603 Quotes by Alexander McCall Smith

Leave them,” said Isabel. “Jamie can iron them himself. It’s very therapeutic for men to iron. Therapeutic for women, that is.

And if things go on as they are, in a few months the men will have cut all the trees down and that will be the end of the bubblegum tree - forever'.Nobody said anything. Billy thought that he had never heard such a sad story before. Surely somebody could do something before the bubblegum trees before it was too late.

There are broad shoulders, the saying went, even where there are no broad shoulders.

She had always understood that love could have an intense physical effect; could fill a space somewhere in the chest, could turn knees weak, could raise the pulse; could intoxicate, just as could a strong martini or a glass of champagne. Could, she thought, and would…but only if you allowed it, only if you opened whatever portals of the heart needed to be opened. And some people, of course, found it difficult to do that.

…the world was a vale of tears—it always had been.

«Siamo quelle che per prime hanno arato la terra quando Modise (Dio) la creò», recitava un antico poema setswana. «Noi siamo quelle che preparano il cibo. Noi siamo quelle che badano agli uomini quando sono ancora bambini, quando sono giovanotti e quando sono vecchi e in procinto di morire. Noi ci siamo sempre. Ma siamo solo donne, e nessuno ci vede.»

The forges of friendship, thought Angus, may be busy ones, but their dorrs are always open.

It was a pink sort of smell- a smell that seemed to get bigger as you smelled it and then burst, just like the popping of a bubble

Teaching is so demanding, and you get so little support. That pinch will have done Olive no harm - probably a lot of good.''Do you really think so?''Yes,' said Matthew. But then he went on, rather sadly, 'But I suppose that's not the world we live in, with all these regulations and busybodies about.' He paused. 'I think you've struck a blow for sanity. Or rather, pinched one.'She thought this very funny and laughed.'I'm rather fed up with teaching anyway,' Elspeth said.