Louise Penny Quotes

When someone stabs you it’s not your fault that you feel pain.

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

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.

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.

While Henri had a huge heart, he had quite a modest brain. His head was taken up almost entirely by his ears. In fact, his head seemed simply a sort of mount for those ears. Fortunately Henri didn’t really need his head. He kept all the important things in his heart.

– ‘I think many people love their problems. Gives them all sorts of excuses for not growing up and getting on with life.

When my death us do part
Then shall forgiven and forgiving meet again,
Or will it be, as always was, too late?

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.

Light is every bit as challenging as dark. We can discover a great deal about ourselves by looking at beauty.

Murder was deeply human. A person was killed and a person killed. And what powered the final thrust wasn't a whim, wasn't an event. It was an emotion. Something once healthy and human had become wretched and bloated and finally buried. But not put to rest. It lay there, often for decades, feeding on itself, growing and gnawing, grim and full of grievance. Until it finally broke free of all human restraint. Not conscience, not fear, not social convention could contain it. When that happened, all hell broke loose. And a man became a monster.

It was one thing to forgive, it was another to climb back into the cage with that bear, even if it was wearing a tutu and smiling.

[Being jealous] is like drinking acid, and expecting the other person to die.

"I respect people who have such passion. Emile was saying. "I don't. I have a lot of interests, some I'm passionate about, but not to the exclusion of everything else. I sometimes wonder if that's necessary for geniuses to accomplish what they must, a singularity of purpose. We mere mortals just get in the way. Relationships are messy, distracting.

He travels the fastest who travels alone, quoted Gamache.

You sound as though you don't believe it.

It depends where you're going, but no, I don't. I think you might go far fast, but eventually you'll stall. We need other people.

...

We all need help.

Gamache was the best of them, the smartest and bravest and strongest because he was willing to go into his own head alone, and open all the doors there, and enter all the dark rooms. And make friends with what he found there.