“You can't deceive your own mother. That's the one person, the only one, to whom you will always be transparent.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
My parents were very supportive and always encouraged us. My father was a gentle, nice man. My mother was quite a colourful… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“It was all very well occupying the moral high ground on electoral reform, but what really mattered, she thought, was how you… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“That’s perfect,” he said. “I’m sorry about that. It’s genetic, I think. My mother had exactly the same problem, and a cousin… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“If more women were in power, they wouldn't let wars break out," she said. "Women can't be bothered with all this fighting.… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“If you knew what is was like to be another person, then how could you possibly do something which would cause pain?… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Daughters could survive a powerful mother, but boys found it almost impossible. Such boys were often severely damaged and spent the rest… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Bertie stared at his mother. She spoils things, he thought. All she ever does is spoil things. He had not started this… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“(Mma Ramotswe thinking about what her father taught her…) “Having the right approach to life was a great gift in this life….Do… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“She brought a chair into the room and placed it alongside the top of his bed. Then she held his hand as… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“She smiled at the memory. Her father, her dearest daddy, had become late many years ago now, but she still thought of… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
And how we become like our parents! How their scorned advice - based, we felt in our superiority, on prejudices and muddled… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“We find what we are looking for in life, her father had once said to her, which was true—if you look for… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“She was thinking of Mobile, where her mother—her “sainted American mother,” as she called her—had spent her childhood. That was a place… — 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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“Because laughs never die away entirely,” said Jamie. “At least, if you believe in Marconi.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“The trouble with having a conscience, she said to herself, is that it never sleeps.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
