While Robert Downey Jr's incarnation of Sherlock Holmes might have featured him involved in more fights than we usually expect from the character, he also relied on his sharp tongue to get out of fraught situations. And he wasn't alone, with the scripts providing plenty of opportunities for the characters to deliver some intriguing pearls of wisdom.
As we impatiently wait for news on the forthcoming third instalment, we've decided to take a look back at Guy Ritchie's first two big screen Sherlock outings and pick out the greatest wise words from Holmes et al.
1.
“The little details are by far the most important."
Sherlock Holmes
2.
"Slow and steady wins the race."
Sherlock Holmes
3.
"How terrible is wisdom, when it brings no profit to the wise."
Lord Coward
4.
"Bad people do bad things because they can."
Sherlock Holmes
5.
"The laws of celestial mechanics dictate that when two objects collide, there is always damage, of a collateral nature."
Professor Moriarty
6.
"No girl wants to marry a doctor who can't tell if a man's dead or not!"
Sherlock Holmes
7.
"There's nothing more elusive than an obvious fact."
Sherlock Holmes
8.
"Death … is only the beginning."
Lord Blackwood
9.
"Never theorise before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."
Sherlock Holmes
10.
"Crime is common. Logic is rare."
Sherlock Holmes
11.
"Don't fill up on bread."
Irene Adler
12.
"What better place to start a war than a peace summit?"
Sherlock Holmes
13.
"Data, data, data, I cannot make bricks without clay."
Sherlock Holmes
14.
"You see, hidden within the unconscious, there is an insatiable desire for conflict."
Professor Moriarty
15.
"Perhaps it's better for one to die alone than to live life in an eternal purgatory."
Sherlock Holmes
16.
"Fear being the most powerful weapon of all"
Sherlock Holmes
