It has always seemed to me that so long as you produce your dramatic effect, accuracy of detail matters little. I have never striven for it and I have made some bad mistakes in consequence. What matter if I hold my readers?
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects a fascination with the human skull, emphasizing both curiosity and admiration for physical characteristics.
In this quote, Arthur Conan Doyle expresses a blend of scientific curiosity and a whimsical admiration for the unique features of a human skull. The speaker's comments about the skull's structure, such as its 'dolichocephalic' shape and 'supra-orbital development', reveal an appreciation for human anatomy that extends beyond mere physical observation to a deeper fascination with what these features represent in terms of individuality and the study of humanity itself.
Themes
SkullAnthropologyHumanityCuriosityAdmiration
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on anthropology, one might quote this to illustrate the fascination with human evolution.
More from Arthur Conan Doyle
All quotes →I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air -- or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.
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You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.
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I could not rest, Watson, I could not sit quiet in my chair, if I thought that such a man as Professor Moriarty were walking the streets of London unchallenged.
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It seems very strange ... that in the course of the world's history so obvious an improvement should never have been adopted. ... The next generation of Britishers would be the better for having had this extra hour of daylight in their childhood.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
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