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.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
You yourself may not be luminous, but you are a conductor of light.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
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.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
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
Similar quotes
I like these people swarming on the sidewalks, wedged into a little space of houses and canals, hemmed in by fogs, cold lands, and the sea streaming like a wet wash. I like them, for they are double. They are here and elsewhere.
Albert CamusRead
Just before she died she asked, What is the answer? No answer came. She laughed and said, In that case, what is the question? Then she died.
Gertrude SteinRead
My language is the sum total of myself.
Charles Sanders PeirceRead
I am unable to think of any critical, complex human activity that could be safely reduced to a simple summary equation.
Jerome PowellRead
The challenge remains. On the other side are formidable forces: money, political power, the major media. On our side are the people of the world and a power greater than money or weapons: the truth.
Howard ZinnRead
Americanization means the process of becoming an American. It means civic incorporation, becoming a part of the polity - becoming one of us. But that does not mean conformity. We are more than a melting pot, we are a kaleidoscope, where every turn of history refracts new light on the old promise.
Barbara JordanRead