Professor Moriarty Quotes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)

Professor Moriarty: When must I - -- -Leave?

Mycroft Holmes: Now!

Professor Moriarty: Doctor Watson, Mr. Holmes is convinced that I am some sort of criminal mastermind of the most depraved order. I know he is a great and good man. All England resounds with his praise. But in my case he fosters a ghastly illusion and I come to you as his friend rather than turning the matter over to my solicitor.

Professor Moriarty: The needle to the last, ay, Holmes?

Professor Moriarty: Brilliant man, Sherlock Holmes. Too bad he was honest.

Professor Moriarty: [as Moriarty drains Holmes's blood] Drop by drop, Holmes. Drop by drop. Ah, in a way I'm almost sorry. You were a stimulating influence to me but it was obvious that I should win in the end.

Professor Moriarty: Closer to the end, Holmes. Closer and closer. Each second a few more drops leave your desiccated body. And you can feel 'em can't you? You're perfectly conscious aren't you, Holmes?

Sherlock Holmes: I shall be conscious long after you're dead, Moriarty.

Sherlock Holmes: You've a magnificent brain, Moriarty. I admire it. I admire it so much I'd like to present it pickled in alcohol to the London Medical Society.

Professor Moriarty: That would make an interesting exhibit. Holmes, you've only now barely missed sending me to the gallows. You're the one man in England clever enough to defeat me. The situation has become impossible.

Sherlock Holmes: Have you any suggestions?

Professor Moriarty: I'm going to break you Holmes. I'm going to bring off right under your nose the most incredible crime of the century, and you'll never suspect it until it's too late. That will be the end of you Mr. Sherlock Holmes. And when I've beaten and ruined you then I can retire in peace. I'd like to retire; crime no longer amuses me. I'd like to devote my remaining years to abstract science.

Dawes: You wanted to see me, sir?

Professor Moriarty: I'm away for a few weeks, Dawes, and I come back to find my anthurium magenta, my incomparable anthurium magenta, withered, ruined...

Dawes: I can't understand it, sir; I took good care of all the plants.

Professor Moriarty: Did you water them?

Dawes: Every day, sir - just as you told me, sir.

Professor Moriarty: Then how does it happen that I find a spider's web spun across the spout of the watering can?

Dawes: That can happen overnight, sir.

Professor Moriarty: Overnight, huh? Then you didn't water them today?

Dawes: There's been so much to do, sir, preparing for your coming back.

Professor Moriarty: Nothing is as important as the care of my flowers. Through your neglect, this flower has died. You've murdered a flower!

Dawes: Why, I'm sorry, sir.

Professor Moriarty: To think that for merely murdering a man I was incarcerated for six whole weeks in a filthy prison cell.

Dawes: A pity, sir!

Professor Moriarty: A travesty on justice!

Dawes: Quite so, sir.

Professor Moriarty: And for this crime, Dawes, you should be flogged, broken on the wheel, drawn and quartered...

Dawes: Yes, sir. Will that be all, sir?

Professor Moriarty: ...and boiled in oil!

Dawes: Thank you, sir.

Professor Moriarty: Go away.

Dawes: Yes, sir.

Professor Moriarty: So, will it be peace or war?

Sherlock Holmes: And now, Professor Moriarity, what can I do for you?

Professor Moriarty: Everything that I have to say to you has already crossed your mind.

Sherlock Holmes: And my answer has no doubt crossed yours.

Professor Moriarty: That's final?

Sherlock Holmes: What do you think?

Professor Moriarty: We've had many encounters in the past. You hope to place me on the gallows. I tell you, I shall never stand upon the gallows. But, if you are instrumental in any way in bringing about my destruction, you will not be alive to enjoy your satisfaction.

Sherlock Holmes: Then we shall walk together through the Gates of Eternity hand-in-hand.

Professor Moriarty: What a charming picture that would make.

Sherlock Holmes: Yes, wouldn't it. And I really think it might be worth it.

Professor Moriarty: Holmes has one weakness, his insatiable curiosity. If you can arouse that, you can lead him anywhere.