Quotes from Alexander McCall Smith

And that is why we must answer her hatred with love. I can't say whether it will change her in her heart - it probably won't. But if it makes her feel even just a little bit better about herself, she will be less envious.

If you punish somebody harshly, she said, then you are simply inflicting more pain on the world. You are also punishing not only that person, but his family and the people who love him. You are punishing yourself, really, because we are all brothers and sisters in this world, whether we know it or not; we are all citizens of the same village.

To be able to imagine the ohter, and the experience of the other was what wisdome was all about; but nobody talked about wisdom very much anymore, nor virtue perhaps because wisdom was nto appreciated in a world of glitz and effect.

I'd like to be tidy, said Hen, I try, but I guess you can't be what you aren't.

That was what counted, she told herself: those unexpected moments of appreciation, unanticipated glimpses of beauty or kindness - any of the things that attached us to this world, that made us forget, even for a moment, its pain and its transience.

Absurdly, irrationally, she believed that music could make a difference to the temper of the world.She did not investigate this belief, test it to see whether it made sense;she simply believed it, and so she chose music that expressed order and healing:Bach for order, Mozart for healing.

You haven't offended me at all. You've made me think. That's all.

I thought the definition of an educated person was one who at least knows what's in the great books he or she hasn't read" (p. 169).

If people came at you and started to scratch you, then of course you had the right to sit on them.

Life happens, she thought; whatever we do, life just happens.

Mma Makutsi pondered this. Why are there fewer and fewer gentlemen, Mma Ramotswe? It is our fault, Mma. It is the fault of ladies. Why is that? Because we have allowed men to stop behaving as gentlemen, and when you allow people to do what they wish, then that is what they do. They stop doing the things they need to do. She looked at Mma Makutsi across the steering wheel. That is well known, I think, Mma. That is well known.

People who do that sort of thing may reap what they sow, but they also destroy the harvest of those who are around them.

Emma was happy. She realized that happiness is something that springs from the generous treatment of others, and that until one makes that connection, happiness may prove elusive.

If you did not keep your yard in reasonable order, then your whole life would be similarly untidy. A messy yard told Mma Ramotswe everything she needed to know about its owner.

When there is nothing you can do to stop the march of adverse events, then the best thing, she felt, was to get on with life and not to worry.

Simple questions--and simple answers--were what we needed in life. That was what Mma Ramotswe believed. Yes.

He said: What is patriotism but love of the food one ate as a child?

A change of oil…yes, that was what we all needed from time to time, whether we were an engine or a person. And there were other similarities to be explored. Engines had to be handled gently, as did people. Forward gears were better than reverse gears—for people as well as engines.

Insincerity had never come easily to her, but good manners required it on occasion, even if a superhuman effort was needed.

steamships insult the dignity of distance

Has anyone sen Mr Snark I saw him in the tunnel about 15 minutes ago. Oh no wailed Dr Ferman he will have been atomised. Oh dear muttered an MP. Bye-election.

You can't do much about a personality disorder. Cats are psychopaths at heart.

But please be careful—and never, never think that you are justified in doing something wrong just because you are trying to do something right.

But remember, that for every cheating wife in Botswana, there are five hundred and fifty cheating husbands. Mma Makutsi whistled. That is an amazing figure, she said. Where did you read that? Nowhere, chuckled Mma Ramotswe. I made it up. But that doesn't stop it from being true.