Adam Douglas: I'm the one studying Classics at Oxford and you're the one working in this toilet, so just watch who you're calling stupid.

DS James Hathaway: We're both in the toilet, Adam. [whispers] But I can leave.

from: The Mind has Mountains

James is more amused than offended by the wanker who brags of 'studying Classics' as if that signified anything of substance. He doesn't retort with his starred First from Cambridge. (He allows himself to savour the irony, but that's all.)

Primus: It's a case of gnats and elephant guns. He must keep "proper dignity and proportion," as Marcus Aurelius said.

Secundus: it's poor strategy. Sun Tsu advised, "Attack where the enemy can not defend." Adam considers his intelligence his strength; far better to emphasise his helplessness.

Tertius: James was insulted as a policeman. He'll fucking well respond as a policeman.