Quotes from Alexander McCall Smith

Ulf nodded. "Many of us have to settle for something," he said. "And then we find the thing we've settled for is as good as the thing we wanted to do in the first place.

One of the drawbacks to being a philosopher was that you became aware of what you should not do, and

It seemed an odd thing to say, and yet all of us had a view from somewhere, a view of the world from the perspective of who we were, of what had happened to us, of how we thought about things.

I sometimes find myself thinking: wouldn't it be far less complicated to have a job like that? To sell things? To order cheese and salamis and all the rest and not worry about what we should do and how we should do it?

It is undoubtedly the case that the practice of the virtues makes one happier. We've somewhat lost sight of that essential truth, now that we, as a society, admire selfishness and vanity so much.

now: he had a kind wife who had a very good government job and he had a house with new furniture, purchased on his wife's salary, and a car that went with his wife's job. All of that was far more important than being noticed by women, and yet, and yet…

the world was a vale of tears—it always had been.

He looked up from his stew. "Mma Ramotswe," he said, "you can do anything. Nothing is too hard for a person like you—nothing. You are very good at doing everything, Mma, and anything you do, Mma

Let's not have a sniffle, let's have a jolly good cry And always remember, the longer you live, the sooner you jolly well die.

Il va arriver. Quand il aura fini de danser avec de jeunes demoiselles ou de faire ce qu'il est en train de faire, il viendra.

He felt the touch of cool air wafted out from the interior of the church—the feeble breath of a dying building.

There are plenty of good stories. There are plenty of good people who go through life without … well, without anger. Who are kind to other folk. Who don't rant and rage.

He represents innocence, and innocence has taken such a profound battering in our times. We have mocked it. We have sullied it. We have put it in intensive care, and frankly, I don't see how it can survive. And yet here and there one sees flickers of its light – just flickers. And so we know that innocence isn't entirely dead." Angus

Or would Hell be an endless loop of boy bands or rap? Either would be torture.

But just because somebody has lots of sweets does not mean that he has stolen them. One thing, you see, does not always lead to another.

Quand la pluie le traverse, c'est moi qui dois le réparer. Cela signifie que c'est mon toit, et que je suis responsable de ce qui se passe au-dessous.

Everything was so clear-cut to the student mind; the truth was passionately proclaimed, rather than half-believed in, which was how more experienced people thought of things. The more experienced had generally discovered that there were no longer any privileged, exclusive truths – there were just the various shades of possibility.

And having a servant was not a sign of wealth or privilege—even a modest establishment would have a maid, as this was an important way of providing employment that would otherwise not exist.

there is faith and faith. One form of faith is actual practice—the rituals and so on—the other form of faith involves actually believing in it.

He had gone through life tiptoeing round Irene's sensitivities, apologising for being who he was, and now it was over. There would be no more apologies. He was free.

La poésie: cette sauce dont on recouvrait la réalité pour lui donner meilleur goût.

We should all have a tree in our childhood...a tree one might explore, a tree from which one might learn how to fall.

He shows the most amazing brass neck," she said.

There were times when one thought the opposite of what one really felt. That was very common, and this was an example of exactly that.