Alexander McCall Smith quotes - page 2

'They are a very great boon to mankind, dentists,' said Isabel. ‘And I'm not sure that we are grateful enough to them. I'm not sure that we even bother to thank them.' She paused. Were there any statues of dentists? She thought not. And yet there should be. (Alexander McCall Smith)
We all know that it is women who take the decisions, but we have to let men think that the decisions are theirs. It is an act of kindness on the part of women. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living to the dead, people to animals, people to the land? View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
Manners are the basic building blocks of civil society. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
There is plenty of work for love to do. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
That of all people, it should be him; that took her aback. That the heart should settle on somebody like him; that surprised her. But she was so certain about it, so certain. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
She was made for untidy rooms and rumpled beds. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
There are many women whose lives would be immeasurably improved by widowhood, but one should not always point that out. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
The previously unloved may find it hard to believe that they are now loved; that is such a miracle, they feel; such a miracle. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
If you lose sight of the smaller accomplishments, you end up with an imbalance in your life. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who say they are too positive probably haven't read them. (Alexander McCall Smith)
It was true, of course, there was an abnormal level of narcissism in our society, but it did not do, he told himself, to spend too much time going on about it. Society changed. Narcissism was about love, ultimately, even if only love of self. And that was better than hate.... Did it matter if young men thought of fashion and hair gel when, not all that many years ago, their thoughts tended to turn to war and flags and the grim partisanship of the football terrace? View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
The thought of Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni nursing secret, unfulfilled ambitions saddened Mma Ramotswe, as did the thought of people wanting something very much indeed and not getting the thing they yearned for. When we dismiss or deny the hopes of others, she thought, we forget that they, like us, have only one chance in this life. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
The woman shook her head. "Not easy," she said. "I believe that we have much less free will than we think. Quite frankly, we delude ourselves if we think that we are completely free. We aren't. And that means if dear Bruce must have rather a lot of girlfriends, then there's not very much he can do about it." Pat said nothing. Bruce had said nothing about the neighbours, and perhaps this was the reason. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
Pat looked up at the cornice. "I'm on a gap year," she said, and added, because truth required it after all: "It's my second gap year, actually." Bruce stared at her, and then burst out laughing. "Your second gap year?" Pat nodded. She felt miserable. Everybody said that. Everybody said that because they had no idea of what had happened. "My first one was a disaster," she said. "So I started again." View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
The maid glanced at her employer. "Oh, you have heard of me," she said. "I am glad that he speaks of me. I would not like to think that nobody speaks of me." "No," said Mma Ramotswe. "It is better to be spoken of than not to be spoken of. Except sometimes, that is." View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
The sentiment sounded trite, but then didn't most good sentiments sound trite? It was hard to make goodness – and good people – sound interesting. Yet the good were worthy of note, of course, because they battled and that battle was a great story, whereas the evil were evil because of moral laziness, or weakness, and that was ultimately a dull and uninteresting affair. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
Everything you wanted to know about a person was written in the face, she believed. It's not that she believed that the shape of the head was what counted– even if there were many who still clung to that belief; it was more a question of taking care to scrutinise the lines and the general look. And the eyes, of course; they were very important. The eyes allowed you to see right into a person, to penetrate their very essence, and that was why people with something to hide wore sunglasses indoors. They were the ones you had to watch very carefully. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
What else does a detective agency really need? Detective agencies rely on human intuition and intelligence, both of which Mma Ramotswe had in abundance. No inventory would ever include those, of course. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
But don't we often lie to people we love, or not tell them things, precisely because we love them? View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle. (Alexander McCall Smith)
... great things may come from moments of nothingness. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
As a writer I've learned certain lessons. One of them is to be careful about how you put a view, and to bear in mind how easily and readily you'll be misinterpreted. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
One of the most destructive things that's happening in modern society is that we are losing our sense of the bonds that bind people together - which can lead to nightmares of social collapse. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith
Mma Ramotswe sighed. 'We are all tempted, Mma. We are all tempted when it comes to cake.' That is true,' said Mma Potokwane sadly. 'There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them. View quote
Alexander McCall Smith