Alexander McCall Smith: Thing

“Do not act meanly, do not be unkind, because the time for setting things right may pass before your heart changes course.
Isabel Dalhousie”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Careful Use of Compliments

Source: The Careful Use of Compliments

Change , Time , Heart

“But don't we often lie to people we love, or not tell them things, precisely because we love them?”

Alexander McCall Smith book Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

Source: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate

Love , People , Lie

“That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle.”

Alexander McCall Smith The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Source: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

People , Business , Problem , Thinking

“… great things may come from moments of nothingness.”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Miracle at Speedy Motors

Source: The Miracle at Speedy Motors

“You are a lucky lady to be marrying a man who can fix things. Most husbands just break things.”

Alexander McCall Smith book Morality for Beautiful Girls

Source: Morality for Beautiful Girls

“We find what we are looking for in life, her father had once said to her, which was true—if you look for happiness, you will see it; if you look for distrust and envy and hatred—all those things—you will find those too.”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Full Cupboard of Life

Source: The Full Cupboard of Life

Life , Envy , Happiness

“Traditional Botswana men like ladies who are more traditionally shaped. You and I, Mma. We remind men of how things used to be in Botswana before these modern-shaped ladies started to get men all confused.”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Full Cupboard of Life

Source: The Full Cupboard of Life

Men

“Special things have a way of surviving.”

Alexander McCall Smith

Source: The World According to Bertie

Way

“These tests are designed to exclude others from the discourse - just as the word discourse is itself designed to do. These words are intended to say to people: this is a group thing. If you don't understand what we're talking about, you're not a member of the group. So, if you call this place the Canny Man's it shows that you belong, that you know what's what in Edinburgh. And that, you know, is what everybody wants, underneath. We want to belong.”

Alexander McCall Smith book Espresso Tales

Espresso Tales, chapter 1.
The 44 Scotland Street series

People , Understanding

“The thought of Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni nursing secret, unfulfilled ambitions saddened Mma Ramotswe, as did the thought of people wanting something very much indeed and not getting the thing they yearned for. When we dismiss or deny the hopes of others, she thought, we forget that they, like us, have only one chance in this life.”

Alexander McCall Smith book Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, chapter 11.
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series

Life , People , Secret , Hope

“Every small wrong, every minor act of cruelty, every act of petty bullying was symbolic of a greater wrong. And if we ignored these small things, then did it not blunt our outrage over the larger wrongs?”

Alexander McCall Smith

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, chapter 48.
The 44 Scotland Street series

“But we make such mistakes all the time, all through our lives. Wisdom, I suppose, is seeing this and acting upon it before it is too late. But it is often too late, isn’t it? – and those things that we should have said are unsaid, and remain unsaid for ever.”

Alexander McCall Smith

Love Over Scotland, chapter 96.
The 44 Scotland Street series

Wisdom , Time

“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 world, but they were not always so adept at working out how these things could be righted.”

Alexander McCall Smith book Tea Time for the Traditionally Built

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built, chapter 1.
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series

People , World , Problem

“It’s very important to be able to accept things, you know. Gracious acceptance is an art – an art which most of never bother to cultivate. We think that we have to learn how to give, but we forget about accepting things, which can be much harder than giving.”

Alexander McCall Smith

Love Over Scotland, chapter 112.
The 44 Scotland Street series

Art , Thinking , Learning , Forgetting

“Things can end badly, as they sometimes do in life. But if they do, then we know that something is wrong, just as we know it when a piece of music doesn’t resolve itself properly at the end. We know that. We just do. And so we prefer harmony.”

Alexander McCall Smith

Love Over Scotland, chapter 102.
The 44 Scotland Street series

Life , Music