“The more I become acquainted with the advantages and the comforts of life in Paris, the more I am delighted with it.”

Recording his growing appreciation of life abroad · Letter from Europe

• Delight
• Place
• Travel

“I should really love to have a few words from home.”

A simple expression of homesickness during his years abroad · Letter from Europe, August 1833

• Family
• Home
• Longing

“Paris is the most retired place in the world to live in if a man is busy.”

An amusing observation on how intense occupation can make even a great city feel private · Letter from Europe, August 1833

• Place
• Solitude
• Work

“Kiss the pretty girls all round for me on the left cheek, if you please, and do not sermonize, or find fault, or wish me a wife and a numerous offspring.”

An irreverent glimpse of his youthful humour and resistance to unsolicited advice · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Friendship
• Humour
• Youth

“Swear at me two or three times, and then perhaps I shall feel that I am properly punished.”

Turning an apology for delayed correspondence into playful self-punishment · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Friendship
• Humour
• Letters

“I should violate the unity of my character if I did not open my communication with an apology.”

A humorous acknowledgement of his habitual lateness in correspondence · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Character
• Humour
• Letters

“There’s nothing like the pathetic.”

A brief expression of his attraction to emotional and sentimental effects · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Emotion
• Literature
• Sensitivity

“What a busy world we live in! The turmoil of those bustling around us, the ebb and flow.”

A lively observation on the restless activity of ordinary life · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Hurry
• Life
• Society

“Time and space draw a line between our circumferences.”

A poetic description of distance separating two otherwise connected lives · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Connection
• Distance
• Friendship

“Each is girded by his own horizon and played upon by his own lights and shadows.”

A striking image of how differently individual lives are experienced · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Experience
• Individuality
• Understanding

“I think I may make a tolerable physician.”

A modest assessment of his emerging professional ambition · Letter to Phineas Barnes, 1830

• Ambition
• Humility
• Work

“I cannot help it. I cannot tell what she will think, — but I cannot help it.”

A candid expression of determination when choosing medicine as his profession · Letter to Phineas Barnes, 1830

• Choice
• Courage
• Independence

“I would give a good knock about the rocks in Maine.”

A glimpse of his youthful curiosity about natural science and field exploration · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Discovery
• Nature
• Science

“I have forgotten all the philosophy about contentment I intended to bore you with.”

A self-mocking rejection of his own intended sermon on contentment · Letter to Phineas Barnes, May 8, 1830

• Contentment
• Humour
• Philosophy

“I have found new friends, but I have not forgotten my old ones.”

A simple statement of loyalty to enduring friendships · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Friendship
• Loyalty
• Memory

“I am sorry you feel so sober for want of friends, but you need not be afraid that I shall think it silly in you to say so.”

A sympathetic response to loneliness that treats emotional openness with respect · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Compassion
• Friendship
• Loneliness

“I think it may be an object of curiosity to you, though it cannot have much interest to one who does not know the characters concerned.”

Recognising how much humour depends upon shared knowledge and context · Letter to Phineas Barnes

• Conversation
• Humour
• Understanding

“You seem quite a politician for an undergraduate.”

A teasing observation about his friend's unusually political interests · Letter to Phineas Barnes, January 31, 1828

• Humour
• Politics
• Youth

“Its aim is not so much to caricature absurdities as to produce amusement by its mock solemnity.”

An explanation of the comic method behind his early satirical writing · Letter to Phineas Barnes, January 31, 1828

• Humour
• Satire
• Writing

“I am determined to do as much as possible in a certain given time.”

A youthful declaration of practical determination despite his confessed procrastination · Letter to Phineas Barnes, January 31, 1828

• Action
• Discipline
• Work

“I know very well that I am a lazy fellow and a procrastinator.”

An early example of Holmes's willingness to laugh at his own shortcomings · Letter to Phineas Barnes, January 31, 1828

• Character
• Humour
• Work

“I have always read in books rather than through them.”

Describing reading as an active search for ideas rather than a race through pages · Autobiographical Notes

• Books
• Knowledge
• Reading

“I remember, by the way, the statue of Sir Robert Holmes, in Westminster Abbey, one of the most pleasing that I can recall.”

A personal recollection connecting family history with a memorable work of sculpture · Letter to Emra Holmes

• Art
• Family
• Memory

“So we are trying to keep the name of Holmes respectable on this side of the Atlantic.”

A playful expression of family pride and literary responsibility · Letter to Emra Holmes

• Family
• Humour
• Reputation