For a short while she considered the idea of orchestral courtesy. Certainly one should avoid giving political offense: German orchestras, of course, used to be careful about playing Wagner abroad, at least in some countries, choosing instead German composers who were somewhat more ... apologetic.

— Alexander McCall Smith

Go to any small village anywhere in the world, and see what they remember. Everything. It's all there -- passed on like a precious piece of information, some secret imparted from one who knew to one who yearns to know. Taken good care of.

— Alexander McCall Smith

Gracious acceptance is an art - an art which most 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.... Accepting another person's gift is allowing him to express his feelings for you.

— Alexander McCall Smith

Great art, she felt, had a calming effect on the viewer; it made one stop in awe, which is exactly what Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol did not do. You did not stop in awe. They stopped you in your tracks, perhaps, but that was not the same thing; awe was something quite different

— Alexander McCall Smith

Great feuds often need very few words to resolve them. Disputes, even between nations, between peoples, can be set to rest with simple acts of contrition and corresponding forgiveness, can so often be shown to be based on nothing much other than pride and misunderstanding, and the forgetting of the humanity of the other—and land, of course.

— Alexander McCall Smith

Has anyone send Mr Snark" "I saw him in the tunnel about 15 minutes ago." "Oh no" wailed Dr German "he will have been atomized." "Oh dear" muttered an MP. "Bye-election.

— Alexander McCall Smith

He evidently did not care that they were in full view of a cluster of dog-owners walking their dogs. He stopped and took her in his arms, kissing her passionately and urgently.

— Alexander McCall Smith

He had been thinking of how landscape molds a language. It was impossible to imagine these hills giving forth anything but the soft syllables of Irish, just as only certain forms of German could be spoken on the high crags of Europe; or Dutch in the muddy, guttural, flesh lowlands.

— Alexander McCall Smith

He smiled as he imagined the composite Jamie/Isabel, who would play the bassoon, read philosophy, interfere in other people's affairs rather too much, drive a green Swedish car and make legendary potatoes Dauphins.

— Alexander McCall Smith

He will be a small man inside," said MMA Remote. "He will feel small and unimportant. That is why he needs to put ladies down, MMA. Men who are big inside never feel the need to do that.

— Alexander McCall Smith