A Time of Love and Tartan Quotes

“Hate is very easy to unleash," the Duke continued. "All you need is the Other. And then people will take over from you and do all the hating that needs to be done, all the belittling, all the insulting and bullying.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Time of Love and Tartan

“It’s just that I think people should be…well, a bit more honest. We don’t like being told half-truths. Or being lied to…People can tell, you know. They know when they’re being lied to. Politicians find that out – eventually.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Time of Love and Tartan

“for all its problems, it was dear; for all its wars and hatreds and poisons, it was dear because we loved it and did not want to lose it. Most of us did not want to die; most of us wanted to wake up each morning and find we were still here; most of us did not want to say goodbye to the friends we had and the places we went and the things we did. Most of us wanted the place we lived in to carry on being the place it had always been. Most of us wanted to live under the modest standards of love and acceptance rather than under the strident banners of dislike and rejection.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Time of Love and Tartan

“I am immensely fortunate. I am alive. In this vast cosmos of swirling planets, so many of them sterile and dead, baking or swathed in clouds of methane or whatever it is they are swathed in, I am alive in a dear green place…and there is somebody who actually loves me.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Time of Love and Tartan

“And now,” said the Duke, “there’s something very unpleasant on the loose. We may pretend that it isn’t; we may deny it, but we know that there are more and more people who hate those whom they used not to hate. And there are even some who encourage this hate, who harbour that hate within themselves and are happy to see it flourish in the breasts of others.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Time of Love and Tartan

“It’s the destruction of civility,” said the Duke. “Twenty years ago, people may have had their differences of opinion – of course they did – but they did not abuse one another for it. They respected those with whom they disagreed. They spoke courteously.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Time of Love and Tartan

“In the past we’ve been so casual about hurting people, about allowing people to be disparaged because they’re different in some way. If you disparage people for what they are, then you’re saying something about their nature, about who they are. You’re saying You don’t count as much as others because of what you are.” He paused. “And that’s pretty devastating, isn’t it?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Time of Love and Tartan

“Arbroath”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Time of Love and Tartan