Quotes About Culture

that was enough to make her blush with shame for the mere fact that Las Vegas existed. There

There were three chairs on the verandah—comfortable old wooden chairs that probably dated from Protectorate days. "The British brought chairs," Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni once said. "They took chairs with them wherever they went in the world. And they left the chairs behind when they went home.

Yes, but not in chairs that don't belong to us," countered Mma Makutsi. "That's the trouble with this country, Mma—there are too many people sitting down in other people's chairs.

That would have been taken out of the Munrowe voice two or three generations ago through being educated at schools that modelled themselves on the English public-school system, even if they were in Scotland.

But only if youses shift yoursels and get in." He used the demotic plural of you, a common feature of speech in Scotland.

We French people sometimes appear rude but are not really intending to be rude. It is because…" He shrugged. "Perhaps it's something to do with our language. French may sound a bit arrogant sometimes. As if it's God talking, perhaps. You know how God talks. French suits him very well, I think." Annabelle laughed. "The English used to say that God spoke English. But we knew he spoke French all along.

They meet these women who hang about in bars waiting for other women's husbands. This city is full of women like that." She looked at Alice, and there flowed between them a brief current of understanding. All women in Botswana were the victims of the fecklessness of men.

Another Huber, you see, Herr Uber-Huber. Bavaria's teeming with people of your name.' 'Hubers, yes,' said Herr Uber-Huber. 'But not so many Uber-Hubers, I think.' 'An important distinction, that,' said the Rector. 'Tell me, Herr Uber-Huber–are there any Unter-Hubers, as far as you know?' Herr Uber-Huber shook his head. 'I would say that Huber is the equivalent of Unter-Huber.

People have been becoming more traditionally built over recent years," he had pointed out.

Everybody kissed one another these days; kisses meant nothing.

La bella figura...it's at the heart of Italian life...it's about doing things beautifully.

Men talked about things that happened in the world, about events; women, by contrast, talked amongst themselves about being in the world. The difference was crucial.

To lose your own language was like forgetting your mother, and as sad, in a way.

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…

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

And where does religion come into it? Are Protestant countries inherently less corrupt?" "No," she said. "I don't think it's that simple. The issue, I suppose, is whether a culture stresses telling the truth. That's the real point. It's not religion.

An Englishman was reflecting on the different words that people use for fish. 'Isn't it strange,' he said, 'that the French say le poisson, the Spanish say el pescado, and the English call it fish—which is what it is.' 

Of course," said Mma Ramotswe. "It is very important for a matron to be traditionally built. It adds authority.

Society may be post-Christian, but could hardly ignore its Judeo-Christian past; we did not, after all, come from nowhere.

And yet, she suddenly wondered, should you actually lie about how much Proust you've read?

skyline reveals a city's purpose and character. Oxford had its dreaming spires; Manhattan its glittering towers; Edinburgh its eccentric spikes.

Alexander McCall Smith

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.

Nobody talks about respectable people any longer," said Angus. "Perhaps that's because it has become unfashionable to be respectable." "Respectable people disapprove of things," mused Domenica. "And Edinburgh used to be very disapproving. Now it's only moderately so.