Emma H > Emma's Quotes

“You can go through life and make new friends every year - every month practically - but there was never any substitute for those friendships of childhood that survive into adult years. Those are the ones in which we are bound to one another with hoops of steel.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“every man has a map in his heart of his own country and that the heart will never allow you to forget this map. (p. 18)”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“We don't forget.... Our heads may be small, but they are as full of memories as the sky may sometimes be full of swarming bees, thousands and thousands of memories, of smells, of places, of little things that happened to us and which came back, unexpectedly, to remind us who we are.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“The problem, of course, was that people did not seem to understand the difference between right and wrong. They needed to be reminded about this, because if you left it to them to work out for themselves, they would never bother. They would just find out what was best for them, and then they would call that the right thing. That's how most people thought.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“These men were like leeches; they sucked away at the goodness of a woman's heart until it was dry and all her love had been used up. That took a long time, he knew, because women seemed to have vast reservoirs of goodness in them”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“Women are the ones who knows what's going on,' she said quietly . 'They are the ones with eyes. Have you not heard of Agatha Christie?”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“We were the Bechuanaland Protectorate then, and the British ran our country, to protect us from the Boers (or that is what they said). There was a Commissioner down in Mafikeng, over the border into South Africa, and he would come up the road and speak to the chiefs. He would say: "You do this thing; you do that thing." And the chiefs all obeyed him because they knew that if they did not he would have them deposed. But some of them were clever, and while the British said "You do this," they would say "Yes, yes, sir, I will do that" and all the time, behind their backs, they did the other thing or they just pretended to do something. So for many years, nothing at all happened. It was a good system of government, because most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“Boys, men," she said. "They're all the same. They think that this [their manhood] is something special and they're all so proud of it. They do not know how ridiculous it is.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“Talking about pumpkins doesn't make them grow.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“Mma Ramotswe had a detective agency in Africa, at the foot of Kgale Hill. These were its assets: a tiny white van, two desks, two chairs, a telephone, and an old typewriter. Then there was a teapot, in which Mma Ramotswe – the only lady private detective in Botswana – brewed redbush tea. And three mugs – one for herself, one for her secretary, and one for the client. What else does a detective agency really need? Detective agencies rely on human intuition and intelligence, both of which Mma Ramotswe had in abundance. No inventory would ever include those, of course.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“There was so much suffering in Africa that it was tempting just to shrug your shoulders and walk away. But you can't do that, she thought. You just can't.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“Lightning always strikes in the same place twice," said Mma Ramotswe. "Whatever people say to the contrary.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

“Mma Ramotswe did not like lying, but sometimes it was necessary, particularly when faced with people who were promoted beyond their talents.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency