This is how Sherlock Holmes would have answered a personality test
We don’t know how Sherlock Holmes would have answered a personality test—but we do know how his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, answered one. Our guess is that Holmes would have had similar answers: evasive, peevish, and extremely witty.
The questionnaire comes from his papers, and we’ve transcribed his pithy and Holmesian answers below. It’s a version of the famous Proust Questionnaire.
Your favourite virtue? Unaffectedness
Your favourite qualities in man? Manliness
Your favourite qualities in women? Womanliness
Your favourite occupation? Work
Your chief characteristic? I really don’t know.
Your idea of happiness? Time well filled.
Your idea of misery? Nothing to do.
Your favourite color and flower? Quite impartial
If not yourself, who would you be? [Indecipherable, followed by the note "hope this is clear"]
Where would you like to live? Here
Your favourite poets? Kipling
Your favourite painters and composers? No strong opinions
Your favourite heroes in real life? Men who do their duty without fuss.
Your favourite heroines in real life? Ditto
Your favourite heroes in fiction? No strong preference.
Your favourite heroines in fiction? Margaret in The Cloister and the Hearth
Your favourite food and drink? Anything when hungry—nothing when not.
Your favourite names? “A good horse never had a bad name”
Your pet aversion? Affectation—conceit
What characters in history do you most dislike? Very tolerant of them all.
What is your present state of mind? Jaded.
For what fault have you most toleration? All of them—except cruelty and meanness.
Your favourite motto? Hope for the best—prepare for the worst.
