Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1891-09), “A Case of Identity,” [Holmes], The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3

Dave — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:59:34 +0000

My dear fellow, 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 outré results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) British writer and physician
Story (1891-09), “A Case of Identity,” [Holmes], The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3
(Source)

Collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, No. 3 (1892).

WIST Quotations

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1891-09), “A Case of Identity,” [Holmes], The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3