The Conditions of Unconditional Love Quotes

“but she was realistic and knew that these usages took hold quickly, and deeply, and there was little point in resisting them. The accusative case had similarly been under attack for years, and was on the point of raising the white flag of surrender – ‘They invited you and I’ was about to become grammatically correct, she thought, the first stage of that victory, aural familiarity, having been long since achieved.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“Oh, that’s all right,” said Jamie. “I thought that you might have agreed to sort something out—you know, your normal thing.” “Well, it might be a book group with issues,” Isabel said. Jamie gave her a disapproving look. “I should have guessed that,” he said. Then he added, “From what I’ve heard, all book groups have issues.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“We like a joke in the percussion section. Percussion and brass players are pretty uncomplicated types. Lots of noise—no refinement.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“...the claim of some people to having deeper roots in a place shouldn't of itself weaken the claims of those who came later. I don't think it's right to disenfranchise people who are born in a place simply because their grandparents were born elsewhere. Should you give such people second-rate status? Do you say to the children of immigrants: You don't count as much as those who go back further? Where's the justice in that?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“Human history, it seemed, was a great well of sorrow and suffering.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“Oh, that’s all right,” said Jamie. “I thought that you might have agreed to sort something out—you know, your normal thing.” “Well, it might be a book group with issues,” Isabel said. Jamie gave her a disapproving look. “I should have guessed that,” he said. Then he added, “From what I’ve heard, all book groups have issues.” Isabel thought about this. He was right, she decided. Most of the people she knew who were in book groups complained about something or other; no book group, it seemed, was perfect.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“I loved him for his potato dauphinois”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“Struwwelpeter”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“This was the salad bowl in which Lettuce would meet his end.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“Many women, she thought, are tired – tired to the bone, because they have to keep so much going. Her life was so much easier than the lives of many others – she never forgot that – but she might still be allowed to be tired because she had all these issues to deal with.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love

“It’s just that they’re modest about their playing. They don’t boast. That’s what counts, I think. If you’re modest about your abilities, then people don’t resent the fact that you’re better than they are.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Conditions of Unconditional Love