best line ever in a Holmes story

"I missed the dinosaur in his back yard" from Elementary, Season 2 "Dead Clades Walking"

It's certainly not the 'eliminate the impossible and whatever remains however improbable is the answer'. Because Doyle was dead wrong about that.

The improbable is never the answer, we know how the universe works well enough to know the probabilities - how people behave, that objects could be don't disappear etc. But there are lots of things deemed impossible that we don't understand well enough, and given the right insight/conditions etc, could happen. These are things holmes has to look for, clues that the situation isn't as expected, unlikely things don't happen, but that there is set of circumstances where they become likely.

I haven't explained it very well but the barking dog is a good example.

If someone enters the stable the dog will bark. The dog didn't bark. It's improbable (possible but unlikely) that the dog just didn't bark, hence the impossible remains the answer - someone entered the stable without disturbing the dog, or as the case has it, is known to the dog.

I kind of like "Intelligence is the new sexy" from Season 2 of "Sherlock".

^2 I've always disliked that statement (impossible/improbable) because I think people have very different ideas as to what is actually impossible versus merely improbable. And humanity in general has declared often that something is impossible, only to eventually be proven wrong.

Whoops, maybe that should have been "Smart is the new sexy" -- I'm finding both on the internet.

at the risk of referencing a REAL Holmes story, one of my favorites has always been...

"I saw nothing."
"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you."