Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It just changes shape.

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.

In small towns, news travels at the speed of boredom.

It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

There is no rural life in a countryman’s dream and there is no city life in a townsman’s dream! We often dream of the other shores, not our own shore!

City people. They may know how to street fight but they don't know how to wade through manure.

We get so used to the gregarious nature of our towns and villages that we forget how crowded our existence has become.