603 Quotes by Alexander McCall Smith

Do you know that dogs are descendants of wolves – all dogs, even those ridiculous little dogs you see in the parks. Wolves. Imagine how embarrassed a real wolf would be if he knew that he was cousin to a shih-tzu? Of course, we shouldn’t think animals have feelings like us – I don’t think they can be embarrassed, do you? My daughter’s cat is incapable of feeling anything very much, I can tell you – and certainly not embarrassment...

The trouble with this country... is that we are utterly surrounded by busybodies trying to stop us doing things. Or telling us what to do... Big Brother, with his ubiquitous closed-circuit cameras-which now monitored, it seemed, every square inch of public space-and his condescending imprecations and warnings, was everywhere... In his view, it was up to the individual whether or not to approach a cliff edge; it was not the Government’s business.

We can be confident in our dealings with the world when what the world sees is the outer person, with all the outer person’s defences: the intimacy of a love affair is a different matter altogether. And who might not feel just the slightest bit insecure under the gaze of a lover – a gaze which falls on birthmarks, on blemishes physical and psychological, on our imperfections and impatience, on our human vulnerability?

I suppose that’s the way affairs come to an end. Somebody grabs a fork and stabs the other in the hand. And that’s it.

To dispatch one’s friends to a dictionary from time to time is one of the more sophisticated pleasures of life, but it is one that must be indulged in sparingly: to do it too often may result in accusations of having swallowed one’s own dictionary, which is not a compliment, whichever way one looks at it.

It was curious how some people had a highly developed sense of guilt, she thought, while others had none. Some people would agonise over minor slips or mistakes on their part, while others would feel quite unmoved by their own gross acts of betrayal or dishonesty.

Telling a person with toothache that there are others with greater toothache than their own was no help at all.

We are all human, she would say. Men particularly. You must not be ashamed.

Yes, wisdom: that was something that came to everybody, although it came in varying quantities and at different times.