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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| bfcb063 | 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. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 31e37d3 | 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.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| e85788f | 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. | relationships trust | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| a6813d3 | 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.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| f44267e | 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. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 4caffc0 | Yes, wisdom: that was something that came to everybody, although it came in varying quantities and at different times. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| db6d526 | 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. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| eb8b9f9 | 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.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| c1fc6f5 | 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. | humour life-lessons philosophy | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| c62fc84 | There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| e3e54d7 | Self-pity does not appreciate pedantry. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| b5dfc55 | 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." | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 52f950d | Love] may bring surprise, joy, despair and, occasionally, perfect happiness. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 195f5b9 | 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 | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 0051d40 | 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 .. | love | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| b98217b | Leave them," said Isabel. "Jamie can iron them himself. It's very therapeutic for men to iron. Therapeutic for women, that is." | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 1b0e0aa | Anger, Obed Ramotswe had explained to her once, is no more than a salt that we rub into our wounds. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 5268b9d | 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. | music trumpet | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| 0e838df | Rich people are just people," said Mma Ramotswe. "I have not met a rich person yet who isn't just the same as us. Being happy or unhappy has nothing to do with being rich." | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 137a66c | Everybody in a village had a role to play in bringing up a child--and cherishing it--and in return that child would in due course feel responsible for everybody in that village. That is what makes life in society possible. We must love one another and help one another in our daily lives. That was the traditional African way and there was no substitute for it. None. | it-takes-a-village raising-children tradition | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| dab0f42 | because it is possible to change the world, if one is determined enough, and if one sees with sufficient clarity just what it is that has to be changed. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 41c00f4 | We are all sent the dreams we yearn for, she thought; no matter how unhappy or fraught our waking world may be, we are sent dreams in which we can do the things the heart really wants us to do. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 2aa8a0b | If you are there to staunch the tears of the world, then it does not cross your mind that you yourself may weep. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 0b727be | like the Greeks, I suppose. They made a big thing of hoodwinking the Germans, until recently, of course. The Germans suddenly turned round and told the poor Greeks that the game was up. Oh dear. ... I can just imagine the mythical parallel. There are all the Greek gods on Mount Olympus, or wherever they liked to cavort--cavorting away and having a great time on borrowed funds from those northern gods--Thor, Odin and so on--who of course inh.. | freeloading spoiled-adults | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| cfb734c | Love was like rain; there could be periods of drought when it seemed that love would never return, would never make its presence felt again. In such times, the heart could harden, but then, just as droughts broke, so too could love suddenly appear, and heal just as quickly and completely as rain can heal the parched land. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| fba7fff | Tofu wore special flame-proof pants - that was well known. "They call them fibbers' trousers," she said knowledgeably. "They're more expensive, but they stop your pants going on fire when you lie." | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| fe523a5 | And that is why we must answer her hatred with love. I can't say whether it will change her in her heart - it probably won't. But if it makes her feel even just a little bit better about herself, she will be less envious. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 457a9db | Lists, she thought, are the stories of our lives; they give a picture of who we are and what we do every day. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 25a1cdc | She was of traditional build herself, but her figure was largely concealed by the folds of a generously cut shift dress made out of a flecked green fabric. It was like a tent, thought Mma Ramotswe--a camouflage tent of the sort that the Botswana Defence Force might use. But I do not sit in judgement on the dresses of others, she told herself, and a tent was a practical enough garment, if that is what one felt comfortable in. | comfort humor judgement | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| 386f767 | I said to him that Zululand sounded fine, but that every man has a map in his heart of his own country and that the heart will never allow you to forget this map. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 415bceb | A traditional house smelled of wood smoke, the earth, and of thatch; all good smells, the smell of life itself. | home smells | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| 482c27f | It had always struck her as wrong that we should judge ourselves-or, more usually, others-by single acts, as if a single snapshot said anything about what a person had been like over the whole course of his life. It could say something, of course, but only if it was typical of how that person behaved; otherwise, no, all it said that at that moment, in those particular circumstances, temptation won a local victory. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 06073d7 | Mrs. Moffat had taken her hand, for comfort, and they had sat there in silence for a while. Sometimes it seemed as if the world itself was broken, that there was something wrong with all of us, something broken in such a way that it might not be put together again; but the holding of hands, human hand in human hand, could help, could make the world seem less broken. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 3af0c32 | Fury | John Boyne | ||
| 697a381 | Cattle liked to stand on the roadside at night and would suddenly step out into the paths of oncoming cars, almost as if they were curious to find out what lay behind the headlights. Perhaps they thought that the headlights were torches, held by their owners, and came out to see if they brought food; perhaps they were looking for warmth and thought the lights were the sun. Perhaps they thought nothing in particular, which was always possibl.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 0a93163 | Make sure that the road is always clear for your enemy to leave'? | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| ac79b23 | She meant it, and as she spoke, she thought how strange it was that we so very rarely said complimentary things to our friends, and how easy it was to do so, and how it made the world seem a less harsh place. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| d81f15b | You're right. Many nurses nowadays don't like doing the things that nurses used to have to do. Changing sheets and collecting bedpans - that sort of thing. Nursing has moved on, Bertie.' Bertie was puzzled. 'But if they don't do that,' he said, 'then who does? Do people have to tuck themselves into bed when they're in hospital?' Irene was amused by this and raised her eyes again. 'Dear Bertie, no, not at all. They have other people now to d.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 57b6500 | We live in a culture of complaint because everyone is always looking for things to complain about. It's all tied in with the desire to blame others for misfortunes and to get some form of compensation into the bargain. | complaints culture u-s-education | Alexander McCall Smith | |
| 930fa13 | She smiled at the memory. Her father, her dearest daddy, had become late many years ago now, but she still thought of him every day. Now she remembered his words about 'the look' and reminded herself that she used that expression about people, too. Some people had 'the look' and others did not. It was something to do with confidence, she thought. You had the look if you knew who you were, what you were doing, and why you were doing it. That.. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 88af718 | Cat was searching for the company of one who would make her happy. Some of us did not have to look long for that person, some of us found him or her with little difficulty; others had longer to look, and had less luck. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 87db4fa | But some of us cannot see love, she said to herself, even when it is there, right before us, asking us to invite it in. | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| 8b943e9 | We should all busy ourselves in being who we are, although many of us do not and spend so much time and energy being something else. We try to be what others want us to be, or what we ourselves want to be. And then we suddenly realise that our lives have shot past and we have not got round to being who we really | Alexander McCall Smith | ||
| c9b0b23 | The people too seemed diminished. Her favourite aunt was still her favourite, of course, but whereas she had always been impressed by the wisdom of what her aunt said, now her words seemed no more than trite. And what was worse, she had actually felt embarrassed at some of her pronouncements, thinking that such observations would seem quaint in Gaborone. That had made her feel guilty, and she had tried to smile appreciatively at her aunt's .. | Alexander McCall Smith |