Fragmentos - The importance of being seven

And yet, they would remain friends, in the way in which people do with those whom they find themselves allocated by chance. Everybody has friends they dislike; people they have slipped into relationships with, people they would not have chosen had they been more cautious, more circumspect (...)

 The fear of what might happen in the future is almost always worse than the future that eventually arrives (...)

 'She'd never look at me' he said. 'Not in that way'
Matthew shook his head vigorously. 'Of course she would! You're a handsome man, Angus. You're talented, witty. She would hardly be able to to believe her luck.'
Angus raised his head. Big Lou had sniggered at the counter. He had heard it.
'So what's funny about that?' he called over her.
'Nothing', said Big Lou quickly. 'It's just that you men need to think twice before you assume that we women are grateful for your company. It's not always like that, I can tell you.' (...)

 Kirsty was gregarious and enthusiastic, perhaps even a bit opinionated at times. But she was forgiven that - not only by Matthew, but everyone - on the quite simple grounds of her extreme physical beauty. And the beautiful are forgiven; no matter how egregious their shortcomings, they are forgiven (...)

 'Yes. If you've got your health, and you're happy, what else is there?'
Elspeth thought about this. Was life quite that simple? Surely not,  but then she looked at Big Lou, who was smiling, and who had taken her hand in a gesture of comfort and friendliness. She felt the roughness of Big Lou's hand; work, all that work, had taken its toll. How vulnerable was a human hand, she thought, and how precious. With her free hand she took the last fragment of shortbread an ate it (...)

The importance of being seven - Alexander McCall Smith