Quote

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.

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
Careful
Minted
Return
Coined
Feet
Insults
Land
Newly
Others
Fling
Firsts
Lest
First
Apply
Life
Insult

More quotes by Alexander McCall Smith

Image
The good were worthy of note because they battled and that battle was a great story, whereas the evil were evil because of moral laziness, or weakness, and that was ultimately a dull and uninteresting affair.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
I think that we've made great moral progress in the second half of the 20th century in many respects, and particularly in relation to human rights but I think that we are losing sight of some of the values of concern for others, and self-respect and respect for others.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Manners are the basic building blocks of civil society.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
I cannot see myself in a new car. I am a tiny white van person. That is what i want!
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
I enjoy women's conversation, and I think that helps me to describe them in fiction.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
It's through the small things that we develop our moral imagination, so that we can understand the sufferings of others.
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
[Edinburgh] is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Dating is really all about sex. In the conventional context, this means that the man invites the woman to go through a social encounter, the ultimate purpose of which is sexual engagement.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
It is sometimes easier to be happy if you don't know everything.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Everything has been something before.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
The telling of a story, like virtually everything in this life, was always made all the easier by a cup of tea.
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
I write four books a year. I'm very fortunate that I write quickly around 3,500 words a day. Being strict about delineating my writing time and personal life, as well as keeping distractions at bay, is the only way I can accomplish this.
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
A life without stories would be no life at all. And stories bound us, did they not, one to another, the living to the dead, people to animals, people to the land?
Alexander McCall Smith
Image
That of all people, it should be him that took her aback. That the heart should settle on somebody like him that surprised her. But she was so certain about it, so certain.
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
That my philosophy of life is, as far as possible, one of enjoyment. I'm not nihilistic.
Alexander McCall Smith