“We act out our lives to a soundtrack, thought Isabel, the music that becomes, for a spell, out favourite and is listened… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
Our minds can come up with the most entertaining possibilities, if we let them. But most of the time, we keep them… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“That, said Isabel, is the most painful feature of lost love. you wonder what the other person is doing. Right at this… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“But we all waste opportunities,’ said Domenica. Every single one of us. Every young person does it. It’s because we think we… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“She hoped that her baby was happy and would be waiting for her when she herself left Botswana and went to heaven.… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“These days people seemed to suggest that you should talk about everything, even those things that people never talked about in the… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Out in Saxe-Coburg Street she stood still for a moment and looked at the gardens. He kissed me, she thought. He made… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“By the time Domenica arrived at the Gothic Revival sandstone building on Queen Street, she had put out of her mind all… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“The danger, of course, is that we spend time imagining that we would be happier elsewhere, and forget to cultivate happiness where… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“His sixth year, it seemed to him, had lasted a remarkably long time and there were points at which he frankly wondered… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Surely it is better, thought Domenica, that forty-five should buy the book and actually read it, than should many thousands, indeed millions,… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
It was the same with friendship. Disagreement between friends and spouses, too had to be carefully handled. If the time you spent… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“So it was in Botswana, almost everywhere; ties of kinship, no matter how attenuated by distance or time, linked one person to… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“He knew that one should not punch people who annoyed one, although there was a case for it at times, a seemingly… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Something terrible happened and people began to shake. It was the reminder that frightened them; the reminder of just how close to… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“There was far too much interest in the past, she thought. People were forever digging up events that had taken place a… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“He represents innocence, and innocence has taken such a profound battering in our times. We have mocked it. We have sullied it.… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
But we make such mistakes all the time, all through our lives. Wisdom, I suppose, is seeing this and acting upon it… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“There are awkward moments from which one can retreat, and awkward moments from which there is no escape.” — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“Do not act meanly, do not be unkind, because the time for setting things right may pass before your heart changes course.… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“But if you do not forgive, and you think all the time about getting even, or punishing somebody who has done you… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“These men were like leeches; they sucked away at the goodness of a woman's heart until it was dry and all her… — Alexander McCall Smith Copy Share Image
“How many of us are happy to be exactly where we are at any moment?” — 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
