "Excellent!" I cried. "Elementary," said he.

The Naval Treaty

 * Watson here will tell you that I never can resist a touch of the dramatic.
 * Page 466

 * Out of my last 53 cases 49 have been given full credit to the police and the rest to me.
 * Page 456

The Final Problem

 * If I were assured of your eventual destruction I would, in the interests of the public, cheerfully accept my own.
 * Holmes to Moriarty
 * Page 5 (of just that story)

 * He is the Napoleon of crime.
 * Of Moriarty
 * Page 471

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)

 * Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.
 * Chap. 1

 * Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!
 * Chap. 2, p. 679

 * We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.
 * Chap. 4, p. 687

 * There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.
 * Chap. 5, p. 696

 * Bear in mind, Sir Henry, one of the phrases in that queer old legend which Dr. Mortimer has read to us, and avoid the moor in those hours of darkness when the powers of evil are exalted.
 * Chap. 6, p. 699

 * You never tire of the moor. You cannot think the wonderful secrets which it contains. It is so vast, and so barren, and so mysterious.
 * Chap. 7

The Adventure of the Empty House (1903)

 * I had little doubt that I had come to the end of my career when I perceived the somewhat sinister figure of the late Professor Moriarty standing upon the narrow pathway which led to safety. I read an inexorable purpose in his gray eyes. I exchanged some remarks with him, therefore, and obtained his courteous permission to write the short note which you afterwards received. I left it with my cigarette-box and my stick, and I walked along the pathway, Moriarty still at my heels. When I reached the end I stood at bay. He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me. He knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon me. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds, and clawed the air with both his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he went. With my face over the brink, I saw him fall for a long way. Then he struck a rock, bounded off, and splashed into the water.
 * Holmes recounting the death of Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls

 * Work is the best antidote to sorrow.

The Adventure of the Norwood Builder

 * There is no prospect of danger, or I should not dream of stirring out without you.
 * Page 502

The Adventure of the Dancing Men

 * What one man can invent another can discover.
 * Page 525

The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist

 * Full text online

 * It was vain to urge that his time was already fully occupied, for the young lady had come with the determination to tell her story, and it was evident that nothing short of force could get her out of the room until she had done so. With a resigned air and a somewhat weary smile, Holmes begged the beautiful intruder to take a seat and to inform us what it was that was troubling her.

 * We had got as far as this, when who should walk in but the gentleman himself, who had been drinking his beer in the tap-room and had heard the whole conversation. Who was I? What did I want? What did I mean by asking questions? He had a fine flow of language, and his adjectives were very vigorous. He ended a string of abuse by a vicious back-hander, which I failed to entirely avoid. The next few minutes were delicious. It was a straight left against a slogging ruffian. I emerged as you see me. Mr. Woodley went home in a cart. So ended my country trip, and it must be confessed that, however enjoyable, my day on the Surrey border has not been much more profitable than your own.
 * Pages 532-533

 * I have never been in Africa in my life, so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Busybody Holmes!
 * Page 537

The Adventure of the Priory School

 * It is impossible as I state it, and therefore I must in some respect have stated it wrong.
 * Page 550

The Adventure of the Six Napoleons

 * "We're not jealous of you down at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there's not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand."
 * Lestrade to Holmes

The Adventure of Black Peter

 * There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast.
 * Page 559

 * One should always look for a possible alternative, and provide against it. It is the first rule of criminal investigation.
 * Page 567

The Adventure of the Three Students

 * Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs.
 * Page 600

 * "For once you have fallen low. Let us see, in the future, how high you can rise."

The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter

 * There is so much red tape in these matters.
 * Page 626

 * Dr Leslie Armstrong "I have heard your name, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and I am aware of your profession — one of which I by no means approve." Holmes "In that, Doctor, you will find yourself in agreement with every criminal in the country."
 * Page 629

 * A draghound will follow aniseed from here to John o' Groat's, and our friend, Armstrong, would have to drive through the Cam before he would shake Pompey off his trail.
 * Page 633

The Adventure of the Abbey Grange

 * "Come, Watson, come!" he cried. "The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!"
 * Page 636

 * Perhaps, when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand.
 * Page 642

 * What I know is unofficial; what he knows is official.
 * Page 647

The Adventure of the Second Stain

 * Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department.
 * Page 657

 * Only one important thing has happened in the last three days, and that is that nothing has happened.
 * Page 659

 * It is a capital mistake to theorise in advance of the facts.

The Valley of Fear (1915)

 * The first two chapters originally appeared in 1914 in The Strand Magazine (September 1914)

"When water is near and a weight is missing, it is not a very far-fetched supposition that something has been sunk in the water." ~ Sherlock Holmes

"I should do so," Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently.
 * "I am inclined to think -- " said I.

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.

"Really, Holmes," said I severely, "you are a little trying at times."
 * Part 1, Chapter 1 The Warning

 * "What do you make of it, Holmes?" "It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information." "But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?"
 * Part 1, Chapter 1 The Warning

 * The vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous and terse, but limited.
 * Part 1, chap. 1, p. 712

 * Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.
 * Part 1, chap. 1, p. 773

 * Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her.
 * Part 1, Chap. 6, p. 801

 * There should be no combination of events for which the wit of man cannot conceive an explanation.
 * Part 1, chap. 6, p. 802

 * Birdy Edwards is here. I am Birdy Edwards!
 * Part 2, Chap. 7, p. 863

The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge

 * There is but one step from the grotesque to the horrible.
 * Part 2, p. 888

The Cardboard Box

 * There is no part of the body which varies so much as the human ear.
 * Page 896

The Red Circle

 * Education never ends Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.
 * Page 907

The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans

 * "Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. Please come at once and join me there. Bring with you a jemmy, a dark lantern, a chisel, and a revolver. S. H." It was a nice equipment for a respectable citizen to carry through the dim, fog-draped streets.
 * Page 925

 * We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
 * Page 926

 * "Think of Mycroft's note, of the Admiralty, the Cabinet, the exalted person who waits for news. We are bound to go." My answer was to rise from the table. "You are right, Holmes. We are bound to go."
 * Page 926

The Dying Detective

 * Holmes, you are not yourself. A sick man is but a child.
 * Page 933

 * You fidget me beyond endurance. You, a doctor — you are enough to drive a patient into an asylum.
 * Page 935

 * Indeed, I cannot think why the whole bed of the ocean is not one solid mass of oysters, so prolific the creatures seem.
 * Page 936

 * You and I, Watson, we have done our part. Shall the world, then, be overrun by oysters? No, no; horrible!
 * Page 936

 * But I have reasons to suppose that this opinion would be very much more frank and valuable if he imagines that we are alone.
 * Page 938

 * I give you my word that for three days I have tasted neither food nor drink until you were good enough to pour me out that glass of water. But it is the tobacco which I find most irksome.
 * Page 940

 * Three days of absolute fast does not improve one's beauty, Watson.
 * Page 941

 * Malingering is a subject upon which I have sometimes thought of writing a monograph.
 * Page 941

The Adventure of the Devil's Foot

 * I fear that if the matter is beyond humanity it is certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations before we fall back upon such a theory as this.
 * Page 958

 * I think, Watson, that I shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning which you have so often and so justly condemned.
 * Page 960

 * To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces.
 * Page 960

 * We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes! My poor parish is devil-ridden! Satan himself is loose in it! We are given over into his hands!
 * Page 963

 * It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official police force.
 * Page 965

 * I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry.
 * Page 965

 * Surely the clearest proof of it is that, knowing what I know, I have sent for you and not for the police.
 * Page 967

 * I have heard your reasons and regard them as unconvincing and inadequate. We will pass that.
 * Page 967

 * "I followed you." "I saw no one." "That is what you may expect to see when I follow you."
 * Holmes and Sterndale Page 967

 * Some fumes which are not poisonous would be a welcome change.
 * Page 970

His Last Bow

 * Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. 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 many 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.
 * Page 980

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

 * It may be some fussy, self-important fool; it may be a matter of life or death.
 * Page 984

 * "I should say that there is no more dangerous man in Europe." "I have had several opponents to whom that flattering term has been applied."
 * The client and Holmes, Page 985

 * I am sorry. I am accustomed to have mystery at one end of my cases, but to have it at both ends is too confusing. I fear, Sir James, that I must decline to act.
 * Page 985

 * A complex mind. All great criminals have that.
 * Page 987

 * I have my plans. The first thing is to exaggerate my injuries. They'll come to you for news. Put it on thick, Watson. Lucky if I live the week out — concussion — delirium — what you like! You can't overdo it.
 * Page 994

 * "I have found out who our client is," I cried, bursting with my great news. "Why, Holmes, it is —" "It is a loyal friend and a chivalrous gentleman," said Holmes, holding up a restraining hand. "Let that now and forever be enough for us."
 * Page 999

The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

 * When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
 * Page 1011

The Adventure of the Three Gables

 * I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go.
 * Page 1032

The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire

 * "Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson," said Holmes in a reminiscent voice. "It was a ship which is associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared."
 * Page 1034

 * "This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply."
 * Page 1035

 * "Of course I remembered him," said I as I laid down the letter. "Big Bob Ferguson, the finest three-quarter Richmond ever had. He was always a good-natured chap. It's like him to be so concerned over a friend's case." Holmes looked at me thoughtfully and shook his head. "I never get your limits, Watson," said he. "There are unexplored possibilities about you. Take a wire down, like a good fellow. 'Will examine your case with pleasure.'" --"Your case!" --"We must not let him think that this agency is a home for the weak-minded."
 * Page 1036

 * It is simpler to deal direct.
 * Page 1037

The Adventure of the Three Garridebs

 * In my profession all sorts of odd knowledge comes useful, and this room of yours is a storehouse of it.
 * Page 1050

 * Well, Watson, we can but possess our souls in patience and see what the hour may bring.
 * Page 1053

 * It was worth a wound; it was worth many wounds; to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.
 * Dr. Watson

The Problem of Thor Bridge

 * We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception.
 * Page 1065

 * We can but try.
 * Page 1069

The Adventure of the Creeping Man

 * Come at once if convenient — if inconvenient come all the same.
 * Page 1071

 * 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.
 * Page 1082

The Adventure of the Lion's Mane

 * That the dog should die was after the beautiful, faithful nature of dogs.
 * Page 1089

 * I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.
 * Page 1094

The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place

 * Dogs don't make mistakes.
 * Page 1109

The Adventure of the Retired Colourman

 * Cut out the poetry, Watson.
 * Page 1114

 * Things must be done decently and in order.
 * Page 1119

Misattributed

 * Elementary, my dear Watson.
 * In the stories by Conan Doyle, Holmes often remarked that his logical conclusions were "elementary", in that he considered them to be simple and obvious. However, the complete phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" does not appear in any of the 60 Holmes stories written by Doyle. The beginning of The Crooked Man (1893) is the closest that "Elementary" and "my dear Watson" ever appear in the text, but the two phrases are separated by a paragraph—and are in the wrong order. It does later appear in chapter 19 of P. G. Wodehouse's Psmith, Journalist (1915), and at the very end of the 1929 film, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the first Sherlock Holmes sound film. The phrase is also brought up in the 1935 film,The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes, an adaptation of the story, The Valley of Fear.

 * Quick Watson, the needle.
 * This is said by a character who is impersonating Holmes in the Victor Herbert operetta The Red Mill (libretto by Henry Blossom).

title: Sherlock Holmes


text:
Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen Lee DeGeneres (born January 26, 1958) is an American stand-up comedienne, television hostess and actress. She starred in the popular sitcom Ellen from 1994 to 1998, and has hosted her syndicated TV talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, from 2003 to 2022. She is married to Portia de Rossi. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Quotes

 * I think the hard thing about this job [stand-up] — I mean, I think this part is great — but that the traveling is y'know, 'cause — 'cause I'm gone a lot from home and this time I'm out for three-and-a-half weeks without going home, and that's hard, to be gone three-and-a-half weeks 'cause then I have to ask my friends, "Would you mind going to the house and watering the plants, and turn some lights on and make it look like somebody's home, and make sure that the mobile over the crib isn't tangled or the baby's gonna get bored..."
 * Taste This

 * Don't you hate when people are late to work. And they always have the worst excuses. "Oh, I'm sorry I'm late, traffic." "Traffic, huh? How do you think I got here; helicoptered in!?"
 * Here and Now

 * I'm a — I'm a, um, a godmother which is just, that's fun to be a godmother, she is so precious, she's the light of my life, she's two... or five or something, and she's, uh... I don't know, I've never seen her — the pictures are precious, she just seems so, y'know... She lives clear across town, I don't have that kind of time, but, um... Well, I send money and stuff, it's not like I don't have a connection....
 * Taste This

 * I don't want to get the same looks I give people when they get on a plane holding a baby: "That's a cute baby, just keep walking, keep walking, keep going, keep going...."
 * Taste This

 * If we don't want to define ourselves by things as superficial as our appearances, we're stuck with the revolting alternative of being judged by our actions, by what we do.
 * My Point... And I Do Have One. New York: Bantam Books, 1995

 * I mean, I feel like I'm in a unique position as host, because think about it: What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?
 * 2001 Emmy Awards (4 November 2001)

 * Yes, we're lazy. Yet we also can't seem to sit still. So we've started making things like GO-GURT. That's yogurt for people on the go. Let me ask you, was there a big mobility problem with yogurt before? How time-consuming was it, really? [pretending to be on the phone:] "Hello?...Oh, hi, Tom...oh, I've been dying to see that movie...Umm, no...I just opened up some yogurt...Yeah, I'm in for the night...No, not even later-it's the kind with fruit on the bottom. Well, have fun. Thanks anyway."
 * Here and Now

 * Now we have hands-free phones, so you can focus on the thing you're really supposed to be doing ... chances are, if you need both of your hands to do something, your brain should be in on it too.
 * Here and Now

 * I have a terrible problem with procrastination... a friend told me, "Well, you should go to therapy." And I thought about it, but then I said, "Wait a minute. Why should I pay a stranger to listen to me talk when I can get strangers to pay to listen to me talk?" And that's when I got the idea of touring.
 * Here and Now

 * With all of our differences, we [members of the audience] all have one thing in common, we're all gay. Now there are people out there [in audience] going “Do they think we’re gay because we’re here? Do we look gay? I told you this would happen. We’re not going to understand a word of this.” Seriously, though, if you're here you're probably gay. I mean, you have tendencies, you've thought about it. Now there are people [in audience] going “I have thought about it. Does that mean I'm gay? I'm not gay. Is that how they get us?”
 * Here and Now

 * Procrastinate now, don't put it off.
 * Here and Now

 * Let's say, for instance, I'm out of cheese. And then I'll think, oh, but what if I go to the store and they're out of cheese? I'd be like, “How can you be out of cheese?” “What do you mean ‘How can we be out of cheese?’ You're out of cheese. People run out of cheese.” Then I’d be like, “Yeah, but you’re a store. You should have cheese stocked up in the back for people like me coming in looking for cheese.” And that's when they send the manager over, who thinks he's so cool for being the manager ‘cause his picture’s framed in the front of the store ‘cause he’s the manager, you know. And he’d be like, "What seems to be the problem, ma'am?" Which to me is so condescending, like “little lady.” I'd be like, “The little lady’s problem.…” He'd be like, “Who’s the little lady?” I'd be like, “Shut up and listen to me. You’re out of cheese and I want some.” And, he's like, “Well, how about some cottage cheese?' Like he’s going to negotiate the situation, he’s a diplomat because he’s the manager. And I’d be like, “I don’t want cottage cheese; I want cheddar cheese. Sharp cheddar cheese is what I came in for. Sharp cheddar cheese and cottage cheese are not the same things. Just ‘cause they have the name cheese in the title doesn't make it a cheese at all. That’d be like going into a musical instrument store and saying ‘I’d like to buy a trumpet,’ and them saying 'I'm sorry, we're all out of trumpets, but would you like a shoehorn?’ See, that’s not the same thing, is it, Mr. Manager?” (‘Thank you for the shoe horn,’ you know.) And he starts getting all nervous and everything, because a crowd has formed and he starts feeling humiliated because they're all sitting around mumbling “What seems to be the problem?,' I don’t know, she wants some cheese.' And, so, um, he just slaps me right across the face. And, umm, so that’s when Skip, the part time guy who works there, who hates the manager ‘cause he thinks so cool for being the manager and treats Skip like shit because he’s just the part time guy. And Skip’s going to quit in the fall and go back to school anyway. He doesn’t even need the money; he’s from a wealthy family. He’s just doing it for the experience because his family wants him to work one summer. And, so anyway, so, he takes the hose, and he goes to spray the manager right in the eye, right, and so, but that’s when he’s leaning down to pick the cottage cheese, so he misses him and he gets this old woman who’s standing right behind him, and she’s there picking out an avocado, because the older you are the less you eat and she all she wants is the avocado. So she screams out, “my eye, I’ve been sprayed in the eye with a produce hose.” And so then that's when her nephew who's visiting from Austin Texas is two aisles over buying tortilla chips because he thinks they're going to have guacamole. Little does he know it's one avocado. And so, he starts running “I’ll help you, aunt so and so,” running, and then when he's running down the aisle when he slips on some water from the produce hose, breaks his leg, breaks his arm, bruises two ribs right there... gets a stitch put in his cheekbone, just one, but still, it's a stitch. Chaos breaks out and it's all over Hard Copy and Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood... "Lesbian Demands Cheese, Causes Riot." And I'm like, “I didn’t even want the cheese.” You know?
 * The Beginning

 * What could be going so wrong that they need to check on you that often....'My bra's in my ass!!'....'Rachel' (mouths pointing to her ass 'My bra's in my ass' and again 'My bra's in my ass' shakes head no and air spells out A-S-S and then motions her to come here). I'd like to see how far they'd go to help you when you tell them your bra's in your ass.' 'Oh my, it's in the ass...do you need a different size or color? I don't know what to do about the bra in the ass. I'll get the manager I don't know.
 * The Beginning

 * They say you just stand over there, he'll say thank you and you walk back off and that's what I thought was gonna happen, but in my head, I had for five or six years known that he was gonna call me over.
 * Ellen DeGeneres, commenting on being called over to sit with Johnny Carson back in 1986

 * I'm a godmother, that's a great thing to be, a godmother. She calls me god for short, that's cute, I taught her that.
 * Ellen DeGeneres, My Point...And I Do Have One

 * Sometimes when I am driving I get so angry at inconsiderate drivers that I want to scream at them. But then I remember how insignificant that is, and I thank God that I have a car and my health and gas. That was phrased wrong — normally you wouldn't say, thank God I have gas.
 * Ellen DeGeneres, My Point...And I Do Have One

 * You have to have funny faces and words, you can't just have words. It is a powerful thing, and I think that's why it's hard for people to imagine that women can do that, be that powerful.
 * Ellen DeGeneres, US Magazine, January 1995

 * For a long time I thought I knew for sure who I was. I grew up in New Orleans and became a comedian. And there was everything that came along with that. The nightclubs. The smoking. The drinking. Then I turned 13.
 * "What Ellen DeGeneres Knows for Sure (She Thinks)", The December 2009 issue of O magazine

 * "I knew if I came out, there was a possibility I would lose my career. But I didn't do it for my career, I did it for me to live my truth," she says. "I thought, 'I don't want to live and have any shame whatsoever.' I should be proud of who I am, and I don't care if people approve or not. It is who I am."
 * Ellen Degeneres talking about her coming out in 1997 with Oprah Winfrey, on the interview on 'Oprah' show on 9th of November 2009

 * But I do believe that's when you do your soul-searching. I think when you have these trials that life gives you, it is an opportunity to find out who you are. Not just who you are when everything's great, but who are you when every thing is taken away from you and you have nothing.
 * Ellen on Oprah show, 9th of November 2009

 * I learned compassion from being discriminated against. Everything bad that's ever happened to me has taught me compassion.
 * Ellen on Oprah show, 9th of November 2009

 * "I think I'm healthier than I've ever been. I'm happier than I've ever been. I'm more myself. I can't stress that enough," Ellen says. "I think kindness is the key to yourself and to other people. … I think I found out who I was, and I think I really try to be a better person every single day. And she [sc. Portia de Rossi, her wife] makes me better."
 * Ellen's interview on Oprah show, 9th of November 2009

 * I just like observing people — it's something I've done ever since I was a kid, and I got really good at it. That's a big part of why I became a comedian. My audience is filled with every kind of person you can imagine, and I love that.
 * Redbook, January 2006

 * Ellen: I think one of the turning points in my life came a few years ago. I started going to sleep at night just talking to myself, saying, "You're perfect just the way you are," because I used to beat myself up about weight and working out, and no matter what I did I never felt good about myself. I decided to accept myself and know that I am good. Just those affirmations every night changed my belief in who I was because I had been told for so long, over and over, that I was something else. That brings us to another agreement: Don't make assumptions—because we assume that when people do something or say something to you, they mean just what we think they mean.
 * Ellen DeGeneres' interview with The Four Agreements Author don Miguel Ruiz which appeared in the October 2001 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

 * I wish that I wasn't seen differently. I wish that people looked at me and just saw that I was a good person with a good heart. And that wants to make people laugh. And that's who I am. I also happen to be gay. And I would love to have the same rights as everybody else. I would love, I don't care if it's called marriage. I don't care if it's called, you know, domestic partnership. I don't care what it's called. I mean, there are couples that have been together, 30 years, 40 years. And all of a sudden, they lose their house, you know, the taxes kill them, because it's different because they're not married. Everything is taken away just because. You know, with Sept. 11, there are a lot of people that lost their partner and didn't get the same benefits. It's not fair. And at the same time I know there are people watching right now saying, you know, it's sick it's wrong, it's this. And it's like, I can't convince them that I'm not sick or wrong, that there's nothing wrong with me. You know, I can live my life and hope that things change, and hope that we're protected as any other couples
 * Ellen Degeneres talking about being gay with Stone Phillips in an interview for Dateline NBC, Nov. 8, 2004

 * My name is Ellen and I'm a vegetarian. Just to add another label to me: I am a lesbian, aquarian and vegetarian. I've said it...
 * Ellen Degeneres hosting Paul McCartney and Friends Live: PETA's Millennium Concert, 1999

 * I personally chose to go vegan because I educated myself on factory farming and cruelty to animals, and I suddenly realized that what was on my plate were living things, with feelings. And I just couldn't disconnect myself from it any longer.
 * From her website; quoted in "Why Ellen Went Vegan", in peta.org (9 November 2009)

 * Death, disease, famine
 * homelessness, abuse
 * I can't even watch
 * the 5 o'clock news
 * There could be an answer
 * it may not be too late
 * but it involves a transfer
 * try love instead of hate
 * All you can do
 * is be good to people
 * and hope that those people
 * will be good to you too
 * but good luck
 * I doubt it
 * A poem Ellen reads at the end of the first season of "Ellen". Longer version appears in her book, "My Point... And I Do Have One".

title: Ellen DeGeneres