Arthur Conan Doyle Quote

I cannot live without brainwork. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was there ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the streets and drifts across the dun-colored houses.... What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?

The Sign of Four (1890), ch. 1