In such a way is freedom of thought lost, said Angus Lordie, who had been listening very attentively to Domenica. By small cuts. By small acts of disapproval. By a thousand discouragements of spirit.
If more women were in power, they wouldn't let wars break out, she said. Women can't be bothered with all this fighting. We see war for what it is- a matter of broken bodies and crying mothers.
I told him that if a man is born in a dry place, then although he may dream of rain, he does not want too much, and that he will not mind the sun that beats down and down.
Hospitals were to her a memento mori in bricks and mortar; an awful reminder of the inevitable end that was coming to all of us but which she felt was best ignored while one got on with the business o...
Her voice rose in her refutation. We are not corrupt, Rra. Yes, he said enthusiastically. That’s just the right thing to say, Mma. Just right. And anyway, this corruption nonsense—what are they talkin...
He could not imagine being interested in that way in somebody like Mma Mateleke; how would one ever get to plant a kiss on such a person if she was always talking? It would be difficult to get one’s l...
Everybody was a potential assailant; nobody spoke to one another for fear of being misinterpreted; nobody comforted another, put an arm around a shoulder-to do so would be to invite accusation.
Everybody kissed one another these days; kisses meant nothing.
Do not complain about your life. Do not blame others for things that you have brought upon yourself. Be content with who you are and where you are, and do whatever you can do to bring to others such c...
Daughters could survive a powerful mother, but boys found it almost impossible. Such boys were often severely damaged and spent the rest of their lives running away from their mothers, or from anybody...
Cattle liked to stand on the roadside at night and would suddenly step out into the paths of oncoming cars, almost as if they were curious to find out what lay behind the headlights. Perhaps they thou...
Cake, said Mma Ramotswe quickly. That is Mr J.L.B. Matekoni’s great weakness. He cannot help himself when it comes to cake. He can be manipulated very easily if he has a plate of cake in his hand.
But emotions and detective work did not always mix; there was something about that in Clovis Andersen’s The Principles of Private Detection. What had he said? Emotions have the same effect as a magnet...
As a child she had believed that wrongs would always be righted, that somehow the world would not let the innocent suffer, but now she realised that this was not true. Old oppressors were replaced by...
A man could be a hereditary ruler, or an elected president, but not be a gentleman, and that would show in his every deed. But if you had a leader who was a gentleman, with all that this meant, then y...
Because love can come, if you believe in it and behave as if it exists. That was the case, too, with free will; with perhaps, fath of any sort; and love was a sort of faith, was it not?
Suddenly realised that if he felt that he had achieved nothing it was because he had failed to cherish what he had in fact done. He had filled his days doing ordinary, unexceptional things and thought...
You’re not angry, Mma? She shook her head. What was the point of anger? There were occasions when Mma Ramotswe, like all of us, could feel angry, but they were few—and they never lasted long. Anger, O...
You had to watch people—if you were not careful, all sorts of people would promote themselves well above their real station in life, causing nothing but confusion and uncertainty
You cannot divide a child's heart in two she had observed to Mma Makutsi, and yet that is what some people wish to do. A child has only one heart.And the rest of us? Mma Makutsi had asked. Do we not h...