Most of us have at least heard of, if not read about, Sherlock Holmes — a famous fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. One of the things Sherlock Holmes is most remembered for is a line that supposedly helped make him famous…. “Elementary, my dear Watson!”
But — the world famous detective never spoke that line. In only two of Doyle’s stories does he even come close. In “The Crooked Man” (1893) Holmes makes his usual array of deductive conclusions, to which his assistant De. Watson exclaims, “Excellent!” Holmes reply is only one word — “Elementary.”
And in “A Case of Identity,” Holmes says, “All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back to business, Watson.”
I guess sometimes famous quotes become famous, but they’re not really “quotes.”
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