Alexander Smith
Alexander Smith
Sir Alexander Lockwood Smith KNZMis the current High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom and a former New Zealand politician who served as the 28th Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2008 to 2013. Smith is a member of the New Zealand National Party and served as a Member of Parliamentfrom 1984 until his retirement to pursue diplomatic roles in 2013. He represented first the Kaipara electorate and then Rodney, and has held a number of Cabinet...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 August 1948
Alexander Smith quotes about
Death takes away the commonplace of life.
In winter, when the dismal rain comes down in slanting lines, and wind, that grand old harper, smote his thunder-harp of pines.
Pleasure has no logic; it never treads in its own footsteps.
Every day travels toward death; the last only arrives at it.
Fame is but an inscription on a grave, and glory the melancholy blazon on a coffin lid.
Each time we love,We turn a nearer and a broader markTo that keen archer, Sorrow, and he strikes.
If the egotist is weak, his egotism is worthless. If the egotist is strong, acute, full of distinctive character, his egotism is precious, and remains a possession of the race.
There is a slow-growing beauty which only comes to perfection in old age.... I have seen sweeter smiles on a lip of seventy than I ever saw on a lip of seventeen. There is the beauty of youth, and there is also the beauty of holiness—a beauty much more seldom met; and more frequently found in the arm-chair by the fire, with grandchildren around its knee, than in the ball-room or the promenade.
A brave soul is a thing which all things serve.
To sit for one's portrait is like being present at one's own creation.
Every man's road in life is marked by the graves of his personal liking.