Quotes from Alexander McCall Smith

They are not much use to anybody, really. It is very sad." He smiled. "And then, suddenly, at seventeen—sometimes at age sixteen—they grow out of all of that and they become nice once more, just as they were before this terrible thing called adolescence happened to them.

Even though are canvass was small, still we could paint a masterpiece.

how could anyone manage to negotiate their way through life's complexities without at least a smidgen of self deception here and there? Alexander Mccall Smith Precious and Grace.

Political scandals, economic disaster, suffering in all its familiar forms—these were the daily staple of a disaster-prone, uneasy planet.

We do not want people thinking that we're trying to start a dynasty," he explained. "You know how you get those politicians who are sons of other politicians and grandsons of even more politicians. I do not think that is very democratic, and so I shall not be involved in this campaign, even if I fully support it

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni nodded his head.

His particular insight was that we need to be at home; all his concerns with division within ourselves, with the tragic flaws in our nature, with the thwarting of love—all these point to the need that he felt we had within us to locate ourselves in a place we could live in with love, with people with whom we could share.

misery was nothing to do with objective good fortune. Misery was like bad weather; it was just there, and no number of optimistic comments could make the weather better.

often our tears have no particular justification; they are tears for something larger about the world than any private sorrow.

most dogs seemed contented enough, and often seemed rather happier than the humans attached to them.

I am a fortunate man, and if you are fortunate in this life, you should take pleasure in the good fortune of others. Because we must love one another – for all our faults. We must love one another whatever our station in life, and we must try to make the lives of others more bearable, if we are in a position to do so.

Look at the way people try to make points of contact with others when they meet. Look at the way you instinctively try to establish whether somebody you meet for the first time knows somebody you know.

You'll grow up. People did not like to be told that, she thought, because we all think that what we are now is what we shall be tomorrow. That was clearly false—but we all believed it.

So it was in Botswana, almost everywhere; ties of kinship, no matter how attenuated by distance or time, linked one person to another, weaving across the country a human blanket of love and community. And in the fibres of that blanket there were threads of obligation that meant that one could not ignore the claims of others. Nobody should starve; nobody should feel that they were outsiders; nobody should be alone in their sadness.

Mma Makutsi sighed. "You don't understand, Charlie. The word chairman covers both men and women." She paused. "Mind you, Mma Potokwane, many people these days just use the word chair. Perhaps you'd like—" She was not allowed to finish. "Certainly not, Mma," said Mma Potokwane. "I am not a chair—I am a person.

Attacks on political correctness, in her view, were often made by those who had never suffered insult or known what it was like to be at the bottom of the heap.

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

Do not be afraid of people who lurk in the shadows. Stand up for what you believe in. The people in the shadows are no match for people who are not afraid of light.

It was an innocent enough activity, after all; like looking at the sky, perhaps, when the sun was going down and had made the clouds copper-red, or looking at a herd of fine cattle moving slowly over the land when rains had brought on the sweet green grass. These were pleasures which the soul needed from time to time, and she would wait for Mma Makutsi until she had examined the shoes from all angles.

she did look remarkably like a chair—a great, accommodating upholstered armchair. You could certainly sit on Mma Potokwane and feel perfectly comfortable: she was the sort of chair into which one might sink after a hard day's work—sink, and possibly not reappear until hours later, emerging from voluminous feather-filled cushions.

A noisy noise annoys an oyster. Or so the tongue twister would have us believe.

Love of what you do is unmistakable in the care with which you do it

Von Igelfeld was not sure. He remembered reading that Hume believed that our minds vibrated in sympathy, and that this ability – to vibrate in unison with one another – was the origin of the ethical impulse. And Schopenhauer's moral theory was about feeling, was it not; so perhaps they were one and the same phenomenon.

Isabel looked at her. "Five pieces? Isn't that the Government recommendation?" "It's none of their business," said Jamie. Isabel disagreed. "Oh, I think it is. If the Government has to pick up the bill when we get ill, then surely it has the right to tell us how to avoid getting ill in the first place.