Top Alexander McCall Smith Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Alexander McCall Smith Biography

Alexander McCall Smith

R. Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees concerned with these issues.

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Alexander McCall Smith Quotes

The problem, of course, was that people did not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They needed to be reminded about this, because if you left it to them to work out for themselves, they would never bother. They would just find out what was best for them, and then they would call that the right thing. That's how most people thought.

Course, Differences, People, Reminded, Work Out, Wrong

I am just a tiny person in Africa, but there is a place for me, and for everybody, to sit down on this earth and touch it and call it their own.

Africa, Down, Earth, Everybody, Persons, Tiny

Antonia was very conscious of the corrosive power of envy and felt that it was this emotion, more than any other, which lay behind human unhappiness. People did not realize how widespread envy was.

Envy, Human, People, Power, Unhappy, Widespread

The Okavango Delta is an astonishing sight: the great Okavango River, rather than flow towards the sea, flows inland, into the sands of the Kalahari.

Okavango, Rivers, Sands, Sea, Sight

Daughters could survive a powerful mother, but boys found it almost impossible. Such boys were often severely damaged and spent the rest of their lives running away from their mothers, or from anybody who remotely reminded them of their mothers; either that, or they became their mothers, in a desperate, misguided act of psychological self defence.

Daughter, Daughters, Misguided, Mother, Running, Survive

Mma Ramotswe had a detective agency in Africa, at the foot of Kgale Hill. These were its assets: a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, a telephone, and an old typewriter. Then there was a teapot, in which Mma Ramotswe – the only lady private detective in Botswana – brewed redbush tea. And three mugs – one for herself, one for her secretary, and one for the client. What else does a detective agency really need? Detective agencies rely on human intuition and intelligence, both of which Mma Ramotswe had in abundance. No inventory would ever include those, of course.

Client, Course, Mma, Telephone, Two, White

But you cannot expect every writer to dwell on human suffering. I think my books do deal with grave issues. People who say they are too positive probably havent read them.

Book, Deal, Issues, Probably, Read, Thinking

It seems to me that we're in danger of losing sight of certain basic civic values in society by allowing the growth of a whole generation of people who really have no sense of attachment to society.

Allowing, Attachment, Basic, People, Sight, Society

I'm very interested in tea. I wouldn't mind being involved in some aspect of the tea industry.

Aspect, Industry, Mind, Tea

You can go through life and make new friends every year - every month practically - but there was never any substitute for those friendships of childhood that survive into adult years. Those are the ones in which we are bound to one another with hoops of steel.

Adult, Friendship, Life, Month, Survive, Years

One of the most destructive things that's happening in modern society is that we are losing our sense of the bonds that bind people together - which can lead to nightmares of social collapse.

Collapse, Losing, Modern, Nightmares, People, Together

And that, in a way, was the burden of being a philosopher: one knew what one had to do, but it was so often the opposite of what one really wanted to do.

Burden, Opposites, Philosopher, Way

I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.

Book, Focus, Plot, Grows, Lines

Many of my books are written from a female perspective. I rather enjoy the take that women have on the world, and certainly I enjoy the conversations that women have.

Book, Enjoy, Female, Perspective, Take, World

As a writer I've learned certain lessons. One of them is to be careful about how you put a view, and to bear in mind how easily and readily you'll be misinterpreted.

Bear, Careful, Lessons, Mind, Views

Lou knew that joy unshared was a halved emotion, just as sadness and loss, when borne alone, were often doubled.

Doubled, Joy, Loss, Lou, Sadness, Unshared

We should be careful of the insults we fling at others, lest they return and land at our feet, newly minted to apply to those who had first coined them.

Apply, Feet, Land, Life, Minted, Return

My parents were very supportive and always encouraged us. My father was a gentle, nice man. My mother was quite a colorful character and a keen reader who encouraged me to write.

Encouraged, Father, Man, Mother, Nice, Reader

It would be wonderful to have a guru; it would be like having a social worker or a personal trainer, not that people who had either of these necessarily appreciated the advice they received.

Advice, People, Received, Worker, Would Be

None of us knows how we will cope with snakes until the moment arises, and then most of us find out that we do not do it very well.

Arise, Arises, Moment, Moments, Snakes

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