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4bd0201
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He said: What is patriotism but love of the food one ate as a child?
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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b14f459
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The size of one's house might bear a relationship to the size of one's opinion of oneself, but it had nothing to do with one's real worth.
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size
houses
self-importance
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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f8194b2
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Believe me, there's nothing more brittle than human beauty. Encounter it. Savour it, by all means. Then watch how it turns to dust.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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2009da7
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The problem, he thought, was that so much humour involved misfortune of one sort or another, and now that same human misfortune was out of bounds - interdicted by self-appointed guardians of sensitivity. There was somebody to be offended by everything, he though, which left little room for laughter.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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9dc2aeb
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We've all had that sort of experience," said Mma Ramotswe. "Every one of us, Mma. We've all had a first day at school, or a first day in a new job. We've all been unsure what to do."
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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b3712d4
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Nobody is so bad that there is no chance of change.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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8a3ff13
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She would give him the benefit of the doubt, as she always did: her experience had taught her that the names we gave to others, and the things we accused them of, often said more about us than they did about them.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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ed4c511
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Let's go back to the lines at the end of "In Praise of Limestone": "What I hear is the sound of underground streams / What I see is a limestone landscape." Close your eyes and try to imagine the shape of these lines. I see a falling, a descent, a softening, with the gentlest of landings at the end. And I feel resolution, calmness, and forgiveness." --
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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99a4d02
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But although the rules are vague And widely disregarded now Some precepts remain: live with love - That is a rule we all can understand; Forgive those who need forgiveness, Which I think is everybody, more or less; Be kind - that, perhaps, is first and foremost In any postmodern, new-fangled Code we devise for ourselves; Yes, be kind: love one another, And most of all tend with gentleness The small patch of terra firma That is allocated t..
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angus-lordie-s-poems
how-to-live
love
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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5347f36
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I am glad you are pleased," said Mma Ramotswe. "You have broken the glass ceiling that stops secretaries from reaching their full potential." Mma Makutsi looked up, as if to search for the ceiling that she had broken. There were only the familiar ceiling boards, fly-tracked and buckling from the heat. But the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel itself could not at that moment have been more glorious in her eyes, more filled with hope and joy."
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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c5e2321
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Africa had a way of coming back and simply covering everything up again.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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de7ef3e
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All our human endeavours are like that, she reflected, and it is only because we are too ignorant to realize it, or are too forgetful to remember it, that we have the confidence to build something that is meant to last.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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424bd60
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Everything, it seemed to Mma Ramotswe, had a waiting list--except the government taxman and the call, when it came, to leave this world. You could not argue with the agents of either of these: you paid, and you went. But I am just on the waiting list...No, there is no waiting list for these things...
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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780e239
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But remember, that for every cheating wife in Botswana, there are five hundred and fifty cheating husbands." Mma Makutsi whistled. "That is an amazing figure," she said. "Where did you read that?" "Nowhere," chuckled Mma Ramotswe. "I made it up. But that doesn't stop it from being true."
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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95204e7
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as she made her way back to the tiny white van she listened to her own breathing and felt her own heart thumping wildly. She had no idea where she had found the courage, but it had been there, like the water at the bottom of a disused quarry--unfathomably deep.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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2bb54e5
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You must not think that because one thing happens after another thing, then it is the first thing that causes the second thing. You must not think that, because it might not be true.
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cause-and-effect-quote
cause-and-effect-quotes
cause-and-effect
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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53d634b
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I was staying in a house beside the machair. In front of this house was a stretch of lawn, and at the edge of the lawn there was a river. By the riverside, its door wide open, was a shed into which I wandered. Inside the shed was a large art nouveau typesetting machine. I was being called, and I turned away from my discovery of the typesetting machine to make my way back to the house and to our hostess. People in dreams do not always have n..
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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6ed7bcd
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In bed that night, in the darkness, with the illuminated dial of her alarm clock glowing from the bedside table, she asked herself whether one could force oneself to like somebody, or whether one could merely create the conditions for affection to come into existence and hope that it did, spontaneously.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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35ab1dc
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You have to tell her that you have forgiven what she did to you. You have that duty because we all of us have it. It comes in different forms, but it is always the same duty. We have to forgive.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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436a31d
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Not all taxi drivers, Paul had discovered, actually wanted to take passengers to their destination; some of them, he felt, were in it for the arguments, or the opportunity to pontificate, or for the sheer pleasure of driving past those trying to summon them at the road edge. He made up his mind. What was the point of having a bulldozer if you were not going to make at least some use of it?
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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e6a8524
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Es ist ein Zeichen geistiger Reife, seine Meinung zu andern, wenn man merkt, dass man im Unrecht ist.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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f2e2363
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A nudist? In Edinburgh? Does he realise what parallel we're on?
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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61bda5d
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Not forgiving was like scratching at a sore to keep the healing scab from forming.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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b63c09e
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The husband should say to the reverend: 'And I promise not to defy my wife.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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0aa2d2a
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The trouble with this country...is that we are utterly surrounded by busybodies trying to stop us doing things. Or telling us what to do...Big Brother, with his ubiquitous closed-circuit cameras-which now monitored, it seemed, every square inch of public space-and his condescending imprecations and warnings, was everywhere...In his view, it was up to the individual whether or not to approach a cliff edge; it was not the Government's busines..
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contemporary-society
freedom
police-state
big-government
liberty
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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c6843d8
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His life was unrecorded; who is there to write down the lives of ordinary people?
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writing
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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bfcb063
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There are many sick vehicles here, and I cannot leave them. They are not dying, said Mma Makutsi firmly. They will still be here when we come back.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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31e37d3
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Morality is for everybody, and this means that the views of more than one person are needed to create it. That was what made the modern morality, with its emphasis on individuals and the working out of an individual position, so weak. If you gave people the chance to work out their morality, then they would work out the version which was easiest for them and which allowed them to do what suited them for as much of the time as possible. That..
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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e85788f
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She had never been able to tolerate dishonesty, which she thought threatened the very heart of relationships between people. If you could not count on other people to mean what they said, or to do what they said they would do, then life could become utterly unpredictable. The fact that we could trust one another made it possible to undertake the simple tasks of life.
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relationships
trust
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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a6813d3
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There were always such dwellings--the abode of the cook or the man who tended the yard, or the woman who did the washing and ironing; so normal and unexceptionable as to attract no attention, the places where lives were led in the shadow of the employer in the larger house. And the cause, Mma Ramotswe knew from long experience, of deep resentments and, on occasion, murderous hatreds. Those flowed from exploitation and bad treatment--the thi..
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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f44267e
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Love is nothing out of the ordinary, even if we think it is; even if we idealise it, celebrate it in poetry, sentimentalise it in coy valentines. Love happens to just about everyone; it is like measles or the diseases of childhood; it is as predictable as the losing of milk teeth, or the breaking of a boy's voice.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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4caffc0
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Yes, wisdom: that was something that came to everybody, although it came in varying quantities and at different times.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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db6d526
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It was a good place to sit and listen, under a sky that had seen so much and heard so much that one more wicked deed would surely make no difference. Sins, thought Mma Ramotswe, are darker and more powerful when contemplated within confining walls. Out in the open, under such a sky as this, misdeeds were reduced to their natural proportions--small, mean things that could be faced quite openly, sorted, and folded away.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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eb8b9f9
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Matthew and Elspeth knew the Duke of Johannesburg, of course. Matthew had first met him some years earlier when he had gone to a party at Single-Malt House, the Duke's seat. Most of us have houses or flats, but dukes have seats, which conjures up an altogether more comfortable set of domestic arrangements. Professors have chairs, which are not necessarily as comfortable as seats, but better, perhaps, than the mere benches on which judges ha..
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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c1fc6f5
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Mma Ramotswe tucked the cheque safely away in her bodice. Modern business methods were all very well, she thought, but when it came to the safeguarding of money there were some places which had yet to be bettered.
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humour
life-lessons
philosophy
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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c62fc84
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There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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e3e54d7
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Self-pity does not appreciate pedantry.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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b5dfc55
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Do not be ashamed to cry, Rra," said Mma Ramotswe. "It is the way that things begin to get better. It is the first step."
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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52f950d
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Love] may bring surprise, joy, despair and, occasionally, perfect happiness.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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195f5b9
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The problem, of course, was that people did not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They needed to be reminded about this, because if you left it to them to work out for themselves, they would never bother. They would just find out what was best for them, and then they would call that the right thing. That's how most people thought. Precious
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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0051d40
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A photograph may speak to the photographer's envy or disappointment just as much as it may reveal his anger or disapproval. And even if a photograph records a joyous occasion, behind it there may still be more than a small measure of heartbreak on the part of the photographer. A small measure of heartbreak? One might think such a thing is impossible--if your heart is broken, then surely it is broken completely. Yet the truth is that we can ..
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love
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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b98217b
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Leave them," said Isabel. "Jamie can iron them himself. It's very therapeutic for men to iron. Therapeutic for women, that is."
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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1b0e0aa
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Anger, Obed Ramotswe had explained to her once, is no more than a salt that we rub into our wounds.
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Alexander McCall Smith |
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5268b9d
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She watched him take the trumpet from its case and fit the mouthpiece. She watched as he raised it to his lips and then, so suddenly, from that tiny cup of metal against his flesh, the sound would burst out like a glorious, brilliant knife dividing the air. And the little room would reverberate and the flies, jolted out of their torpor, would buzz round and round as if riding the swirling notes.
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trumpet
music
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Alexander McCall Smith |