Casey

“The manacles we forge for ourselves might be comfortable ones, may not chafe too much, and yet they are manacles nonetheless – bonds of family, of profession, of debt, of personal obligation. Or they may be woven of the simple and only too familiar lassitude that prevents us from doing anything to disturb the established patterns of our life.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, Love in the Time of Bertie

“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

“believe in reforming things that need to be reformed. I believe in social goods. I believe that the most stable and probably the most reasonable position on anything is probably to be found in the centre. I believe in compromise and sharing and making sure that everybody has a chance. I believe that we should listen to one another and accept that those with whom we may disagree have their own view of the good and should be respected. I believe in not insulting those from whom we differ.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, A Promise of Ankles

“Everything was so clear-cut to the student mind; the truth was passionately proclaimed, rather than half-believed in, which was how more experienced people thought of things. The more experienced had generally discovered that there were no longer any privileged, exclusive truths – there were just the various shades of possibility.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, Love in the Time of Bertie