Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on this day in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is perhaps best-known for writing the Sherlock Holmes stories featuring the eccentric, titular detective and his loyal assistant, Dr. John Watson.
Aside from playing a pivotal role in establishing the mystery/crime genre of literary fiction, Conan Doyle also played cricket, attended medical school, traveled to America, several European countries, Australia, and Africa, served as a medical doctor in the Boer War, and even ran for Parliament twice. Conan Doyle also wrote and published various other works during his life, including ones inspired by his travels to the Arctic Circle and his avid interest in spiritualism and the paranormal.
The following quotes are just a brief testament to Conan Doyle’s talents as a writer and his ability to communicate important ideas and themes through his prose. Read on to remember and appreciate him on his 162nd birthday!
1. “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
2. “It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
3. “The most difficult crime to track is the one which is purposeless.”
4. “The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.”
5. “Of all ghosts, the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.”
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6. “Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent.”
7. “It is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.”
8. “The past and the present are within the field of my inquiry, but what a man may do in the future is a hard question to answer.”
9. “Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature.”
10. “Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.”