Alexander McCall Smith Quotes
And that, in a way, was the burden of being a philosopher: one knew what one had to do, but it was so often the opposite of what one really wanted to do.
Quotes to Explore
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I respect all women who came before me to blaze trails into the workplace for us.
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The truth is, it's not a great career move to create a readership and then, in effect, abandon them.
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My kids like their eggs with catsup. I like mine with salsa.
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I created my own charity called My Peak Challenge. We've been able to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds. It's helping change people's lives, and I've had lots of wonderful letters about it.
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During my first round of law school applications, I didn't even apply to Yale, Harvard, or Stanford - the mystical 'top three' schools. I didn't think I had a chance at those places. More important, I didn't think it mattered; all lawyers get good jobs, I assumed.
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I don't see any difference between Judea and Samaria and the rest of the country.
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No parent would fail to call the doctor if their child developed a fever.
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The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.
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That is how prison is tearing me up inside. It hurts every day. Every day takes me further from my life.
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I feel like moderate Republicans, who would support sensible gun violence legislation, are pushed aside by those folks who are absolutely beholden to the NRA.
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I know as soon as a game is finished if I have done well. I don't need people to tell me. I want to achieve perfection.
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Xi Jinping is one of the strongest and most capable revolutionary leaders I have met in my life.
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We're seeing conservatives and evangelicals and libertarian and Reagan Democrats all coming together as one, and that terrifies Washington, D.C.
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Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.
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I support affirmative action. I support special measures when you need it.
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To keep shooting at a folly after it is dead is unsportsmanlike.
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When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity. So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we escape our self-conscious selves.
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Part of the rationalist ethos is binding yourself emotionally to an absolutely lawful reductionistic universe - a universe containing no ontologically basic mental things such as souls or magic - and pouring all your hope and all your care into that merely real universe and its possibilities, without disappointment.
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Sometimes the simplest things are the most profound.
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The well-mannered man never puts out his hand in greeting until a lady extends hers. This is a test of good breeding that is constantly applied. ... The first move in the direction of cordiality must come from the lady, the whole code of behaviour being based on the assumption that she is the social superior.
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It is not too much to say that when the Great War broke out our Generals had the most important lessons of their art to learn. Before they began they had much to unlearn. Their brains were cluttered with useless lumber, packed in every niche and corner.
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I would like to dedicate to the whole world a great message. It is a message from Kusama who has struggled to survive as a human being and as an artist, and whose life has been brightly lit and strengthened by her pursuit of truth.
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It's so funny because a lot of times we'll have these discussions as writers, and you feel like you're having a discussion with your wife: 'I don't know. Are they ready to have another baby? Is it time? Well, she's not getting any younger.'
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And that, in a way, was the burden of being a philosopher: one knew what one had to do, but it was so often the opposite of what one really wanted to do.
