“You did not squeeze hands when you lied; it could not be done.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
But don't we often lie to people we love, or not tell them things, precisely because we love them? — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
There was a distinction between lying and telling half-truths, but it was a very narrow one. — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“It is undoubtedly the case that the practice of the virtues makes one happier. We’ve somewhat lost sight of that essential truth,… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“. . . there was something that Isabel had said that always stuck in his mind. Remember what you have and the… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“You know the best example of sincerity? The absolute gold standard? Who? Angus pointed to the door, outside which Cyril was waiting… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Truth had a way of coming out on top—and it was just as well for everybody that it did. If there ever… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“The country must be full of liars,” she continued. “There must be liars around every corner. Liars hiding behind every bush. Liars… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“there is something there—some force, or truth, perhaps—to put it at its most general. I sense it, and I suppose I’d even… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“..."Charming people, when not actively shooting one another," a friend had once said, which was so unkind, but, like so many unkind… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“She had argued for a broad interpretation, which imposed a duty to answer questions truthfully, and not to hide facts which could… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“old-fashioned, gentle Scottish physician, unmoved by the considerations of profit and personal gain that could so disfigure medicine. That doctors should consider themselves businessmen… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“She had not made a lot of money, but she had not made a loss, and she had been happy and entertained. That counted… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
And that, in a way, was the burden of being a philosopher: one knew what one had to do, but it was so often… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“To use strong language, she thought, was a sign of bad temper and lack of concern for others. Such people were not clever or… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“Men are very sensitive, Mma Makutsi. You would not always think it to look at them, but they are. They do not like you… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“He is a good man, but even a good man can fall for a glamorous woman. That is well known.” “That is very well… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“And then the second thing you have to do is go and see your son. That is a duty of love, Andrew. It's as… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“Because laughs never die away entirely,” said Jamie. “At least, if you believe in Marconi.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“The trouble with having a conscience, she said to herself, is that it never sleeps.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“And if there's bad behaviour," Mma Potokwane went on. "If there's bad behaviour, the quickest way of stopping it is to give more love.… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“Has he not got a wife back wherever he comes from? Is there no wife to say, ‘You must not go off and visit… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“He looked at her in the darkness, at this woman who was everything to him-mother, Africa, wisdom, understanding, good things to eat, pumpkins, chicken,… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“It is because you are generous in spirit; and may I be like that; may I become like you—which unrealistic wish, to become the… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
“Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni,” she asked, “do you think that our souls grow as we get older?” He did not answer immediately, but when he did,… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share
