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Book: Bertie Plays the Blues
Quotes of Book: Bertie Plays the Blues
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  1. Alexander McCall Smith _ Bertie Plays the Blues

    He represents innocence, and innocence has taken such a profound battering in our times. We have mocked it. We have sullied it. We have put it in intensive care, and frankly, I don't see how it can survive. And yet here and there one sees flickers of its light – just flickers. And so we know that innocence isn't entirely dead." Angus
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  2. Alexander McCall Smith _ Bertie Plays the Blues

    It is undoubtedly the case that the practice of the virtues makes one happier. We've somewhat lost sight of that essential truth, now that we, as a society, admire selfishness and vanity so much.
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  3. Alexander McCall Smith _ Bertie Plays the Blues

    ...Pat wondered what inspiration an artist might find in the attempts of twenty-first-century architects to impose their phallic triumphs on the cityscape. Had any artist ever painted a contemporary glass block, for instance, or any other product of architectural brutalism that had laid its crude hands here and there upon the city?...If a building did not lend itself to being painted, then surely that must be because it was inherently ugly, whatever its claims to utility. And if it was ugly, then what was it doing in this delicately beautiful city?
    book-quoteedinburgharchitecturecontemporary-architecture

  4. Alexander McCall Smith _ Bertie Plays the Blues

    Self-pity does not appreciate pedantry.
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  5. Alexander McCall Smith _ Bertie Plays the Blues

    The trouble with this country...is that we are utterly surrounded by busybodies trying to stop us doing things. Or telling us what to do...Big Brother, with his ubiquitous closed-circuit cameras-which now monitored, it seemed, every square inch of public space-and his condescending imprecations and warnings, was everywhere...In his view, it was up to the individual whether or not to approach a cliff edge; it was not the Government's business.
    book-quotefreedombig-governmentcontemporary-society

  6. Alexander McCall Smith _ Bertie Plays the Blues

    You know the best example of sincerity? The absolute gold standard? Who?Angus pointed to the door, outside which Cyril was waiting patiently. A dog. Have you ever met an insincere dog - a dog who hides his true feelings?Domenica looked thoughtful. And cats?Dreadfully insincere, said Angus. Psychopaths- every one of them. Show me a cat, Domenica, and I'll show you a psychopath. Textbook examples.
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  7. Alexander McCall Smith _ Bertie Plays the Blues

    The trouble with technology is that it's dehumanised us – it's removed the restraints of ordinary human interactions. So we lose the notion that the person with whom we're dealing is a person like us, with failings and feelings. It's exactly the same as in wartime. When people are engaged in conflict, they very easily lose sight of the humanity of the other. They become capable of doing things that they would never do in their ordinary lives.
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