"The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it"
About this Quote
The intent is partly programmatic. Doyle is sketching the operating system of Sherlock Holmes, a character built to make modern life feel manageable at the very moment it was getting noisier, faster, and harder to interpret. Late-Victorian London is a data storm: crowded streets, new bureaucracies, emerging forensic science, headlines, rumors. Against that chaos, "a single fact" becomes a life raft - proof that the right mind can impose order without needing moral certainty or political power.
The subtext is the seduction and the danger of deduction-as-totalizing. "All its bearings" quietly does a lot of work: who gets to decide which bearings matter? The quote flatters the detective's gaze as neutral, but it also reveals how authoritarian certainty can masquerade as pure reasoning. Holmes-like inference promises inevitability - past and future locked in place once the fact is properly seen. Doyle's trick is that the line sells the romance of rationality while smuggling in its hubris: the dream that a human being can see the whole board, not just the next move.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: The Strand Magazine: “The Five Orange Pips” (Arthur Conan Doyle, 1891)
Evidence: "The ideal reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he has once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it, but also all the results which would follow from it." (Sherlock Holmes story “The Five Orange Pips” (The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, Issue 11)). This line is spoken by Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “The Five Orange Pips.” The story’s first publication was in The Strand Magazine (London), Volume 2, Issue 11 (dated 1891; commonly cited as the November 1891 issue). The quote is often reproduced with small punctuation/wording variations (e.g., “had” vs “has,” and comma placement). The primary-source earliest appearance is the Strand magazine publication; it was later reprinted in the 1892 collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Other candidates (1) The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Fully illustrated) (Conan Doyle, 2024) compilation99.8% ... The ideal reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce f... |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Doyle, Arthur Conan. (2026, March 1). The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-ideal-reasoner-he-remarked-would-when-he-had-12870/
Chicago Style
Doyle, Arthur Conan. "The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it." FixQuotes. March 1, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-ideal-reasoner-he-remarked-would-when-he-had-12870/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The ideal reasoner, he remarked, would, when he had once been shown a single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which would follow from it." FixQuotes, 1 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-ideal-reasoner-he-remarked-would-when-he-had-12870/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2026.
