C. Auguste Dupin
The below are some of the quotes attributed to the character C. Auguste Dupin created by Edgar Allan Poe. He is considered to be the world's first fictional detective by certain literary historians. He has also been part of works by other authors including Michael Harrison, Mario Brelich, Avi and Alan Moore
"Now, brought to this conclusion in so unequivocal a manner as we are, it is not our part, as reasoners, to reject it on account of apparent impossibilities. It is only left for us to prove that these apparent 'impossibilities' are, in reality, not such."
“There will always be motive for crime, if we ever get to a point where people attacking each other in the streets is commonplace, at that point society has failed.”
“Coincidences, in general, are great stumbling-blocks in the way of that class of thinkers who have been educated to know nothing of the theory of probabilities---that theory to which the most glorious objects of human research are indebted for the most glorious of illustration.”
“Between ingenuity and the analytic ability there exists a difference far greater, indeed, than that between the fancy and the imagination, but of a character very strictly analogous. It will be found, in fact, that the ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative never otherwise than analytic.”
“Truth is not always in a well. In fact, as regards the more important knowledge, I do believe that she is invariably superficial.”
“The mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis.”
"If it is any point requiring reflection, we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark"
"Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at fault."
“There are few persons who have not, at some period of their lives, amused themselves in retracing the steps by which particular conclusions of their own minds have been attained.”
"Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain. You may as well fill me up a check for the amount mentioned. When you have signed it, I will hand you the letter."
“Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.”
“We gave the Future to the winds, and slumbered tranquilly in the Present, weaving the dull world around us into dreams.”
“...the question is of will, and not, as the insanity of logic has assumed, of power. It is not that the Deity cannot modify his laws, but that we insult him in imagining a possible necessity for modification.”
“There are few persons, even among the calmest thinkers, who have not occasionally been startled into a vague yet thrilling half-credence in the supernatural, by coincidences of so seemingly marvelous a character that, as mere coincidences, the intellect has been unable to receive them.
"So you should. You are loud and disagreeable Monsieur. I am Auguste Dupin." - when he introduces himself to Allan Quartermain and Mina Murray.
"What you believe, Mademoiselle is your affair. I only know what I have deduced." - addressed to Mina Murray.
"What I don't know, I can deduce." - addressed to Mina Murray.
“Understanding that, I know I have not seen a ghost. I am not mad. It is something more extraordinary than that. I have made a mistake!”
"Find the one who did it and we have gone a long way towards solving this mystery. But quickly now."
"Edmund. Do not take my kindness for granted. I'm very close to bringing this business to satisfactory conclusion, but one rude word from you and I shall drop it entirely."
"There is a difference between what happened and what we would like to have happened."
"Soon we shall have a solution. But it shall be my solution in my time."
"Observe, the curious reddening, in a perfectly circular form, which rims around the wound. This is not the customary scorching which occurs with gunshot wounds, but something altogether different.”
"He must have - no, he cannot have hooked his fingernails into the cracks of the brickwork - yes, I have it! - He must have escaped in one of Mr. Green's balloons. Quick G-, look up, to see if you can catch the sight of the miscreant disappearing into the clouds!" - Dupin addresses G with a comical expression of disgust
"What do you see, Monsieur Prefet?"
"Now, Gentlemen, cut, if you please - and I beg of you not to damage the ball in anyway."
"Is it all clear now? Surely, the clues point to the inevitable solution. No? Then permit me to unriddle the riddle."
"Did you give an occasional thought to Judas Iscariot?"
"I think that is where it must be sought."
"There, reduced to its essentials, is the situation as it appears when the first encounter takes place, or after long meditation on the mountain, when the future betrayer was named an apostle."
"Since no such booklet exists, we are once more left to our own devices before an avalanche of data which instead of enlightening us confuses us."
"Historically vague, evanescent, elusive and almost superfluous but mythologically indispensable."
"Bravo, you're still as sharp as ever."
"That is exactly the question that required asking."
"We'll posit - by way of hypothesis - a fanatical Jesus, a crank, obsessed by the idea he is the son of God and of having to prove it, smart enough, clever enough to find followers and capable of using Scripture and every possible illusionistic mystification to get himself believed."
"His first intervention in human destiny, inducing Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, the Devil bestowed upon mankind the gift of omniscience and the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, that wonderful myth recounts the birth of human consciousness."
"I don't like being taken for an idiot by the one friend I have."