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
To his eyes all seemed beautiful, but to me a tinge of melancholy lay upon the countryside, which bore so clearly the mark of the waning year, Yellow leaves carpeted the lanes and fluttered down upon us as we passed, The rattle of our wheels died away as we drove through drifts of rotting vegetation--sad gifts, as it seemed to me, for Nature to throw before the carriage of the returning heir of the Baskervilles.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a contrast between beauty and sadness in nature, emphasizing the transient beauty of the countryside in autumn.
In this quote, Arthur Conan Doyle captures the duality of beauty and melancholy as observed in the autumn countryside. While one character sees the landscape as beautiful, the speaker notices the signs of decay and the passage of time, represented by the yellow leaves and rotting vegetation. This evokes a sense of nostalgia and sadness, highlighting how nature can be both captivating and sorrowful, particularly as it signifies the end of a cycle.
Themes
NatureBeautyMelancholyAutumnTransience
In practice
Example use cases
During a nature walk, I shared this quote to illustrate the beauty and sadness of the changing seasons.
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
There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
Kenneth GrahameRead
With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live. Most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea.
Sylvia EarleRead
Climate change: Never before in history have human beings been called on to act collectively in defence of the Earth
Desmond TutuRead
[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.
Elizabeth Von ArnimRead
...for most people in the [Jewish] Ghetto [of Warsaw] nature lived only in memory -- no parks, birds, or greenery existed in the Ghetto -- and they suffered the loss of nature like a phantom-limb pain, an amputation that scrambled the body's rhythms, starved the senses, and made basic ideas about the world impossible for children to fathom.
Diane AckermanRead
Autumn clouds, vague and obscure; The evening, lonely and chill. I felt the dampness on my garments, But saw no spot, and heard no sound of rain.
Bai JuyiRead