Alexander McCall Smith

“people are very slow to say sorry. I”

— Alexander McCall Smith

Self-pity does not appreciate pedantry.

— Alexander McCall Smith

Everything has been something before.

— Alexander McCall Smith

“it,’ he said. ‘People change their”

— Alexander McCall Smith

“...is under active consideration.”

— Alexander McCall Smith

I am capable of being idle.

— Alexander McCall Smith

There is room in history for all of us.

— Alexander McCall Smith

Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.

— Alexander McCall Smith

“were in need of bodywork. It had always amused”

— Alexander McCall Smith

We are all tempted, Mma. We are all tempted when it comes to cake.

— Alexander McCall Smith

“Words can make big things little, you know.”

— Alexander McCall Smith

“Love had transformed the world for me. Transformed it.”

— Alexander McCall Smith

“Special things have a way of surviving.”

— Alexander McCall Smith

Manners are the basic building blocks of civil society.

— Alexander McCall Smith

“Morality is for everyone and that is what”

— alexander mccall smith

“Anthropology, she thought, like charity, surely begins at home.”

— Alexander McCall Smith

“they were two people thrown together on a journey, who found themselves sharing the same railway compartment and becoming resigned to each…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“There are plenty of people who might prefer to go sideways. What about them? How are we to inspire them?”

— Alexander McCall Smith

“Manfred's interventions, he thought, had all the characteristics of radio jamming, designed to stop anybody else talking.”

— Alexander McCall Smith

“substitute for those friendships of childhood that survive into adult years. Those are the ones in which we are bound to one”

— Alexander McCall Smith

“She was, he reflected, one of his closest friends, in a rather curious, slightly old-fashioned way.”

— Alexander McCall Smith

“Distant wrongs, she thought: an interesting issue in moral philosophy. Do past wrongs seem less wrong to us simply because they are…

— Alexander McCall Smith

It was easy to be moral when that was the way you felt anyway. The hard bit about morality was making yourself…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“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

“We’ve all had that sort of experience,” said Mma Ramotswe. “Every one of us, Mma. We’ve all had a first day at…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“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

“Without delay,” echoed Charlie. “Those are very good words, I think. Without delay. Please will you pay my bill without delay. Please…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“He evidently did not care that they were in full view of a cluster of dog-owners walking their dogs. He stopped and…

— Alexander McCall Smith

To lose a child ... was something that could end one's world. One could never get back to how it was before.…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“How do you calibrate pain?” asked Jamie. “By cutting out the background pain of the world,” answered Isabel. “By cutting all that…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“There are some people who should not be allowed on the road. Maybe they shouldn't even be allowed to walk anywhere, either.…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“[...]there was always a part of the human mind that was prepared to entertain such notions, particularly at night, in the world…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“those who crept about at night risked stepping on a snake if they were not careful, as snakes move out of our…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“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

“good things that we have in life are on temporary loan, at best, and can be taken away from us in an…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“If the lord came back today, [Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni] thought, he would probably be a mechanic, he reflected. That would be a…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“He would sit down and consider the situation carefully. Not only did this help to identify the solution to the problem, but…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“They realized that belief of whatever sort-whether it was the faith in History and the State, as in the shattered halls of…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“...when she had those dreams at night, he was there, as if he had never died, although she knew, even in the…

— Alexander McCall Smith

“Mma Makutsi pondered this. "Why are there fewer and fewer gentlemen, Mma Ramotswe?" "It is our fault, Mma. It is the fault…

— Alexander McCall Smith