Quotes from Alexander McCall Smith

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

There's no excuse," said Isabel firmly. "Biscuits are trivial, but lies are not.

Bill and Ed did not look as bad as the other two, but they both had six or seven large gold rings in each ear, and this made them rattle when they walked.

Who is happier, those who are aware, and doubt, or those who are sure of what they believe in, and have never doubted or questioned it? The answer, she had concluded, was that this had nothing to do with happiness, which came upon you like the weather, determined by your personlaity.

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni waited. If a woman was unhappy, in his experience this could mean that there was a badly behaved man in the background.

suddenly realised that if he felt that he had achieved nothing it was because he had failed to cherish what he had in fact done. He had filled his days doing ordinary, unexceptional things and thought nothing of them. But they were far from nothing:

They'll go to jail' said the Captain. 'And they'll stay there until Christmas. Then, if they promise to give up piracy and take an honest job somewhere, they may be allowed to go free.

It was a job that suited Stinger perfectly, as he was always happy when snarling, and snarling at sharks is as snarly a job as anyone can imagine. Of course it was possible that one day he might meet a shark who wasn't frightened of him, but then that's another story, and no job can be perfect in all respects.

But when all was said and done he thought that there was something beyond us, something other than the human, and that if you closed your eyes and thought about this thing long enough you could hear its voice within you.

We are very keen to disapprove.

Remember that, she said to herself; remember that in your dealings with others—they may be dying.

one fewer personal world was about to be destroyed through the selfishness or inconstancy of another. That, at least, was cause for gratitude.

We assume so much, don't we? We assume that our children are going to be reasonable. We assume they're going to see things as we see them. And then suddenly we discover that they can look at things quite differently.

But you can certainly take fifteen years off everything these days." She paused. "But you can't take height off a mountain.

He is a good man, but even a good man can fall for a glamorous woman. That is well known." "That is very well known," agreed Mma Ramotswe. "Look at Adam. Look how he fell for Eve." "Just because she had no clothes on, he fell for her," said Mma Makutsi. "That sometimes helps," said Mma Ramotswe.

She had brought all of this on herself, and so she had, in a sense, got what she deserved. But, even so, Mma Ramotswe reminded herself, she had a soul like everyone else, and one should not crow over the defeat even of those who richly deserve to be defeated. That was dangerous, because then you yourself might get what you deserve for reveling in the misfortunes of another.

We become the people we live with. Imperceptibly at first, but with a certain inevitability, we become the other.

I see that Emma's playing Erik Satie," he said to Mr. Woodhouse. "That's one of the Gymnopédies, isn't it?" "I believe it is," said Mr. Woodhouse. "I don't care for it very much. In fact, it gives me the creeps. It's the sort of thing a spider would play if spiders played the piano.

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.

Small ones too, Mma Sometimes big problems are really tiny ones when you look at them in the right way.

That's precisely what I'm saying: in order to become better people, we must practise," Isabel said.

On the wall of this yard there was the wording, painted in high letters: Reliable Autos. We get you there. Get you where? asked Fanwell. Chobie smiled. Where you want to get. That's where everybody's heading, after all. To where they want to get.

Isabel's private theory of moral proximity, the basis of those obligations that came into existence when we found ourselves close enough to others to be able to witness or feel their needs, or when we were in some other way linked to their plight. We could not deal with all the suffering or need in the world, but we could—and should—deal with that sliver of suffering that was reasonably close to us.

that we must love one another, whatever our condition in life, canine or otherwise, and that this love is a matter of joy, a privilege, that we might think about, weep over, when the moment is right.