Quotes About Respect

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni had been uncertain what to say. He wondered whether he should ask Mma Ramotswe why she had not consulted him, but decided against it. If husbands started to question their wives' decisions, then where would it end, and what purpose would it serve? You could not undo what your wife had done.

It is so easy to thank people, said Mma Ramotswe, passing the letter over to Mma Makutsi, and most people don't bother to do it. They don't thank the person who does something for them. They just take it for granted.

you did not look for a winner who would take everything; you found a way of allowing people to save face; you found a way of healing rather than imposing.

You might disagree with others for what they said or for what they did—that was one thing—but to take against them simply for what they were was to blame them for something over which they had no control, and was cruel, and profoundly wrong.

What a sad reflection that was on the way we ordered our affairs, that anybody should feel that they were just something. Everybody was significant; everybody was as valuable as everybody else. If we stopped thinking that, then any attempt at morality would be built on sand.

Never be put off by rudeness, Mma," she whispered. "It is the rude person who is rude, not you.

And if you do see any pirates, I don't want you to pick up any rough manners from them. Do you understand?

Animals, like people, did not ask to be who or what they were, and to make life difficult for others simply for being what they were seemed to her to be fundamentally unkind.

believe in reforming things that need to be reformed. I believe in social goods. I believe that the most stable and probably the most reasonable position on anything is probably to be found in the centre. I believe in compromise and sharing and making sure that everybody has a chance. I believe that we should listen to one another and accept that those with whom we may disagree have their own view of the good and should be respected. I believe in not insulting those from whom we differ.

Gratitude was a lost art, she felt. People accepted things, took them as their right, and had forgotten how to give proper thanks.

people who don't show friendliness towards others can hardly complain about others not showing friendliness to them.

Do not take on a traditionally built person unless you are prepared for a heavyweight bout.

What I said to you was private. We can have private reservations about a person's work, but that doesn't mean to say that we have to spell those out to him. It's called tact, Isabel!

Alexander McCall Smith

A society that undermined its teachers and their authority only dug away at its own sure foundations.

He will be a small man inside, said Mma Ramotswe. He will feel small and unimportant. That is why he needs to put ladies down, Mma. Men who are big inside never feel the need to do that.

If only people remembered that, then they would be kinder to others—and kindness, Mma Ramotswe believed, was the most important thing there was. She knew that in the depths of her being; she knew it.

Offering a lady a chair was one way of showing that this work was appreciated, and that strength and brute force—at which men generally tended to excel—was not the only thing that counted. Respect for ladies tamed men, and there were many men who were sorely in need of taming; that was well known, said Mma Ramotswe.

Moral Philosophy for two-year-olds, she thought. Don't throw food . It was as good a starting point as any to begin the teaching of responsibility towards the world around us. And it was helpful to back it up with some justification too: That's not nice . Again, a simple expression said it all.

Now that you are going to be my wife, I must teach you what wives are for" (pg.53)

Maybe not," mused Maggie. "If we eat pies, then we should never, not for one moment, look down on the making of them." "I don't," said William.

It was all a question of face, she decided: you had to leave room for face to be saved.

Why are there fewer and fewer gentlemen?' 'It is our fault...it is the fault of the ladies. ... 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. ... That is well-known, I think, Mma.

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.