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 a...
She imagined what it would be like to live with somebody who had secrets. Instead of a comfortable atmosphere of trust there would be a nagging insecurity, like a corrosive crust, eating away at the f...
She found herself looking down on the top of Teenie's head; at a small woollen bobble, in fact, which topped a curious tea-cosy style knitted cap which she was wearing. She looked more closely at it,...
Nobody dared in those days to question such bullies, and the freedom that is more normal these days has come too late for these victims. Auden would have helped, because the whole message of his life...
If you had no language, then what form did your thoughts take—if you thought at all? Of course you thought—she had never had any difficulty with accepting that—but how limited would your thoughts be i...
Every man has a map in his heart of his own country and that the heart will never allow you to forget this map.
Especially when it came to his triumphant denunciations of his political enemies, each of whom, she suspected, were only too relieved that it was him rather than they who had been caught. She
But to the north there was a bank of cirro-cumulus, a mackerel sky, or Schaefchenwolken—sheep cloud—as she remembered her father calling it. For some reason he had used German when talking about cloud...
All the good things that we have in life are on temporary loan, at best, and can be taken away from us in an instant.
[...]there was always a part of the human mind that was prepared to entertain such notions, particularly at night, in the world of shadows, when there were sounds that one could not understand and whe...
You might imagine that the magic stopped at the airport, and to a great extent it did. When we arrived back in London, the skies were overcast and heavy. The bus driver from the airport was morose and...
You know the best example of sincerity? The absolute gold standard? Who?Angus pointed to the door, outside which Cyril was waiting patiently. A dog. Have you ever met an insincere dog - a dog who hide...
You have each other, thought Isabel.But was that enough? Even when one was in love, it was not really enough just to have the other person - not if one needed stimulation. The company of just one pers...
You did not squeeze hands when you lied; it could not be done.
You can’t do much about a personality disorder. Cats are psychopaths at heart.
Yes. Look at the way in which a little boy plays. He prods. He investigates things all around him. He moves them. He tries to push them over. Then look at girls. They touch things gently. They watch t...
Yes, she agreed, there are times when I am unhappy and times when I am happy. There are more happy times than unhappy ones, I think.
Yes, wisdom: that was something that came to everybody, although it came in varying quantities and at different times.
Yes, thought Mma Ramotswe, the world can be very discouraging. But we cannot sit and think about all the things that have gone wrong, or could go wrong. There was no point in doing that...There was mu...
Words that are full of hurt sometimes need to be left in the air where they have been spoken.