Alexander McCall Smith Quotes

I wouldn't dream of selling my work. I give them to friends, to charities.

The greatest gift that you can give another person is to gracefully receive whatever it is that they want to give us.

I learned to accept the audience's happiness for me, which is one of the hardest things for me to learn.

I've learned that when someone does something very kind and refuses payment, giving them an engraved Swiss Army knife is never refused!

Anyone who says they don't like to receive a gift is lying.

It's not about how big or expensive a present is, it's the thought that is so nice.

Gifts can incline great hearts.

I like gifts. I like to give them and I like to get them.

I really enjoy the shopping and going out and getting stuff for other people. I could really give a damn about getting gifts for myself, but I really enjoy giving gifts.

I did buy my mother a Range Rover and a new crib. It feels good to say that.

I treat people throughout the year, my mates with children, every time I see them I give them 40 quid, or I go to Amazon and get them a gift- no one goes without.

A little given seasonably excuses a great gift.

We love those people who give with humility, or who accept with ease.

The way to have the life we want is to receive more deeply the life we have. Sometimes we keep our own life at arm's length, thinking we'll wait until circumstances improve before giving it all we've got. But life is just a reflection of consciousness, so it's never going to give any more to us than we give to it. Don't wait for a perfect life; breathe in the life that's already perfect.

The first time I received an award, I was very surprised. I did not know whether to accept it or not. But I came to the conclusion that I should accept awards in the name of the poorest poor, as a form of homage to them. I think that basically, when awards are given to me, the existence of the poor in the world is being recognized.

One of the secrets to life is saying yes to change and allowing things to transition, but I also think you have to mark the time and give thanks for all that it gave you.

Giving is not at all interesting; but receiving is, there is no doubt about it, delightful.

When I was young I asked more of people than they could give: everlasting friendship, endless feeling. Now I know to ask less of them than they can give: a straightforward companionship. And their feelings, their friendship, their generous actions seem in my eyes to be wholly miraculous: a consequence of grace alone.

Her cake is a failure, but she is loved anyway. She is loved, she thinks, in more or less the way the gifts will be appreciated: because they have been given with good intentions , because they exist, because they are part of a world in which one wants what one gets.

In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.

I often stop when I'm doing something, in the middle of rehearsals or some other job, and I try to take a minute to think "Okay, this might be as good as it gets, so drink it in, appreciate it now". So far, I've been lucky because another job has always come along to equal the last.

The richest gifts we can bestow are the least marketable. We hate the kindness which we understand.

Take what the Lightbearer sends and be thankful.

God gives us the ugliness so we don't take the beautiful things in life for granted.

It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.