Alexander McCall Smith Quotes

Man must be associated with his fellows.

Rituals are important.

Sport and death are the two great socializing factors in Ireland.

Sacredness binds people together, and then blinds them to the arbitrariness of the practice.

People and their rituals. They cling to things so hard sometimes.

In the Mexican culture, we never miss a baptism, a birthday, a baby shower, a wedding shower, a wedding. You must show up. Otherwise, you'll be in big trouble.

It is certain that if you would have the whole secret of a people, you must enter into the intimacy of their religion.

I've never been one to tear the social fabric.

We sing these songs for the everyday occasions of life, and they are very close to the hearts of our people.

I'm interested in what bonds people together. You know, what brings us together in good ways? And there's not a lot known about that.

With everything that you can imagine at our fingertips, many of the social interactions that help tie people together in a community have faded away. Are communities traditionally built on relationships, trust and familiarity a thing of the past?

Technology is best when it brings people together.

Throughout history, civilizations have built a common cause through coming-of-age rituals. But we don't do that anymore. Maybe we should think about that.

Things that bind a community together are the things that nobody has to talk about because everyone agrees about them.

Religions prosper in large part because of the communities that they create.

Be in community, go out to dinner together, do things together. We lose that, we lose a lot. It's important to come together.

Like, in Asian culture, you have to be down with the family. You have to be down with all the crazy traditional or non-traditional things we do.

I admire those that keep Shabbat every week and do not allow anything to interfere with it. It is such a beautiful way to stay connected to friends and family and force yourself to slow down.

Community means that people come together around the table, not just to feed their bodies, but to feed their minds and their relationships.

It is wonderful to be in solidarity with another big group of people.

I think of art as a glue, a cultural and social glue. It's one of the means that has served to show us the things we believe in and the things we celebrate; it has served to reinforce our relationship to each other.

Religion is the centre which unites, and the cement which connects the several parts of members of the political body.

We often surround ourselves with the people we most want to live with, thus forming a club or clique, not a community. Anyone can form a club; it takes grace, shared vision, and hard work to form a community.

The real power of tribes has nothing to do with the Internet and everything to do with people.

Customs represent the experience of mankind.