Top 100 Louise Penny Quotes
#1. When put in a room with both parents, would almost always embrace the abuser.
Louise Penny
#2. Corruption and brutality are modeled and expected and rewarded. It becomes normal. And anyone who stands up to it, who tells them it's wrong, is beaten down. Or worse.
Louise Penny
#3. Things were not as they seemed. The known world was shifting, reforming. Everything he'd taken as a given, a fact, as real and unquestioned, had fallen away. But
Louise Penny
#4. I was tired of seeing the Graces always depicted as beautiful young things. I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.
Louise Penny
#6. Olivier looked at him blankly. But the Chief Inspector had seen that look before. It was, in fact, almost impossible to look blank. Unless the person wanted to. A blank face to the Chief Inspector meant a frantic mind.
Louise Penny
#7. Gamache had asked not because he didn't know the answer, but because he wanted to see if Peter would lie to him. He had. And if he'd lie about that, what else had he lied about?
Louise Penny
#8. Armand Gamache found murderers by following the trail of rancid emotions. Beside
Louise Penny
#9. Photos sat on the piano and shelves bulged with books, testament to a life well lived.
Louise Penny
#10. Haven't you ever heard of an artist's muse?" the barman asked. "They all seem to either have one or want one. Me, all I want is peace and quiet.
Louise Penny
#11. and volunteering in the community. Mind, body, and spirit, the cadets were told. Over and
Louise Penny
#12. He had loads of colleagues, acquaintances, buddies. He was an emotional communist. Everyone counted equally, but none too much.
Louise Penny
#13. Gabri and Myrna were very rich indeed, rich in the things that matter. In friendships and laughter, in kindness and company. People rich in money might belong at the Inn and Spa, but those rich in other ways belonged in the tiny village of Three Pines. Here, kindness was the real currency.
Louise Penny
#14. His cell phone didn't work in Three Pines, and neither did email. He almost expected to see messages fluttering back and forth in the sky above the village, unable to descend.
Louise Penny
#15. But, like peace, comfort didn't come from hiding away or running away. Comfort first demanded courage.
Louise Penny
#16. No, I don't. I find them very superficial. Calculated. He's a good artist, but I think he could be a great one, if he could use more instinct and less technique. He's a very good draftsman.
Louise Penny
#17. Gamache wondered how low the bar was set when all a man had to do to attract a woman was not smell like decomposing bears.
Louise Penny
#18. You know Gabri, he wears his heart on his sleeve.' In fact, there were times Olivier wondered whether Gabri hadn't been born inside out.
Louise Penny
#19. For Armand Gamache knew what not-nice was. He knew what cruelty, despair, horror were. And he knew what a forgotten, and precious quality 'nice'was.
Louise Penny
#20. The Stalker by Gail Anderson-Dargatz In From the Cold by Deborah Ellis Shipwreck by Maureen Jennings The Picture of Nobody by Rabindranath Maharaj The Hangman by Louise Penny Easy Money by Gail Vaz-Oxlade 2011
Louise Penny
#21. They were home. He always felt a bit like a snail, but instead of carrying his home on his back, he carried it in his arms.
Louise Penny
#22. FINE stood for Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Egotistical.
Louise Penny
#23. To live in chaos was to live in a prison. Order freed the mind for other things.
Louise Penny
#24. He'd shoved his toque and mitts into the sleeve of his parka when he'd come in the night before, and now, thrusting his right arm into the armhole, he hit the blockage. At a practiced shove the pompom of the toque crowned the cuff followed by his mitts, like a tiny birth.
Louise Penny
#25. Now there will be no more loneliness," said the minister, as he gave his final blessing on the couple. Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness. And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
Louise Penny
#27. This was the great benefit of seeing worse. Fewer things worried him now.
Louise Penny
#28. No one could look at the beautiful young man now. They dropped their eyes from the scalding sight. From the eclipse. As all that love turned into hate.
Louise Penny
#29. Four days. And she had two gay sons, a large black mother, a demented poet for a friend and was considering getting a duck. It was not what she'd expected from this visit.
Louise Penny
#30. So that over time, clever became cunning. Dynamic became obsessed. Ambitious became ruthless.
Louise Penny
#31. Everything he let go of had claw marks on it.
Louise Penny
#32. her book. Ngaio Marsh. Myrna was re-reading the classics.
Louise Penny
#33. the answers lay in flesh and blood, not in a book and not in a report. And so often not even in things corporeal, but in something that couldn't be held and contained and touched. The answers to his questions lay in the murky past and in the emotions hidden there. The
Louise Penny
#34. It was said with humor, but the criticism wasn't lost on Gamache. He was fishing, and he knew it. So did Sommes. So did Esther. We're all fishermen, she'd said.
Louise Penny
#35. You mean if a good hunter did this it was on purpose?
Louise Penny
#36. Conscience. Imagine being pursued by your own conscience ... .A mountain of conscience. Throwing a lengthening shadow. Growing. Darkening.
Louise Penny
#37. Good hearts get hurt. Good hearts get broken, Armand. And then they lash out.
Louise Penny
#38. In my experience people who have been hurt either pass it on and become abusive themselves or they develop a great kindness.
Louise Penny
#40. I think you might try leading your life as though it's just you. If he comes back and you know your life will be better with him, then great. But you'll also know you're enough on your own.
Louise Penny
#41. Turmoil shook loose all sorts of unpleasant truths. But it took peace to examine them.
Louise Penny
#42. Believe the copy of this e-book you are reading
Louise Penny
#43. And Beauvoir knew then the man was a saint. He's been touched by any number of medical men and women. All healers, all well intentioned, some kind, some rough. All made it clear they wanted him to live, but none had made him feel that his life was precious, was worth saving, was worth something.
Louise Penny
#44. All children are sad,
but some get over it.
Louise Penny
#45. He did not suggest that she sit quietly and get to know herself so she could be all the company she needed.
Louise Penny
#46. Beauvoir knew that the root of all evil wasn't money. No, what created and drove evil was fear. Fear of not having enough money, enough food, enough land, enough power, enough security, enough love. Fear of not getting what you want, or losing what you have.
Louise Penny
#47. 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.
Louise Penny
#48. I've been treating you with courtesy and respect because that's the way I choose to treat everyone. But never, ever mistake kindness with weakness.
Louise Penny
#49. They stole the files of everyone who was involved in the raid. Who came to you for help. Who told you everything. All their fears, their vulnerabilities. What they want from life. What matters to them. A road map in their heads.
Louise Penny
#50. Now here's a good one:
you're lying on your deathbed.
You have one hour to live.
Who is it, exactly, you have needed
all these years to forgive?
Louise Penny
#51. Clara tried to give the eulogy, but couldn't speak. Her words stuck at the lump in her throat. And so Myrna took over, holding her hand while Clara stood beside her.
Louise Penny
#53. In the kitchen Gamache's German shepherd, Henri, sat up in his bed and cocked his head. He had huge oversized ears which made Gamache think he wasn't purebred but a cross between a shepherd and a satellite dish.
Louise Penny
#54. Clara was that rare combination: she was sensible and sensitive.
Louise Penny
#55. Better to accept the wretched truth than struggle, twisting to make a wish a reality.
Louise Penny
#56. There is a balm in Gilead
to make the wounded whole.
Louise Penny
#57. Clara didn't carry a grudge. They were too heavy and she had too far to go.
Louise Penny
#58. What are you afraid of?
I'm afraid of not recognizing Paradise.
Louise Penny
#59. A bare bulb swished from side to side. Dust floated in what little light it threw and cobwebs hung from the rafters. It smelled of spiders.
Louise Penny
#60. A good journalist, as you know, is a great listener. And so's a good writer. And I got to listen to people for almost 20 years. That serves me well, I hope, when I try to understand how a character might be feeling, or how they might react.
Louise Penny
#61. Sometimes the only way up is down. Sometimes the only way forward is to back up.
Louise Penny
#62. But Armand always said people react differently to death, and it was folly to judge anyone and double folly to judge what people do when faced with sudden, violent death. Murder. They weren't themselves.
Louise Penny
#63. It is very, very dangerous to come between a person and their beliefs.
Louise Penny
#64. Your beliefs become your thoughts Your thoughts become your words Your words become your actions Your actions become your destiny.
Louise Penny
#65. Not everything needed to be brought into the light, he knew. Not every truth needed to be told.
Louise Penny
#66. 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.
Louise Penny
#67. Control your thoughts and you can control your emotions. Do you trust me?
Louise Penny
#68. This used to be my drug of choice. In my teens my drug of choice was acceptance, in my twenties it was approval, in my thirties it was love, in my forties it was Scotch.
Louise Penny
#69. Gamache had been to Three Pines on previous investigations and each time he'd had the feeling he belonged. It was a powerful feeling. After all, what else did people really want except to belong? He
Louise Penny
#70. Myrna could spend happy hours browsing bookcases. She felt if she could just get a good look at a person's bookcase and their grocery cart, she'd pretty much know who they were.
Louise Penny
#71. When someone stabs you it's not your fault that you feel pain.
Louise Penny
#72. Not everyone's an explorer, and not every explorer makes it back alive. That's why it takes so much courage.
Louise Penny
#73. Where once his grandparents put up crucifixes and images of the benediction on their walls, he and Reine-Marie put up books on theirs. History books. Reference books. Biographies. Fiction, nonfiction. Stories lined the walls and both insulated them from the outside world and connected them to it.
Louise Penny
#74. She picked up her book and tried to read but it was heavy in her hands. She struggled to hold it, wanting to finish the story, wanting to know how it ended. She was afraid she'd run out of time before she ran out of book.
Louise Penny
#75. He knew time could heal. But it could also do more damage. A forest fire, spread over time, would consume everything.
Louise Penny
#77. Believe in using your head. But not in spending too much time in there. Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.
Louise Penny
#78. Our lives are like a house. Some people are allowed on the lawn, some onto the porch, some get into the vestibule or the kitchen. The better friends are invited deeper into our home, into our living room.'
'And some are let into the bedroom,' said Gamache.
Louise Penny
#79. I'm sorry. I was wrong. I need help. I don't know.
Louise Penny
#80. A coy smile could capture him, but it was finally a hearty laugh that had freed him.
Louise Penny
#81. What's the use of healing, if the life that's saved is callow and selfish and ruled by fear? There's a difference between being in sanctuary and being in hiding.
Louise Penny
#82. When senior officers start shooting each other, it's time to leave," said Gamache. "I'm sure it's somewhere in the regulations.
Louise Penny
#83. This village has known loss, people killed before their time, accidents, war, disease. Three Pines isn't immune to any of that. But you seem to accept it as part of life and not hang on to the bitterness.
Louise Penny
#84. Ruth whacked the seat beside her on the sofa, in what could only be interpreted as an invitation. It was like receiving a personalized Molotov cocktail. Gamache
Louise Penny
#85. If you pretend to know you aren't going to actually learn.
Louise Penny
#86. Life is choice. All day, everyday. Who we talk to, where we sit, what we say, how we say it. And our lives become defined by our choices. It's as simple and as complex as that. And as powerful. so when I'm observing that's what I'm watching for. The choices people make
Louise Penny
#87. He'd come to agree with Sister Prejean that no one was as bad as the worst thing they'd done.
Louise Penny
#88. 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.
Louise Penny
#89. That was why she was happy. He now knew that happiness ad kindness went together. There was not one without the other. For Jean-Guy it was a struggle. For Annie it seemed natural.
Louise Penny
#90. You didn't just lose a loved one. You lost your heart, your memories, your laughter, your brain and it even took your bones. Eventually, it all came back, but different. Rearranged.
Louise Penny
#91. Until the Quiet Revolution gave women back their bodies and Quebeckers back their lives. It invited the church to leave the womb and restrict itself to the altar. It almost worked.
Louise Penny
#92. I don't know what came over me. It's like sometimes when it's very quiet I feel like screaming. And sometimes when I'm holding something delicate I feel like dropping it. I don't know why.
Louise Penny
#93. What did falling in love do for you? Can you ever really explain it? It filled empty spaces I never knew were empty. It cured a loneliness I never knew I had. It gave me joy. And freedom. I think that was the most amazing part. I suddenly felt both embraced and freed at the same time.
Louise Penny
#94. New Brunswick. Shediac. Lobster Capital of the World.
Louise Penny
#95. 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.
Louise Penny
#96. Champlain missing was so much more potent than Champlain found.
Louise Penny
#97. To remain conscious and continent was her new goal.
Louise Penny
#99. One day that ego of yours'll kill you. That's all it is, you know. You pretend it's selfless, you pretend to be the great teacher, the wise and patient Armand Gamache, but you and I both know it's ego. Pride. Be careful, my friend. She's dangerous. You've said so yourself.
Louise Penny
#100. Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other." "And between the two is the lump in the throat,
Louise Penny
Famous Authors
Popular Topics
Scroll to Top
