About This Quote
This quote is taken from the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this novel, Holmes tells Watson about a case in which he met a man named Charles Augustus Milverton. Milverton was a man with a reputation for being able to force people to do what he wanted. He would threaten and blackmail many people, and when his victims refused to pay him off, he would kill them.
Milverton’s victims were all in high society, and none of them suspected him of anything until the day he threatened the wife of their friend, Mr. Quin. Quin had recently lost his wife, and though she was still alive at the time, she lived at the mercy of Milverton.
Milverton visited Mrs. Quin one night, threatening her life if she did not pay him two hundred pounds to keep quiet about his affairs. The next day, Mrs.
Quin died under mysterious circumstances that were never quite explained by the coroner. It was later revealed that Mrs. Quin paid Milverton three hundred pounds in advance before her death, to make sure that he would not bother her again.
Later on in the story, Holmes lectures Watson on how little people know about each other. He says that people are so different from each other, they have no idea what others are thinking or feeling even when they are right next to them all the time. This is exactly what Milverton did.
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