Louise Penny Quotes

The night is a strawberry.

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.

The four sayings that lead to wisdom: I was wrong I'm sorry I don't know I need help

Life is change. If you aren't growing and evolving, you're standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead.

Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.

No good ever comes from putting up walls. What people mistake for safety is in fact captivity. And few things thrive in captivity.

But you want murderous feelings? Hang around librarians," confided Gamache. "All that silence. Gives them ideas.

Better to accept the wretched truth than struggle, twisting to make a wish a reality.

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

Where there is love there is courage, where there is courage there is peace, where there is peace there is God. And when you have God, you have everything.

A journalist also needs to be disciplined, and so do I. I am, essentially, lazy. Without discipline I'd be just a mass of gummy bears on the sofa instead of on book tour with my eighth novel.

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

Foolish people are never harmless. Stupidity accounts for as many crimes as anger and greed.

Don't mistake dramatics for a conscience.

I'm just like this. I have no talent for choosing my battles. Life seems, strangely, like a battle to me. The whole thing.

What are you afraid of? I'm afraid of not recognizing Paradise.

Every year the hunters shot cows and horses and family pets and each other. And unbelievably, they sometimes shot themselves, perhaps in a psychotic episode where they mistook themselves for dinner

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?

How much more courage it took to be kind than to be cruel.

Things are strongest where they're broken.

But, like peace, comfort didn't come from hiding away or running away. Comfort first demanded courage.

Or - perhaps - I should just worry about my own behavior and let others be who they are.

We're all blessed and we're all blighted, Chief Inspector," said Finney. "Everyday each of us does our sums. The question is, what do we count?

Let every man shovel out his own snow, and the whole city will be passable," said Gamache. Seeing Beauvoir's puzzled expression he added, "Emerson." "Lake and Palmer?" "Ralph and Waldo.

Winning doesn't mean my book is better than anyone else's. It means I'm very fortunate. And I should be very, very aware of that. And grateful.

It is very, very dangerous to come between a person and their beliefs.

What people mistook for safety was in fact captivity.

Peter swept aside Yogi Tea and Harmony Herbal Blend, though he hesitated a second over the chamomile. .... But no. Violent death demanded Earl Grey.

The question that haunted every investigation was 'why'.

A good novel is a good novel, pointe finale. And I think what I'm writing is exactly that.

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.

In winter the very ground seemed to reach up and grab the elderly, yanking them to earth as though hungry for them.

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.

I've seen enough successful writers who no longer seem to care when they are recognized with an award, and I think that's just tragic.

Few things are better in the world than a room full of librarians. I consider them literary heroes. The keepers and defenders of the written word.

To be honest, the only thing I ever really wanted to be was a writer - since I read 'Charlotte's Web' as a child.

Shakespeare: …the best way to peace is to have a still and quiet conscience. Or none at all, thought Gamache.

Do you know why we’re all happy here, monsieur? Because it’s the last house on the road.

There are generally three parties to child abuse: the abused, the abuser and the bystander.

Maybe this was now normal for Olivier. Maybe every now and then he simply wept. Not in pain or sadness. The tears were just overwhelming memories, rendered into water, seeping out.

…and all the other tools that mistook information for knowledge

Let every man shovel out his own snow, and the whole city will be passable, " said Gamache. Seeing Beauvoir's puzzled expression he added, "Emerson.""Lake and Palmer?""Ralph and Waldo.

He had his treasure, but finally all he wanted was his family. And peace.

Where there is love there is courage, where there is courage there is peace, where there is peace there is God.And when you have God, you have everything.

Joy doesn't ever leave, you know. It's always with you. And one day you'll find it again.

Now here's a good one:you're lying on your deathbed.You have one hour to live.Who is it, exactly, you have neededall these years to forgive?

…struck. Once. And into that blow he put his childhood, his grief, his loss. He put his mother’s sorrow and his sister’s longing. The menorah, weighed down with that, crushed the Hermit’s skull.

That was the danger. Not that betrayals happened, not that cruel things happened, but that they could outweigh all the good. That we could forget the good and only remember the bad.

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.

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.