603 Quotes by Alexander McCall Smith

So it was in Botswana, almost everywhere; ties of kinship, no matter how attenuated by distance or time, linked one person to another, weaving across the country a human blanket of love and community. And in the fibres of that blanket there were threads of obligation that meant that one could not ignore the claims of others. Nobody should starve; nobody should feel that they were outsiders; nobody should be alone in their sadness.

Now the tea began to do its work- as it always did- and the world that only a few minutes previously had seemed so bleak started to seem less so.

Sociopaths are attracted to politics because the see it as a sphere in which you can be ruthless and step all over people. That fact that some politicians can tell such awful lies is another example of sociopathy. Sociopaths lie—they see nothing wrong with it.

To lose your own language was like forgetting your mother, and as sad, in a way.

It was easy, terribly easy, to become with time a middle-aged spinster with a sharp tongue. She would have to guard against this.

There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them.

If you did not keep your yard in reasonable order, then your whole life would be similarly untidy. A messy yard told Mma Ramotswe everything she needed to know about its owner.

Dreadfully insincere,' said Angus. 'Psychopaths - every one of them. Show me a cat, Domenica, and I'll show you a psychopath. Textbook examples.

The previously unloved may find it hard to believe that they are now loved; that is such a miracle, they feel; such a miracle.