Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alexander McCall Smith
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: August 24
Novelist
Teacher
Writer
Alexander Sandy McCall Smith
Thinking
Give
Gift
Persons
Harder
Person
Accepting
Gracious
Giving
Forget
Cultivate
Much
Learn
Allowing
Things
Feelings
Bother
Never
Art
Acceptance
Think
Another
Express

More quotes by Alexander McCall Smith

Image
I'm interested in character and dialogue and exchange of ideas.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
I have three older sisters, so we were a reasonably large family and, in general, a happy one.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
We think the world is ours forever, but we are little more than squatters.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
It was time to take the pumpkin out of the pot and eat it. In the final analysis, that was what solved these big problems of life. You could think and think and get nowhere, but you still had to eat your pumpkin. That brought you down to earth. That gave you a reason for going on. Pumpkin.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Painters aren't expected to paint bleak pictures, are they?
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Life consists of positive and negative features, and I think that it is permissible to write about both.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
We are all tempted, Mma. We are all tempted when it comes to cake.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Botswana is actually very peaceful. It's democratic. It never was in debt. They've been fortunate, they've had diamonds.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
I am often thanked by people for inventing the term traditionally built. The people who give me thanks for this are often traditionally built themselves.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
It is the search for beauty...That is what it is. We find ourselves on this earth--gods and men--and we know that it is beautiful. That is one of the few things we understand--beauty because it is there, in the world, and we can see it all about us. We want beauty. It requires our love. It just does.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Who can't like pigs? They're wonderful creatures! I've always liked pigs.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
My parents were very supportive and always encouraged us. My father was a gentle, nice man. My mother was quite a colourful character and a keen reader who encouraged me to write.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Every small wrong, every minor act of cruelty, every act of petty bullying was symbolic of a greater wrong. And if we ignored these small things, then did it not blunt our outrage over the larger wrongs?
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
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.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
I'm very interested in tea. I wouldn't mind being involved in some aspect of the tea industry.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
I have always taken the view that one should never hold against a man anything he says after twelve o'clock at night or after a glass or two of anything.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
A wedding was a strange ceremony, she thought, with all those formal words, those solemn vows made by one to another whereas the real question that should be put to the two people involved was a very simple one. Are you happy with each other? was the only question that should be asked to which they both should reply, preferably in unison, Yes.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Ritual is a terribly important, binding cement in a society. If we abandon formality and rituals, we're actually weakening the relationships that exist between people that bind.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Dogs are in on our human silliness lions are not.
Alexander McCall Smith