When confronted with someone who appears to be in a perpetual state of outrage, it is tempting for other people to wind them up. Besides, I have always found the most vociferous guardians of morality on matters of sex are those who aren't getting any.
Christmas had done its usual merry work of setting husband against wife, relative against relative, and spreading bad will among men in general. People looked overfed and hung over and desperately worried about how much they had already spent.
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be. --William Hazlitt
I wish I loved the Human Race; I wish I loved its silly face; I wish I liked the way it walks; I wish I liked the way it talks: And when I'm introduced to one I wish I thought What Jolly Fun! --Sir Walter A. Raleigh
Mrs. Wellington was wearing a voluminous flannel nightgown when she answered the door. Hamish was glad Mr. Wellington had found God, because it certainly looked as if he would need to wait until he got to heaven to get his reward.
He fished steadily, trying to fight down a dragging, aching sense of loss, wondering how one's brain should know all the sensible answers while one's emotions longed for the unattainable.
Hamish's family were unusual in that they had always celebrated Christmas--tree, turkey, presents and all. In parts of the Highlands, like Lochdubh, the old spirit of John Knox still wandered, blasting anyone with hellfire should they dare to celebrate this heathen festival. Hamish had often pointed out that none other than Luther was credited with the idea of the Christmas tree, having been struck by the sight of stars shining through the ..
The arrest of Fergus Braid struck the village like a bombshell. Lesley, opening the newspaper the next day, found a photograph of him on the front page and a different story on the inside. highland bobby attacked by armed poachers screamed the headline. There was a photograph of Priscilla
To see oneself as one really is--if one is ever unlucky enough to have that experience--is quite shattering. The veil of illusions and little vanities is rudely ripped aside.
Did I say that?" he asked, and then added in so low a voice that Alice could not hear what he was saying, "If I said that then I am a very great fool indeed."
The wind cut like a knife as he climbed into the police Land Rover. As he held the wheel tightly against the buffeting of the wind and drove along the curving road out of the village, he realized that he had never questioned Mrs. Gallagher's bitterness. It had simply been one of those unpleasant facts of his existence since he had started policing in Lochdubh.
She doesn't have a conscience." "Come on. We all have one." "No, some are born without one. It's always everyone else's fault." "I'll get Jimmy Anderson onto"