8 Quotes by R. Austin Freeman

The tone of his remarks filled me with a burning desire to kick Mr. Horridge; but that being impracticable, I should certainly, if left to myself, have told him to go to the devil and forthwith walked out of the house.

It was in a large window--a sort of hybrid between a shop and a private house--and consisted of a hand-written placard executed in bold Roman capitals announcing that these premises were occupied by no less a person than Professor Booley, late of Boston, U.S.A. (popularly believed to be the hub of the universe).

Life is made up of strange coincidences,” said Thorndyke. “Nobody but a reviewer of novels is ever really surprised at a coincidence.

If a man acts in such a way as to create a belief that he is dead, he must put up with the consequences.

Knowledge is of no use unless it is actually in your mind, so that it can be produced at a moment’s notice.

For a good many years now I have practised at the bar; and, if that fact offers no guarantee of unimpeachable veracity it at least furnishes presumptive evidence of a fairly robust moral epidermis. I may not be believed; but the frankest scepticism will leave me undisturbed and unabashed.

I Hate fire-arms!” he exclaimed as he viewed the collection distastefully. “They are dangerous things, and when it comes to business they are scurvy weapons. Any poltroon can pull a trigger.

Thorndyke never forgets a likely case. He is sort of a medico-legal camel. He gulps down the raw facts from the newspapers or elsewhere, and then, in his leisure moments, he calmly regurgitates them and has a quiet chew at them.