Failure Quote by Donna Andrews

[Sherlock Holmes:] The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.

— Arthur Conan Doyle

“The sensible man,' Crow had said (to Sherlock Holmes), 'don't look to confirm what he already knows -- he looks to deny it. Finding…

— Andrew Lane

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to…

— Anonymous

“A helpful exercise is to describe the situation from the beginning, either out loud or in writing, as if to a stranger who isn’t…

— Maria Konnikova

“I never guess. It is a shocking habit—destructive to the logical faculty.1 —SHERLOCK HOLMES, IN SIGN OF THE FOUR”

— Nat Greene

“What was the Sherlock Holmes principle? ‘Once you have discounted the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’ ” “I reject…

— Douglas Adams

One forms provisional theories and waits for time or fuller knowledge to explode them. A bad habit, Mr. Ferguson, but human nature is weak.…

— Arthur Conan Doyle

“When a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.…

— Arthur Conan Doyle

“Is that true? Are you really him?” “I am afraid I still hold that distinction.” “You are Sherlock Holmes? No, I don’t believe it.”…

— Mitch Cullin

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes. —Sherlock Holmes,”

— Amy Webb

If the fresh facts come to our knowledge all fit themselves into the scheme, then our hypothesis may gradually become a solution. Sherlock Holmes…

— Arthur Conan Doyle

“The world's most famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, said that once you have eliminated all the possibilities, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true.”

— Siobhan Dowd