Quotes from Alexander McCall Smith

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

That was the problem with human failings – they were often more visible to others than to those whom they afflicted.

Back home in Arbroath, they had thought that she was just a girl–she had heard one of her male relatives say just that–and that somebody who was just a girl had nothing really important to say about anything.

We must think of late people because I believe they're still with us—in a way. And so a late person can stay with you all your life, until it is your turn to become late too. And the late person doesn't want you to be miserable. A late person doesn't want you to think that your work is no use. A late person wants you to get on with life, to do things, to make good use of your time.

His eye fell on an advertisement inserted by the university. A new master's course was being offered in community relations. He read the short paragraph extolling the usefulness and topicality of this course. He wondered whether it would help, or whether it was no more than an aspiration—a course in what might be, but wasn't. But at least they were trying; at least they were not instituting a new master's programme in cynicism and indifference.

honesty required one to remind oneself that when there were bills to be paid, an offer of money was harder to reject than when there were no such bills. Other people's money, we tell ourselves, is always less deserved than our own.

A life without moments of unhappiness would be monotonous, I would have thought.

Nobody felt very much ashamed of anything anymore, Isabel thought. You could do what you liked and then speak about it at great length on a confessional television show and nobody would bat an eyelid. And while that revealed a healthier attitude when it came to dealing with things that were better unconcealed, or with things that should not involve shame at all, it also meant that one of the main reasons for social restraint had been removed.

Someone who lived at Square One would be one who knew that much of our achievement is temporary, if not even illusory, and that ultimately we return to the place we started from, if not geographically, then at least metaphorically. We were born with nothing, and left this life with nothing, whatever glories and conceits we created for ourselves.

A sleeping partner?" "That's it. I always thought that was an odd expression, Mma. I always thought of a sleeping partner as being somebody who sat with his head on his desk and slept.

Angus smiled. "So nothing's certain, then?" "That's right," said Big Lou. "Except death and taxes," interjected Matthew. "Isn't that how the saying goes?" "They don't pay taxes in Italy," observed Angus. "I knew a painter in Naples who never paid taxes–ever. Very good painter too." "What happened to him?" asked Matthew. "He died," said Angus. 33.

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.

The way to leave this life, I always say: some sudden, cataclysmic disaster and whoosh, you're propelled into the next world—or oblivion. One might take one's pick.

There was a jauntiness in the young woman's manner that appealed to Isabel. And then there was the accent, which was not Scottish, but from somewhere in Northern Ireland and not unlike Georgina Cameron's; the English that Shakespeare would have spoken, preserved by centuries of relative linguistic isolation.

Such was human progress; and to think that they were even talking now about filing papers in something called the Cloud. She was not sure how good an idea that would be in a country like Botswana, where the skies were always clear and empty, but that did not seem to be too much of an issue.

were in need of bodywork. It had always amused

Miss Taylor smiled. "I shall assume that the verb in that sentence you've just uttered is implied, and that the phrase that you had in mind was That doesn't include…which would, of course, justify the use of the accusative me, rather than the nominative I. I assume that.

She was struck by the naked effrontery of it--an effrontery that was there, she supposed in all deliberate crime. By his acts, the criminal effectively said to the victim: You don't matter.

Mr Pilai looked down. "Mma Ramotswe," he said. "Please let me look at you. I have just been given these new spectacles, and I can see the world clearly for the first time in years. Ow! It is a wonderful thing. I had forgotten what it was like to see clearly. And there you are, Mma. You are looking very beautiful, very fat.

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 revelling in the misfortunes of another.

Teaching is so demanding, and you get so little support. That pinch will have done Olive no harm - probably a lot of good.' 'Do you really think so?' 'Yes,' said Matthew. But then he went on, rather sadly, 'But I suppose that's not the world we live in, with all these regulations and busybodies about.' He paused. 'I think you've struck a blow for sanity. Or rather, pinched one.' She thought this very funny and laughed. 'I'm rather fed up with teaching anyway,' Elspeth said.

And she began to weep, dropping her head onto her forearms and rocking backwards and forwards in that curious motion that is perhaps a subconscious attempt to mimic the movement that brings comfort to a tiny baby. That we should in moments of sorrow seek to return to a time when the harshness of the world could be forfended by the simple reassurances of our parents; that we should do that …

I like you when you're algebraic," said Ulf—and immediately regretted it. It was a flirtatious remark—describing somebody as algebraic was undoubtedly to cross a line. You would not normally describe an ordinary friend as algebraic, and then say that you liked her that way. He saw the effect on Anna, and his regret deepened. "Algebraic?" she said, half coyly. "Well, I'm very happy to enter into any equation.

Already many of the memories of the previous two weeks had faded: the smell of that small hotel in St. Andrews; that mixture of bacon cooking for breakfast and the lavender-scented soap in the bathroom; the air from the sea drifting across the golf course; the aroma of coffee in the coffee bar in South Street. She should have noted them down. She should have said something about all that and the light and the hills with sheep on them like small white stones.