Quotes from Louise Penny

The women in the room chatted about love, about childhood, about losing parents, about Mr. Spock, about good books they'd read. They mothered each other.

You too?" She asked Ruth. "How do your poems start out?" "They start as a lump in the throat," she said.

Life can be cruel, as you know. But it can also be kind. Filled with wonders. You need to remember that. You have your own choice to make, Armand. What're you going to focus on? What's unfair, or all the wonderful things that happen? Both are true, both are real. Both need to be accepted. But which carries more weight with you?" Stephen tapped the boy's chest. "The terrible or the wonderful? The goodness or the cruelty? Your life will be decided by that choice.

it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you.

Consequences," said Gamache. "We must always consider the consequences of our actions. Or inaction. It won't necessarily change what we do, but we need to be aware of the effect.

She taught me that life goes on, and that I had a choice. To lament what I no longer had or be grateful for what remained.

It's so easy to get mired in the all too obvious cruelty of the world. It's natural. But to really heal, we need to recognize the goodness too.

the four statements that lead to wisdom: I don't know. I need help. I was wrong. I'm sorry.

Living our lives was like living in a long house. We entered as babies at one end, and we exited when our time came. And in between we moved through this one, great, long room. Everyone we ever met, and every thought and action lived in that room with us. Until we made peace with the less agreeable parts of our past they'd continue to heckle us from way down the long house. And sometimes the really loud, obnoxious ones told us what to do, directing our actions even years later.

I've been desperately unhappy in my life." Her voice was quiet. "Have you, Chief Inspector?" It wasn't a response he could have predicted. He nodded. "I thought so. I think people who have had that experience and survived have a responsibility to help others. We can't let someone drown where we were saved.

It's a shame that creativity and sloth look exactly the same.

What people mistook for safety was in fact captivity.

Beauvoir left their home wanting to call his wife and tell her how much he loved her, and then tell her what he believed in, and his fears and hopes and disappointments. To talk about something real and meaningful. He dialed his cell phone and got her. But the words got caught somewhere south of his throat. Instead he told her the weather had cleared, and she told him about the movie she'd rented. Then they both hung up.

I just sit where I'm put, composed of stone and wishful thinking: That the deity that kills for pleasure will also heal, That in the midst of your nightmare, the final one, a kind lion will pick your soul up gently by the nape of the neck, And caress you into darkness and paradise. ~ Ruth Zardo, poet and character in All The Devils Are Here

Like a first love, the place where peace is first found is never, ever forgotten.

But they both knew that words were weapons too, and when fashioned into a story their power was almost limitless.

Don't believe everything you think," said Gamache, before releasing the hand and opening the door. "Pema Chödrön. A Buddhist nun.

Turmoil shook loose all sorts of unpleasant truths. But it took peace to examine them.

So much more comforting to see bad in others; gives us all sorts of excuses for our own bad behavior. But good? No, only really remarkable people see the good in others.

As they trudged through the snow toward Clara's pretty little cottage, Ruth lost her footing. Haniya grabbed her before she fell. She held Ruth's hand for the rest of the way, and wondered if maybe the key was not in being held, but in holding.

And now you see why lies matter. The actual fib might not matter, but what it shows us is that what you say can't always be trusted. You can't always be trusted.

We see it when bullies are in charge. It becomes part of the culture of an institution, a family, an ethnic group, a country. It becomes not just acceptable, but expected. Applauded even.

Non. He said, 'Be very, very careful who you let into your life. And learn to make peace with whatever happens. You can't erase the past. It's trapped in there with you. But you can make peace with it. If you don't,' he said, 'you'll be at perpetual war.

To remain conscious and continent was her new goal.