Quotes from Alexander McCall Smith

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.

Poor Erik," muttered Anna. "No," said Ulf. "No. Not poor Erik—fortunate Erik." Anna gave Ulf a dubious look. "But all he thinks of..." "...is fishing. Yes, but does that make him unhappy? Quite the contrary: Erik is utterly happy. Erik is completely resolved.

The physical world—the world of stone and brick—is indifferent to our suffering, to our dramas, she thought. Even a battlefield can be peaceful, can be a place for flowers to grow, for children to play; the memories, the sadness, are within us, not part of the world about us.

your mind like that, then you kept it in good order for a longer period of time, and you put off the day when you would be sitting in the sun, like some of the very old people, not exactly sure which day of the week it was and wondering why the world no longer made the sense that it once did. Yet such people were often happy, he reminded himself, possibly because it did not really matter what day of the week it was anyway.

post hoc ergo propter hoc. In other words, there would be no causal

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

And then something happened that had only happened once or twice before, but when it had done so, it had burned itself into her memory. Her father was there. Somehow, in a way known only to late people, he had slipped into the cab of the van and was seated beside her. Of course, she could not see him—not in the physical sense—but of his presence she had absolutely no doubt.

Most of us go through life so absorbed in the cocoon of ourselves that we rarely stop to consider the other. Of course we think that we do; indeed we may pride ourselves on our capacity for empathy; we may be considerate and thoughtful in our dealings with others, but how often do we stand before them, so to speak, and experience what it is to be them?

For that was a very special sort of love, she realised—love given back to one who loved you; that love was like the first rain, the longed-for rain, which washed away the pain and sadness of the world so that you forgot that those things had ever been there.

Somewhere in the organisation, high in its upper reaches, were minds that churned out page after page of guidance notes, instructions, and policy statements. Most of these were filed and forgotten; seldom did they make any difference to the way in which people carried out their duties. But the procedure for procedures had to be gone through, in accordance with further procedural guidelines.

Her engagement? That is a long story." He laughed

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

She knew as well as anyone that the world could be a place of trial and sorrow, that there was injustice and suffering and heartlessness - there was enough of all that to fill the great Kalahari twice over, but what good did it do to ponder that and that alone? None, she thought.

It was always the strongest men who were the first to cry, thought Mma Ramotswe. Some people said it was the other way round, but they were wrong, she told herself; they were simply wrong. (To the Land of Long Lost Friends)

The ordinary people of Africa tended not to have room in their hearts for hatred. They were sometimes foolish, like people anywhere, but they did not bear grudges, as Mr Mandela had shown the world.

I see," said Mma Ramotswe. Somehow, she could not find the energy to say much more than that; this man was just too exhausting to contradict.

Sometimes the truth can't be put on anybody's bill," Mma Makutsi pronounced, and then continued, "but it's still important to get to it, Mma—to get to the truth behind all the…all the things that cover up the truth.

Some genealogies claimed to be able to trace the Maclean ancestry even further back, going as far as Julius Caesar, and, in some cases, admittedly more tendentiously, to the ancient Celtic god of the sun.

the human world, he reflected, was divided into little clusters of people—tiny tribes, small groups of friends, families—and if you belonged to only a few of these, then your life was circumscribed.

a list of people who drive Mercedes-Benzes, and he checks to see if they have made up for it by being kind to people.

It's important to be able to accept,' Brother Gregory said. He glanced at Bruce in an encouraging way. There was no hint of reproach in his voice; just warmth. 'Some of us find that hard – I know that – but graciousness in accepting the help of others

Because laughs never die away entirely," said Jamie. "At least, if you believe in Marconi.

And when I say "the least of us", or even "the weaker brethren", I do not mean other people, you know: I mean myself.