To lose a child ... was something that could end one's world. One could never get back to how it was before. The stars went out. The moon disappeared. The birds became silent.

Talking about pumpkins doesn't make them grow.

If your ceiling should fall down, then you have lost a room, but gained a courtyard. Think of it that way.

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.

There are many women whose lives would be immeasurably improved by widowhood, but one should not always point that out.

Edinburgh used to be a haughty city.

Simple questions--and simple answers--were what we needed in life. That was what Mma Ramotswe believed. Yes.