Alexander McCall Smith Quotes

83 quotes in 1067 categories

• You can go through life and make new friends every year - every month practically - but there was never any substitute for those friendships…
• A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living to the dead,…
• But don't we often lie to people we love, or not tell them things, precisely because we love them?
• The point about love, the essential point, was that we loved what we loved. We did not choose. We just loved.
• Do you realise that people die of boredom in London suburbs? It's the second biggest cause of death amongs the English in general. Sheer boredom...
• Gracious acceptance is an art - an art which most never bother to cultivate. We think that we have to learn how to give, but…
• Most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always…
• Writers obviously have to bear witness to the harsh face of the age.
• The telling of a story, like virtually everything in this life, was always made all the easier by a cup of tea.
• It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems…
• We all know that it is women who take the decisions, but we have to let men think that the decisions are theirs. It is…
• Be content with who you are and where you are, and do whatever you can do to bring to others such contentment, and joy, and…
• There are many women whose lives would be immeasurably improved by widowhood, but one should not always point that out.
• If your ceiling should fall down, then you have lost a room, but gained a courtyard. Think of it that way.
• There is plenty of work for love to do.
• There is room in history for all of us.
• The previously unloved may find it hard to believe that they are now loved; that is such a miracle, they feel; such a miracle.
• It is not enough just to identify a problem; there are plenty of people who were very skilled at pointing out what was wrong with…
• The Culture of Complaint... We live in a culture of complaint because everyone is always looking for things to complain about. It's all tied in…
• The good were worthy of note because they battled and that battle was a great story, whereas the evil were evil because of moral laziness,…

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