Quotes from Louise Penny

The trick wasn't necessarily having less fear, it was finding more courage.

told him the four sentences that lead to wisdom. He'd said them only once, never repeating them. But once had been enough for Gamache. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I need help. I don't know.

Old sins have long shadows," said Gamache. "And this is an old sin.

One must always have a song in the heart." "And an éclair in the hand,

Entitlement was, she knew, a terrible thing. It chained the person to their victimhood. It gobbled up all the air around it. Until the person lived in a vacuum, where nothing good could flourish.

Hope offered, then denied. A particular cruelty.

Clara didn't carry a grudge. They were too heavy and she had too far to go.

Chief Inspector Gamache's says there are 'four sentences that lead to wisdom: I don't know. I need help. I'm sorry. I was wrong.

Gamache nodded. It was what made his job so fascinating, and so difficult. How the same person could be both kind and cruel, compassionate and wretched. Unraveling a murder was more about getting to know the people than the evidence. People who were contrary and contradictory, and who often didn't even know themselves.

Hell is the truth seen too late,

Not a spoon clinked against a mug, not a creamer was popped, peeled and opened, not a breath. It was as though something else had joined them then. As though silence had taken a seat.

It is sweet and right to die for your country…. an old and dangerous lie. It might be necessary, but it is never sweet and rarely right. It's a tragedy.

Attachment masquerades as Love, Pity as Compassion and Indifference as Equanimity.

Books were everywhere in their large apartment. Histories, biographies, novels, studies on Quebec antiques, poetry. Placed in orderly bookcases. Just about every table had at least one book on it, and oftern several magazines. And the weekend newspapers were scattered on the coffee table in the living room, in front of the fireplace. If a visitor was the observant type, and made it further into the apartment to Gamache's study, he might see the story the books in there told.

Despite himself, Beauvoir laughed. "There is strong shadow where there is much light." ... But most he loved a happy human face.

Some mothers see their job as preparing their kids to live in the big old world. To be independent, to marry and have children of their own. To live wherever they choose and do what makes them happy. That's love. Others, and we all see them, cling to their children. Move to the same city, the same neighborhood. Live through them. Stifle them. Manipulate, use guilt-trips, cripple them.' 'Cripple them? How?' 'By not teaching them to be independent.

the feelings flattened and folded and turned into something else, like emotional origami.

Sometimes life goes in a direction not of our choosing," said the minister, softly. "That's why we need to adapt. It's never too late to change direction.

Just because it's the truth doesn't make it less insulting.

Had peace and quiet become so rare that when finally found they could be mistaken for something grotesque and unnatural? It would appear so.

It wasn't really, he knew, about less fear. It was about more courage.

Things sometimes fell apart unexpectedly. It was not necessarily a reflection of how much they were valued.

There are four statements that lead to wisdom. I want you to remember them and follow them. Are you ready?' Agent Lemieux had taken out his notebook and, pen poised, he'd listened. 'You need to learn to say: I don't know. I'm sorry. I need help and I was wrong.

Annie laughed. She had a face, a body, made not for a Paris runway but for good meals and books by the fire and laughter. She was constructed from, and for, happiness. But it had taken Annie Gamache a long while to find it. To trust it.