Anime & Manga
"Living in the gutter, you learn to spot low-lifes pretty quick if you want to see tomorrow. I've trained my nose to sort out the bad ones from the good just from a sniff! This fellow reeks of brimstone and blood worse than anyone I ever laid eyes on! He is pure evil, right down to his very bones! Is he a victim of circumstance, you're wondering? Not on your life! He's been evil since he drew his first breath!"
— Robert E. O. Speedwagon assessing Dio Brando, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood
Fan Works
That was the last time anyone spoke except for Beatrice. As a convoy of dumpster trucks rumbled past on the road to the landing strip, she sniffed the air and listed the toxins hidden in their trailers, a hellish nursery rhyme from a dimly glimpsed future.
— Death in Scampia, a Gunslinger Girl fanfic.
It was well known that Vulcan females had a heightened sense of smell, as Trip had discovered after his last shore leave. The moment he stepped off the shuttlepod T'Pol had been there, sniffing in disapproval. "Commander, I sense that you've recently attempted sexual relations (sniff-sniff) with a Jhnarbi female in the third stage of her budding season. This involved the use of (sniff-sniff) key lime-flavoured lubricant and a penis extension made of cyber-silicone. Unfortunately (sniff-sniff) your lover was in the process of changing sex from female to male. Thus unsatisfied by the encounter (sniff-sniff) you relieved yourself by masturbating (sniff-sniff) in the shuttlepod (sniff-sniff) by means of the vacuum toilet (sniff-sniff) and a rubber barf bag."
— Farce Contact, a Star Trek: Enterprise Parody Fic.
Films — Live-Action
"Let me tell you, Toymaker, this nose of mine has never failed me, and if there are children here, my friend, you will die! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
"This (gestures at nose) is an old friend of mine. It tells me something smells."
—Ali Kerim Bey, From Russia with Love
Literature
The wolf smelled the horses in our field. The wolf didn't just smell that they were horses, it smelled that they were fully grown and healthy. The wolf smelled every flower, every tree, every leaf, every mushroom. It smelled water in three different locations and knew which stream was sweetest. The wolf smelled a chipmunk, a dozen squirrels, voles, rats, mice, deer, a dead sparrow, a raccoon, no ... two raccoons.
And it smelled me.
I mean, it smelled my scent from the clothing I had just morphed out of. It smelled the scent of all the birds and animals in my barn that I had touched or even walked near. It smelled things that were three days old. The human who had walked through these woods days before. The other wolf, an old male, who had passed by. The smell of dogs and cats and trash.
And one very strange smell that I realized had to be the scent of an Andalite -- Ax.
When you put it all together in your head — the sense of smell and the hearing — it was as if the entire world around you was crawling and seething and exploding with life.
And it smelled me.
I mean, it smelled my scent from the clothing I had just morphed out of. It smelled the scent of all the birds and animals in my barn that I had touched or even walked near. It smelled things that were three days old. The human who had walked through these woods days before. The other wolf, an old male, who had passed by. The smell of dogs and cats and trash.
And one very strange smell that I realized had to be the scent of an Andalite -- Ax.
When you put it all together in your head — the sense of smell and the hearing — it was as if the entire world around you was crawling and seething and exploding with life.
— Animorphs #9: The Secret
The sniffer smiled his too-wide smile. In the torchlight, his teeth were almost the same blue-green as the blood vessels visible through his translucent skin. “Seems like spies’ work,” he said in his voice like the grave. “Well-put-together, this was. But nobody,” he said, drawing his bony fingers over the scabrous, distended flesh where a man’s eyes ought to be, “nobody escapes the Wellmen.”
Like a hairless, misshapen spider, the sniffer dropped to all fours, delicately tracing a long fingernail through the spattering of mingled blood on the floor. He pressed it to his lips and cautiously tasted it. “Yes,” he said. “Plenty to work with.” He scuttled through the postern, stooping low and loping ahead at startling speed.
—City of No End, Chapter 29: The Scent of Blood
"Fee-fi-fo-fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman."
I smell the blood of an Englishman."
—The Giant, Jack and the Beanstalk
I stared the troll in the face. "My big sister is going to be coming down the path soon," I lied, "and she's far tastier than me. Eat her instead."
The troll sniffed the air, and smiled. "You're all alone," he said. "There's nothing else on the path. Nothing at all." Then he leaned down, and ran his fingers over me: it felt like butterflies were brushing my face—like the touch of a blind person. Then he snuffled his fingers, and shook his huge head. "You don't have a big sister. You've only a younger sister, and she's at her friend's today."
"Can you tell all that from smell?" I asked, amazed.
"Trolls can smell the rainbows, trolls can smell the stars," it whispered, sadly. "Trolls can smell the dreams you dreamed before you were ever born. Come close to me and I’ll eat your life."
The troll sniffed the air, and smiled. "You're all alone," he said. "There's nothing else on the path. Nothing at all." Then he leaned down, and ran his fingers over me: it felt like butterflies were brushing my face—like the touch of a blind person. Then he snuffled his fingers, and shook his huge head. "You don't have a big sister. You've only a younger sister, and she's at her friend's today."
"Can you tell all that from smell?" I asked, amazed.
"Trolls can smell the rainbows, trolls can smell the stars," it whispered, sadly. "Trolls can smell the dreams you dreamed before you were ever born. Come close to me and I’ll eat your life."
Live-Action TV
Wesley: Angel, you can't just sniff a person and know -
Angel: You had sex last night with a bleached blonde.
Wesley: Good Lord, how'd you -
Video Games
Its sense of smell is 100 million times better than a human's, so even the faintest scent tells it about everything in the area. It's like it can see with its nose!
— Flavor text for Slurpuff, Pokémon Y
"Hiding from Salmonids in your own ink won't work. They've got a wicked sense of smell and can sniff out Inklings from a distance."
— Mr. Grizz, Splatoon 2
Webcomics
"With sight, you meet a person. With smell, you meet their entire family."
—Florence Ambrose, Freefall
Stage manager: "Can you really do that? Is your sense of smell that good?"
Schlock: "You eat lots of whole grains, legumes and fish, you clean your suit with tetrachloroethylene, and you use Kilted Warchief aftershave. [evil grin] The aftershave is probably hiding the smells of two different women from each other, but not from me.
