Quotes from Alexander McCall Smith

Mma Ramotswe would often stop and look at the sky; and this just went to show how wise she was, because looking at the sky was something that we all should do more often.

There's nowt so queer as folk?

not all those whose work amounts to something believe that what they do is good enough, or even worth doing.

And the memory made her humble; for we should not forget what it is to be young and to have ideas and attitudes that may later seem so fanciful.

Being Swedish was not always easy, but you had to do your best, and hope that you didn't slip, and become...well, Mediterranean in outlook. It was so easy, such a beguiling option, to shrug your shoulders and behave as your immediate emotions dictated. And how comfortable it must be to sit in the sun and smile, and say the world will look after itself, and that its problems will resolve themselves tomorrow, or even the day after that.

Mr Mandela, who had given his whole life for justice and had never once thought of himself. How unlike these people were modern politicians, who thought only of power and tricks.

She is a good housemother, that one," said Mma Ramotswe. Mma Potokwane agreed. "Whenever I hear people say that the country is going to the dogs—and there are such people, you know, Mma…

If you have enemies, then your biggest enemy is yourself. Do you know that, Mma?

No sailor could be lonelier than a man standing in the middle of our land, with the miles and miles of blue about him.

When people ask for advice they very rarely want your advice and will go ahead and do what they want to do anyway, no matter what you say. That applied in every sort of case; it was a human truth of universal application, but one which most people knew little or nothing about.

it was only too easy to make somebody like Erik feel ill at ease. It was hard enough to be Erik, Ulf reflected, without having to fend off criticism from people like me. Ulf was a kind man, and even if Erik's talk about fish was trying, he would take care not to show it. He would listen patiently, and might even learn something—although that, he thought, was rather unlikely.

There are broad shoulders, the saying went, even where there are no broad shoulders.

The voices of the children were pure; their hearts were pure. Some of them had already discovered how hard life could be; others had yet to do so and probably did not fully understand what the world could be.

But it was a mistake to go through life trying to interfere in things that were beyond your control, or which were going to happen anyway, no matter what you do. A certain amount of acceptance -which wasn't the same thing as cowardice, or indifference -was necessary or you would spend your life burning up with annoyance and rage.

Do not allow the profession of which you are a member to induce you to take a bleak view of humanity. You will encounter all sorts of bad behavior but do not judge everybody by the standards of the lowest. If you

She really is a huge fan." Ulf closed his eyes. He saw the professor being pursued by a group of his fans, the huge ones struggling to keep up with the thinner, more lithe fans, dropping exhausted and disappointed.

How complex this world is, he thought; how easily may things appear to be one thing and then prove to be another. And how easy it was to see the worst

They sang that song which distills all the suffering and the hope of Africa; that song which had inspired and comforted so many, "Nkosi Sikeleli Afrika," God Bless Africa, give her life, watch over her children.

You can't have a cohesive society without a shared culture.

If the world misunderstands us, as it sometimes does, or is indifferent to our sorrows, as it often is, then the loyalty of a dog may remind us that at least in one heart are we loved and admired without question and without thought of reward or advantage.

And they both had the land about them; the sky that went on forever, it seemed, and was filled with sun and with the air that they all needed, that the cattle needed, that the animals in the Kalahari needed--there was plenty of that; they had Botswana. So everybody had the things that mattered, when you came to think of it...

A large bird, a buzzard perhaps, was circling on high on a current of air, a tiny, soaring point of black, looking for food, of course, as all of us did, in one way or another.

notice about the charge that would be levied for cleaning should a guest smoke (guests who spontaneously combusted would, one assumes, not be asked to pay).

I'm sure that Pat likes you," said Big Lou. "And perhaps she would like you even more if she knew how you felt about her. Have you ever told her that?" "Of course not," said Matthew. Big Lou should have known better than to ask that question. This was Edinburgh, after all. One did not go about the place declaring oneself like some lovesick Californian.