In the Company of Cheerful Ladies Quotes

“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, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“Mma Ramotswe sighed. 'We are all tempted, Mma. We are all tempted when it comes to cake.'

That is true,' said Mma Potokwane sadly. 'There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“She had so much love to give - she had always felt that - and now there was somebody to whom she could give this love, and that, she knew, was good; for that is what redeems us, that is what makes our pain and sorrow bearable - this giving of love to others, this sharing of the heart.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni was not a lazy man, but it was remarkable to reflect how most men imagined that things like tea and food would simply appear if they waited long enough. There would always be a woman in the background--a mother, a girlfriend, a wife--who would ensure that those needs would be met.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“Well,” said Mma Ramotswe, “I have felt that anger. I felt it when I saw that the van had gone. I felt it a bit in the truck on the way back. But what is the point of anger now, Mma? I don’t think that anger will help us.” Mma Makutsi sighed. “You are right about anger,” she said. “There is no point in it.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“those who crept about at night risked stepping on a snake if they were not careful, as snakes move out of our way only if they feel vibrations in the ground. A light person—a person of non-traditional build, for example—was at far greater risk of being bitten by a snake for that very reason. That was another argument, of course, for maintaining traditional build—consideration for snakes, and safety too.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“Doctors are allowed to tell us things which they might not do themselves. They know what the right thing is, but they may not be able to do it themselves. That does not mean that their advice is bad advice.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“People did not spend enough time sitting and talking, she thought, and it was important that sitting and talking time be preserved.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“What attracted men? Good looks? Certainly if a girl was pretty then she tended to get the attention of men; that was beyond any doubt at all. But it was not just prettiness that mattered, because there were many girls who did not look anything special but who seemed to find no difficulty in making men notice them. These girls dressed in a very careful way; they knew which colours appealed to men (red, and other bright colours; men were like cattle in that respect) [...]”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“We are all human, she would say. Men particularly. You must not be ashamed.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“There are many sick vehicles here, and I cannot leave them.
They are not dying, said Mma Makutsi firmly. They will still be here when we come back.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“Of course you could not allow yourself to think too much about these issues. One had to get on and to attend to the day-to-day business of living.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“If you knew what is was like to be another person, then how could you possibly do something which would cause pain? The problem, though, was that there seemed to be people in whom that imaginative part was just missing. It could be that they were born that way--with something missing from their brains--or it could be that they became like that because they were never taught by their parents to sympathise with others.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“There are many temptations in this life, but cake is probably one of the biggest of them.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“Cattle liked to stand on the roadside at night and would suddenly step out into the paths of oncoming cars, almost as if they were curious to find out what lay behind the headlights. Perhaps they thought that the headlights were torches, held by their owners, and came out to see if they brought food; perhaps they were looking for warmth and thought the lights were the sun. Perhaps they thought nothing in particular, which was always possible with cattle, and with some people too, for that matter.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“The people too seemed diminished. Her favourite aunt was still her favourite, of course, but whereas she had always been impressed by the wisdom of what her aunt said, now her words seemed no more than trite. And what was worse, she had actually felt embarrassed at some of her pronouncements, thinking that such observations would seem quaint in Gaborone. That had made her feel guilty, and she had tried to smile appreciatively at her aunt's remarks, but somehow the effort seemed too great. She knew this was wrong; she knew that you should never forget what you owed to home, and to family, and to the place that nurtured you, but sometimes it was difficult to put this into practice.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“It was all very well being a modern society, but the advent of prosperity and the growth of the towns was a poisoned cup from which one should drink with the greatest caution. One might have all the things which the modern world offered, but what was the use of these if they destroyed all that which gave you strength and courage and pride in yourself and your country?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“this was a consequence of increasing prosperity, which, curiously enough, just seemed to bring out greed and selfishness.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“She had so much love to give—she had always felt that—and now there was somebody to whom she could give this love, and that, she knew, was good; for that is what redeems us, that is what makes our pain and sorrow bearable—this giving of love to others, this sharing of the heart.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“It was a strange feeling, she had always thought; feeling the breathing of another, a reminder of how we all share the same air, and of how fragile we are. At least there was enough air in the world for everybody to breathe; at least people did not fight with one another over that. And it would be difficult, would it not, for the rich people to take all the air away from the poor people, even if they could take so many other things? Black people, white people: same air.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“This was the odour of poverty, of life on the edge of making do; the smell of carefully husbanded cooking fuel, of clothes that were not washed frequently enough—for lack of soap.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“The only explanation was that people who did that sort of thing had no understanding of what others felt; they simply did not understand. If you knew what it was like to be another person, then how could you possibly do something which would cause pain?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“liked”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“And then there was the delicate issue of what to do with one’s bottom while one was walking. Some people thought that one could just leave one’s bottom to follow one when one was walking. Not so. A mere glance at any glamorous girl would show that the bottom had to be more involved.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“the mokopa, which was long and black and very poisonous and which was well-known to hate humans because of some distant wrong in snake memory.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“...I heard him say that he knew that he had been very stupid and that he would not be stupid again. Those were his very words, Mma, and I wrote them down on a piece of paper which we can keep in the office here and take out and wave at him some time in the future if we need to do so.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“And he readily admitted that he knew nothing about women's clothing, as most men would have to admit; and yet women always claimed to know what clothes were right for a man. There was some injustice here, thought Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, although he was not quite sure how one might pursue the point.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“He is a good, kind man,” said Mma Potokwane. “And such men are often too busy. I have noticed that round here too. That man I was talking to just then—one of our groundsmen—he is like that. He is so kind that everybody asks him to do everything. We had a bad-tempered man working here once and he had nothing to do because nobody, apart form myself, of course, had the courage to ask him to do anything.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“When she had lived in Bobonong the houses seemed perfectly normal to her and the house in which her family lived had seemed quite comfortable. But looking at it with eyes that had seen Gaborone, and the large buildings there, their house had seemed mean and cramped.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

“DOING THE DONKEY WORK”
― Alexander McCall Smith, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies