The Charming Quirks of Others Quotes

“But she realised that this was what anxiety was like—it knew no rhyme or reason; just as a fear of the dark cannot be assuaged by the pointing out that there was nothing there, anxiety could be without foundation.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“Tell her to make me a cambric shirt / Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme / Without no seam nor needlework / And then she’ll be a true love of mine.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“There, I've thought it. I've thought the thing I knew I should think. And I feel better for it, because although it's harder to love, it's always better.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“Life's goalposts, and hurdles too, are never in the right place, she told herself; and they have the unfortunate habit of shifting within seconds. One sees them, and then suddenly they are no longer there, where they should be, but somewhere altogether elsewhere.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“And what, she wondered, was the difference between vulgar curiosity and acceptable curiosity? Was it just that our own curiosity was perfectly understandable, whereas the curiosity of others was vulgar? She smiled at the thought; that sort of distinction lay at the heart of many of our acts of discrimination. What I like is art; what you like is kitsch. My old car has character; yours is a wreck.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“people who don’t show friendliness towards others can hardly complain about others not showing friendliness to them.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“There’s a daughter, but she’s not quite right, I believe. Unfortunately she’s a bit glaikit.” He used the Scots word for mental handicap. It was not a word that many used any more, preferring learning difficulties, the modern euphemism. But there was nothing unkind about glaikit, which survived because the policing of language had not extended to the Scots lexicon.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“course she wanted Jamie to the exclusion of all others—what were the precise words of the marriage service, before linguistic meddling had destroyed its poetry? Forsaking all others? What a powerful, resonant word was forsake. The phrase forsaking all others meant so much more, made its point so much more emphatically than its weaker alternatives.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“Christine’s tone bordered on the dismissive: there were ways of pronouncing cricket that indicated disapproval.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“Undisclosed failings, she thought; that great weight we all carry around with us, some of us for all our lives, unable to speak about them, unable -- involuntary Atlases all -- to share the burden.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“There are indeed ducks in Blackford Pond.” “On it,” muttered Isabel. “What?” “On the pond. There are ducks on the pond. There are fish in it.” Even as she spoke, Isabel had no idea why she was being so pedantic, and”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“forgiveness of others allows us to adjust our feelings towards the past, assuages our anger. Our”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“Non omnis moriar, said Horace’s Odes—I shall not wholly die. Yes, and he was right. As long as people remembered, then death was not complete. Only if there were nobody at all left to remember would death be complete.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“But that’s what the world is all about, Jamie. Stories. Stories explain everything, bring everything together.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“I have the luxury, I suppose, of being self-employed. But I know what it’s like to apply for jobs.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“chairs are public, and one only needs to seek permission to sit in another’s chair if the owner of the room is present; once you were by yourself, any chair was fair game. Except the chairs of really important people—one should not sit on a throne when left unattended in a monarch’s throne room; that really was going too far. And yet who would miss such an opportunity? There could surely be little doubt but that visitors”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“That was what the story of Goldilocks and the three bears was all about: breach of trust.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“There was corruption at every turn, and those who stood for honesty and integrity were more and more vulnerable, more and more isolated amongst the hordes of people who simply had no moral sense. And”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“People punish themselves—sometimes for years. But it’s not always necessary. Forgiveness allows everybody to start again, not to be burdened with a whole lot of old business.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“People were only too ready to believe things that were manifestly untrue. When it came to remarks that portrayed others in a bad light, people were happy to believe things that showed others to be weak or flawed in some way: we believed that of them because it made us feel better; it was as simple as that.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“He shows the most amazing brass neck,” she said.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“One of the drawbacks to being a philosopher was that you became aware of what you should not do, and”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“Remember that, she said to herself; remember that in your dealings with others—they may be dying.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“She went on to say something else, but Jamie found his attention drifting. He was feeling sleepy, for it was warm, and he could lie there for ever, he thought, listening to the sound of Isabel’s voice, in the way one listens to the conversations of birds, or the sound of a waterfall descending the side of a Scottish mountain; sounds for which we cannot come up with a meaning, but which we love dearly with all our heart, and loving anything with all your heart always brings understanding, in time.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others

“It is because you are generous in spirit; and may I be like that; may I become like you—which unrealistic wish, to become the other, is such a true and revealing symptom of love, its most obvious clue, its unmistakable calling card.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Charming Quirks of Others