The Lost Art of Gratitude Quotes

“Myth could be as sustaining as reality - sometimes even more so.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“Moral beauty existed as clearly as any other form of beauty and perhaps that was where we could find the God who was so vividly, and sometimes bizarrely, described in our noisy religious explanations. It was an intriguing thought, as it meant that a concert could be a spiritual experience, a secular painting a religious icon, a beguiling face a passing angel.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“It was just too easy to say that adults did not like stories that were simple, and perhaps that was wrong. Perhaps that was what adults really wanted, searched for and rarely found: a simple story in which good triumphs against cynicism and dispair. That was what she wanted, but she was aware of the fact that one did not publicise the fact too widely, certainly not in sophisticated circles. Such circles wanted complexity, dysfunction and irony: there was no room for joy, celebration or pathos. But where was the FUN in that?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“When meeting for lunch somebody one’s uncomfortable with, it’s important to have somewhere to look, don’t you agree?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“The readers of Isabel's journal were affected by the conversations within its covers-if nothing else, the livingroom of their moral imagination became bigger. And this must surely have some bearing on the way they dealt with the world, even in the small transactions of life: awareness of the pain of others here, a word of comfort there. Of course, the admission of kindness to one's life did not spring from any contimplation of the views of Hobbes (selfish Hobbes) and Hume (the good, generous Davey), but it did no harm to know about all of that. And that was where philosophy really did count: it set out the major choices behind all of those practical day-to-day questions of charity and understanding and simple decency; it was the weatherthe backdrop against which those practical matters were debated.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“Isabel is looking at several collections of research journals. 'She would understand the issues if she chose to open one of the volumes, but she knew that there were conversations within which she would never have the time to participate in. And that, of course, was the problem with any large collection of books, whether in a library or a bookshop: one might feel intimidated by the fact that there was simply too many to read and not know where to start.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“For a moment, Isabel's eyes met those of someone looking out of the window, a thin-faced woman with her hair done up in a bun. The woman began a smile, but stopped, as if conscious of somehow transgressing the conventions of isolation with which as city-dwellers we immure ourselves. The bus moved on, and zisabel felt a sudden desire to run alongside it, to wave to the woman, to aknowledge the unexpected exchange of fellow feeling between them. But she did mot, necause she never acted on these impulses, and because it might have puzzled or even frightened the other woman.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“A funambulist!" muttered Isabel.
Eddie, moving towards the door, stopped. "What's that?"
Isabel explained. "Cat's new boyfriend. A funambulist. One who walks on tightropes."
Like all of us, she thought. In the final analysis.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“[Moral philosophy] also has to bear in mind who we are, our human limitations. It's not just something that one does in armchairs." As she spoke, she thought of her own armchair. The last time she had sat in it, she had drifted off to sleep while watching the news. For a moral philosopher's armchair, she thought, it's somewhat under-used.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“coruscating”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“That at least was a consolation: separation and loss were something that we all experienced; the pain was shared, and was perhaps easier for that.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“People who looked after animals were by and large kind people; they simply practised kindness, unlike those who made much of it. Thus, thought Isabel, are virtues best cultivated—in discretion and silence, away from the gaze of others, known only to those who act virtuously and to those who benefit from what is done.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“Had he sailed too close to the wind? No, in his case another meteorological metaphor was appropriate perhaps: he had reaped whirlwinds—or at least what he had sown. She looked at her watch.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“Minty’s in a bit of trouble, and he was not surprised. He said something about her sailing too close to the wind.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“Gratitude was a lost art, she felt. People accepted things, took them as their right, and had forgotten how to give proper thanks.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“That’s precisely what I’m saying: in order to become better people, we must practise,” Isabel said.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“She should not have taken any of these people at face value. She had been naive. But this conclusion, she realized, pointed unambiguously in the direction of cynicism. And she would not be a cynic. It was better to be naive, much better.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“looked at Jock Dundas, who was”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“the vet and the wound”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“acknowledge the unexpected exchange of fellow feeling between”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“old-fashioned, gentle Scottish physician, unmoved by the considerations of profit and personal gain that could so disfigure medicine. That doctors should consider themselves businessmen was, Isabel had always felt, a moral tragedy for medicine.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude

“None of us, she thought, wants the world we know to come to an end; we do not want familiar things to be taken from us.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude