Sherlock Holmes greatest quote

A deep meditation on human tendency to misery , fear and violence.

[@LordZontar]

It was not meant to be Brett's last scene as Holmes, but it turned out to be a magnificent coda for his entire run in the character, this last philosophical rumination at the end of "The Cardboard Box". Fate was kind to give Brett such a subtle yet powerful exit. Capping a portrayal of Holmes that will not be surpassed for decades to come.

[@davidl2380]

LordZontar I very much doubt Jeremy will be equalled as Holmes ever.

[@doughoward6401]

Brett was the absolute epitamy of what the character Sherlock Holmes was ment to be .who was it who said "the world shall not see his like again " sadly one of the greats has passed unknowing by the mass media of the world .

[@nelsonx5326]

@@doughoward6401 Yes, all these adventures, he made them masterpieces.

[@sharonolsen6579]

@@davidl2380 Agree.. 100% None before and none after will ever be as good as Brett's Holmes.

[@rex-up9ln]

I think it's safe to say it will never be surpassed

[@saintcruzin3190]

I thought this so fitting as the last words Jeremy spoke as Sherlock Holmes. Perfect way to end a brilliant series....

[@Pyrokatze]

Prove that God exists first

[@jaystermac9870]

I did not know that . Incredibly ironic what a tremendous human being Jeremy Brett was Sherlock Holmes I've seen that episode several times and never really appreciated how profound that scene really is.

[@XyZ096]

​@@Pyrokatzeholmes believes in him

[@JZ-gx8tb]

What was the name of this episode/short story?

[@Bad_At_Parties]

What a wonderful actor he was, and what a legacy he has left in that character. It is deeply melancholic to see him so withered at this point in his life, but bless him for pushing through his decreasing health to bring us the end all be all Holmes performance. RIP Jeremy, you earned your rest.

[@censusgary]

His health was poor when he did the last Holmes series- as it turned out, he would soon die. But what a great legacy he left us with these performances!

[@krisramirez3856]

He seem really affected when he saw that person in the ice. he seem very tired of murders. :( so sad.

[@ivandovranic5834]

If you haven't already, watch the entire episode to see how right you are. One of the most emotionally engaging episodes in the show, and that is saying something.

[@Wink114]

Some of the greatest words Sherlock Holmes ever spoke. Said by the greatest actor to play the character...

[@greyforge27]

The last quote by Jeremy Brett as Holmes - the episode was released about a year and a half before his death. Truly powerful stuff.

[@beckerqueiroz]

Very good! Though Holmes is a devoted advocate of Reason, he is the first person willing to recognize that not all problems can be solved by virtue of it alone.

[@thelonewolf86]

R.I.P. Edward Hardwicke. I will also always remember his portrayal as Watson.

[@IanSuttton]

A truely fantastic scene and my favourite quote from Conan Doyle. Thank you. Jeremy Brett portrays Holmes with such depth and humanity its simply mesmerising. A true inspiration and a fine actor. R.I.P. "I remember the last time we danced together...She was wearing silver, and looking absolutely supreme - delicate, fragile - But we danced for the last time there, and I lost her...Her light will not come again, believe you me." -Jeremy Brett reflecting on his wife, Joan Wilsons, death.

[@JaneFrieman]

Brett's moving words of the light of his life being extinguished evokes feelings of a deep and painful loss not only for him but for the reader also.

[@deniseandrews113]

I just heard that recording of him paying tribute to Joan. She was indeed the love of his life! They are together again in spirit. 🎩🎻💔

[@SimoSakariAaltonen]

Is the recording of this available somewhere these days? I was moved by these words and would like to hear it.

[@stylusfantasticus]

"The Cardboard Box" undoubtedly one of the best episodes and if I am not wrong the last acting of Brett as Holmes. Have a great time!

[@leisterverner5211]

There will never be another Holmes like Jeremy

[@Harpagusss]

Jeremy Brett is the best Sherlock Holmes in history. He died very soon😢

[@TheStockwell]

No offense intended, but fifteen months after this episode premiered is not "very soon." Best wishes from Vermont 🍁🧡🍁

[@daleheath9680]

Not my favorite episode, but this is a masterfully done scene..watch both closely.. As Brett and Hardwick, they know the run, ends soon.. As Holmes and Watson, Holmes has an unanswerable question, and Watson cannot help.. Fittingly, if not mistaken, thier final scene of the series.. It was a spectacular run.. RIP

[@deniseandrews113]

A truly spectacular run! RIP Jeremy and Edward

[@censusgary]

I think the BBC would have done another Holmes series, had Jeremy Brett not died when he did. Obviously, no one could really replace him.

[@renajsh]

Chilling ending to the series.

[@lefteris1976]

What is the meaning of it...? What is the object of this circle of misery and violence and fear? It must have a purpose, or our universe has no meaning and that is unthinkable. But what purpose?? That is humanities great problem, for which reason so far has no answer................

[@Kahaniyan....]

lefteris1976, humanity's*

[@wboodock3115]

Love it

[@alishoride1505]

Rest in Peace dear Jeremy

[@gonzak123]

Thank you very much for this quote, Holmes' statement hit the spot.

[@leisterverner5211]

Jeremy and Edward were rare gentlemen rip

[@ruzannaharutyunyan9123]

interesting...that those words were his last ones....so sad....

[@racheljolley26352]

I adored both these superb actors and I am soon going to London for my birthday to the Sherlock Holmes museum, not been for many years and am greatly looking forward to it 🥰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@edwardpaddock2528]

"You see, Doctor, God didn't kill that little girl. Fate didn't butcher her and destiny didn't feed her to those dogs. If God saw what any of us did that night he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew... God doesn't make the world this way. We do.”

[@kamwrites]

@ispofdoom Jeremy is such a wonderful, tragic character in himself.

[@DiggingNorway]

Agree. I have actually quoted this exact scene and phrase many time... funny to see someone has uploaded it.

[@jonathangellin559]

Well said holmes fitting quote for the world's greatest detective. 😏

[@MarieHindson]

So beautifully executed - thanks Jeremy !

[@tygrl]

Thank you for this. I had the whole episode in my Favourites just for this quote.

[@maureentuohy8672]

Mr. Brett was outstanding

[@seanmoran2743]

Attempting the unthinkable is driving us mad That is my belief about our current times

[@ParkSeoHamStar]

Wonderfulll actor 🤍✨👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@postscript67]

When I watched this episode when it was first broadcast, I was annoyed that they had altered the original story, which was set at the height of summer. But watching it again years later, I thought it very good.

[@12348477]

This should the quote that Sherlock Holmes is remembered for.

[@grouchosfoil7509]

What a great line. Brett was THE Sherlock Holmes. However, there is an answer to the question posed. And he is absolutely correct, it is of universal importance.

[@kjohn8917]

I like, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data”.

[@jmw9904]

In the words of Alfred " some men can't be bought or reasoned with. They just want to watch the world burn."

[@TheDanrox110]

My dad watches a lot of First 48 and Forensic Files reruns, whenever he has it on on this quote always pops into my mind

[@Parnasian]

Epic Speech!

[@nelsonx5326]

Good one. I felt so sorry for the guy that killed his wife, he broke his own heart.

[@stephenwitherington879]

The purpose is a test of man's belief in the creator. That is the answer. Be good, & you'll get it right; be bad, & not repent & you'll get it wrong. The reward for good? Eternity. The punishment for bad? Hell. You choose, for everyone has time & free will.

[@censusgary]

If God knows everything, why would God keep testing us? Doesn’t God know the answers?

[@Lytton333]

Well said.. agree entirely..

[@alicedesmond4336]

I can not stop thinking of what’s going on in the Middle East today when he says this.

[@927ismynumber]

I can’t watch the last two series of this programme 😢

[@shalevedna]

So true even today. I wonder what Doyle would gave Holmes say after WWII and the Holocaust???

[@stylusfantasticus]

Yes, you are absolutelly right....

[@captur69]

Holmes is definitely questioning life...whats it all about,,when there's such death and misery..and like most intelligent people wonders what's the point to life and the universe....lm glad to say I have the answer...but looking forward to hearing yours...

[@Chuichupachichi]

The purpose of misery, fear and violence? The problem to which reason, so far, has no answer? The perpetrator of all misery, fear and violence intentionally purposes to be absolutely unreasonable...for the purpose of utter destruction to all It defies all proper reasoning. Albeit, reason provides an answer

[@shadetreader]

Much of the trouble lies in the classism that Doyle used his stories to perpetuate.

[@censusgary]

Arthur Conan Doyle must have spent a lot of time doing the same kind of searching for meaning in all the world’s suffering, especially after one of his sons died (in 1918). The solution he eventually settled on was Spiritism (the belief that human souls are immortal, and that living people can communicate with the dead through mediums). I’d say he bet on the wrong horse (the belief in mediums, I mean), but I’m not sure I have a better answer to Holmes’ question (“What does it all mean?”), so, go for it, Arthur! Maybe you know the answer now that you’re on the other side, but I (unlike you) doubt that you’ll be able to tell us from there.

[@rahmiaksu]

I love Holmes and Brett as Holmes in particular. However, I cannot but see a limitation in Doyle's reasoning capabilities in this quote. Reason, as in its primary application of scientific inquiry, should never ask any "why" questions and expect to find answers. The only question that can be asked and answered is "how". That is because "why" implicitly presumes and requires agency, which may or may not be there. You are presuming that there is an intention, and thus an agent behind that intention. As hard as it is, one has to accept the possibility of "the unthinkable" to be able to apply reason to its fullest effect. A champion of reason as Doyle was, he unfortunately could not derive this inevitable conclusion.

[@jackfirmin5814]

great one

[@beckerqueiroz]

ozgur Well put, but I believe that is precisely what Holmes meant: reason can't find an answer to this "greatest problem"-it is not the appropriate tool for that. It seems to me that here Holmes is merely reasserting his belief in something that perhaps cannot be reached through reason alone, namely, God.

[@cha5]

Gambiteer There were actually several times in the Cannon in which Holmes seems troubled by a somber view of humanity and seems to wonder about the meaning (or lack therof of existence such as when he and Watson are discussing a client. “Did you see him?’ He asked” “You mean the old fellow who has just gone out?” “Precisely.” “Yes, I met him at the door.” “What did you think of him?” A pathetic, futile, broken creature.” “Exactly, Watson. Pathetic and futile. But is not all life pathetic and futile? Is not his story a microcosm of the whole? We reach. We grasp. And what is left in our hands at the end? A shadow. Or worse than a shadow-misery.” ‘The Adventure of the Retired Colourman.’ And Holmes’s sympathies with a woman who has lost everything. “We sat in silence for some time after the unhappy woman had told her story. Then Holmes stretched out his long arm with such a show of sympathy as I had seldom known him to exhibit. ‘Poor girl!’ he said. Poor girl! The ways of fate are indeed hard to understand. If there is not some compensation hereafter, then the world is a cruel jest.” ‘The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger’

[@sherrybentz3224]

"why" is the first question that small children, very seriously & continuously, ask of adults.

[@mytruepower2]

And yet Holmes routinely used reason of a sort (usually inductive reason) to determine the motives of the criminals he pursued, so reason must have some role in answering the question "why?" Indeed, that's one of the major goals of traditional philosophy (though this wasn't Holmes' area of specialization.) I do agree, however, that life can have no purpose unless some sort of free agent brings it about intentionally.

[@Afanofdeduction]

I agree.

[@DrJulianNewmansChannel]

A thought: given that the whole of the incredibly beautiful closing music of that episode is intended to be heard with those last words of Holmes still resonating in our minds, might it be a good idea to do another upload, starting at exactly the point in the episode where you started in this upload, but continuing right through to the end of the credits (on those amazing repeated major chords)?

[@DarkComet360]

It would be interesting for you to know that the guy (Hardwick was it? I can't think just now..forgive.) playing Watson here couldn't speak when they did this scene. I think he was suffering for laryngitis or something, so Sherlock spoke for him. Another obscure fact which some of you fans have overlooked. ;)

[@DarkComet360]

JC Denton Nice.

[@beckerqueiroz]

+DarkComet360 That is interesting, but in the original story it is also Holmes who asks the question and answers himself, so maybe there really was no need for Watson to speak up here.

[@melissabarrett9750]

@@beckerqueiroz Yes, Holmes was speaking rhetorically. Asking a question with the answer within it.

[@WeaslysWizardWeezes]

that is the exact line i thought of when we where watching the liberation of the Krakau (forgive me if i spelled that wrong) ghetto in Schindler's List in my lit as film class

[@similarrr]

❤

[@leisterverner5211]

My favourite episode was the solitary cyclist 1984

[@thinkchess_sohan]

Indeed...Life is inaccurate!

[@Parnasian]

And never would find "why" for he did it himself... killed Moriarty.

[@inesfreire9135]

In self defense. Moriarty would continue to hunt him down and try to finish him. He would also hurt his friends in the process. Killing him was the only chance for Holmes to live.

[@LibbyRoseEmbroidery]

Which episode was this from? I don't recognise it.

[@elisabethsasso4324]

The Cardboard Box

[@pendragonshall]

Hmm,, blocked me posting,, lets try again.. Shame people don't realize that the more people turn from God the worse things get. And this world is getting worse n worse But, Great actor and possibly the best portrayal of Holmes ever.. Great Watson as well

[@leisterverner5211]

Oh and of course the three gables1994

[@mudchair16]

Reason has no answer? It's called original sin.

[@kennethhowell5278]

What episode does this clip come from?

[@elisabethsasso4324]

The Cardboard Box

[@ianluetkehans7822]

What episode

[@stylusfantasticus]

The last: The Cardboard Box

[@cheeseburger12]

That question doesn't have a logical answer, it has a religious one. Which would explain why Holmes would be stumped.

[@DrJulianNewmansChannel]

"But what purpose? That is humanity's great problem, to which reason so far has no answer." Ecclesiastes (and perhaps also Job) in a nutshell - except for the "so far" bit: we can soundly reason that our reason will never deduce those deeper meanings that are hidden in the mind of God, and thus we must instead find our purpose in that which in this age will not give us full intellectual understanding, namely fearing and trusting in God alone [in the New Testament, through Jesus the Messiah as the source of our forgiveness] and recognising the final judgment in which all the events of this vapour-like life - most importantly including our own good and bad deeds - will come to light and be judged.

[@johnvincentpabroa2126]

What episode is this guys?

[@stylusfantasticus]

The Cardboard Box (last episode)

[@johnvincentpabroa2126]

@@stylusfantasticus thank you mate.

[@Cryptonymicus]

Sounds like Watson's greatest quote rather than that of the man with the cold intellect who believed in science and facts or maybe just the ruminations of some writer trying to make Holmes more appealing to a modern audience.

[@sb12083]

lucky there's a family guy

[@Malama_Ki]

So she goes on a date with another man; her husband returns unexpectedly and kills both of them.... it may not be ‘legal’ but it’s understandable.

[@emmanueldidier321]

No, it is not "understandable". It is pure savagery, and an abominable crime.

[@pisces2569]

Her other sister had a hand in manipulating her sister to think her husband was unfaithful just so the sister can steal her husband.

[@inesfreire9135]

How is it understandable? If your spouse is cheating on you you leave them. Maybe throw an egg at their window.

[@melissabarrett9750]

It's only understandable to people who think of their loved ones as possessions/property. Not to people who recognise their loved ones as free agents with their own needs.

[@leisterverner5211]

Cumberbatch is no Holmes he would be better as bond

[@melissabarrett9750]

...or Moneypenny

[@thelastmotel]

he'd be an awful bond

[@samvidas9599]

Edgy

[@johnwestcott5612]

Sadly, the universe has no purpose.

[@georgemorley1029]

No purpose that we possess the faculties to discern, surely? Don’t you think that it’s quite hubristic of humanity to make statements like that? It speaks to an assumption that we alone possess a self-anointed capacity to understand everything the universe contains, when we don’t even know everything that our own minds contain. I think that as long as one can accept that, not only for as long as one lives, but quite possibly (given the sheer enormity of the universe itself) for the duration of humanity’s entire existence, we will in all probability never know if there is a purpose to existence, then that will itself have been the discovery. The discovery is not, as you say, that there is no purpose. The discovery is that we will never know one way or the other if there is or not.

[@paulhowson8744]

God is reason. HE alone is the ANSWER. How could he not know?! The simplest explanation is ALWAYS the answer 🧐🔎

[@BarManE.C.]

someone write the last quote down. as an american the accent is hard to overcome sometimes. WTF is his last quote?

[@boomxhaka-saka7711]

'What is the meaning of it, Watson? What is the object of this...circle of Misery, Violence and Fear? It must have a purpose. Or our universe has no meaning, and that is unthinkable. But what purpose? That...is humanity's great problem. For which reason so far has no answer...'

[@stylusfantasticus]

not in the mood to make the effort, you....

[@doreekaplan2589]

Cannot understand first half of what he said. May be the British accent

[@bernardqblack]

Sorry, Sherlock. The universe has no meaning. Its elementary.

[@georgemorley1029]

You don’t know that, because you don’t have the means to discern that there is no meaning. You only have the means to know that you can’t find out if there’s a meaning or not. You overreach yourself with that statement. And THAT’S elementary. If you want a rational approach to existential questions, then I’m afraid that agnosticism is the only show in town. I mean, look at it this way; in one corner, we’ve got you and your statement, alongside the atheists and the theists and all the rest who say they know, one way or the other. Then in the agnostic corner we’ve got Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Bertrand Russell, Charles Darwin and Mark Twain. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t bet on your lot.

[@melissabarrett9750]

Exactly, completely random! ✔️

[@XyZ096]

​@@georgemorley1029excellent reply

[@Mr71paul71]

Life is tough then you die, thats the answer the only answer to Sherlock's half-witted question!!!

[@markmartin5248]

trump

[@allisvanity...9161]

I hope this helps someone! 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 ESV 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." Romans 10:9-11 ESV 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV

[@austenj4539]

Well, one outlines that Jeremy and his 2nd, stand in for Watson .,., were, was, is and continue to be ... hamming ... shite. If ever one perceives yet another lip quiver, then .,., er,,, I die.

[@uayfb1]

Reason so far has no answer. But faith has - faith in God and Jesus Christ Who has paid the price of sin for those who in repentance turn from their sins and put their trust in His work on the cross. The Christian's great hope is in the return of Christ and the triumph of Love and Justice. Sin is the cause of what Holmes laments, and sin will be done away with forever when Jesus returns.