From a Far and Lovely Country Quotes

“undoubtedly true: there seemed to be rather a lot of these people around. Why was this? Because people were being brought up without a sense of what was right or wrong? Because we were forgetting that we were brothers and sisters to one another? Because greed and lying had been promoted as things of which you need not be ashamed? Because people were encouraged to want more and more? Any one of”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country

“That was probably not true, she admitted to herself, but it was important to hope that something was true, even if you knew that it was unlikely. There was always work for hope to do.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country

“sisters who would have been sisters had our parents filled in the necessary paperwork.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country

“Life would be dull indeed if you did not have the companionship of people with strong views, talking shoes, and ninety-seven per cent in their final examinations.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country

“It is sometimes the wrong cattle who get all the grass, her late father was fond of observing.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country

“Mma Potokwane was an extremely intelligent woman—as well as an excellent baker of fruitcake. The two went together, she thought—or might do. Possibly.”
― Alexander Mccall Smith (Author), From a Far and Lovely Country

“Home was so often somewhere else, somewhere rather far away, where nobody would ever have to ask you your name—because they would already know, just as you would know theirs.”
― Alexander Mccall Smith (Author), From a Far and Lovely Country

“That was how it was, she told herself: it is only when we get a bit older that we realise that our parents knew what they were talking about.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country

“She would put up with the hands of the weaker brethren on her shoulders, should it come to that, because she would never turn away anybody in need. How could one? she asked herself.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country

“She made herself a cup of red bush tea, extra strong, because it was her birthday, and prepared herself two pieces of toast that she spread thickly with butter and jam, and then made a third piece, once again because it was her birthday, and if you can’t eat three slices of thickly buttered toast on your birthday, then when can you treat yourself to such a thing?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country

“forgetting to do something did not involve any intention to harm—it was something that happened to you, rather than something you decided to do. And there was a difference between those two things, she thought.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, From a Far and Lovely Country