Quotes from The Beautiful Mystery

Louise Penny ·  400 pages

Rating: (30.5K votes)


“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, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“One of the elders told him that when he was a boy his grandfather came to him one day and said he had two wolves fighting inside him. One was gray, the other black. The gray one wanted his grandfather to be courageous, and patient, and kind. The other, the black one, wanted his grandfather to be fearful and cruel. This upset the boy, and he thought about it for a few days then returned to his grandfather. He asked, 'Grandfather, which of the wolves will win?'

The abbot smiled slightly and examined the Chief Inspector. 'Do you know what his grandfather said?'

Gamache shook his head. . . .

'The one I feed,' said Dom Philippe.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“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, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“Had peace and quiet become so rare that when finally found they could be mistaken for something grotesque and unnatural? It would appear so.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“Plenty of time for a close friendship to turn to hate. As only a good friendship could. The conduit to the heart was already created.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery



“The glass was old. Leaded. Imperfect. And it was the imperfections that were creating the play of light.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“We can all fall,” said the abbot. “But perhaps not as hard and not as fast and not as far as someone who spends his life on the ascent.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“In trying to capture the beautiful mystery, this monk had invented written music. Not yet notes, what he’d written became known as neumes.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“The Beautiful Mystery Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #8:
"Do you know why our emblem is two wolves intertwined?" Gamache shook his head.
..."One of the (native) elders told him that when he was a boy his grandfather came to him and told him he had two wolves fighting inside him. One was grey, the other black. The grey one wanted his grandfather to be courageous, and patient, and kind. The other, the black one, wanted his grandfather to be fearful and cruel. This upset the boy, and he thought about it for a few days and returned to his grandfather. He asked, 'Grandfather, which of the wolves will win?' Do you know what his grandfather said?" Gamache shook his head. There was such a look of sadness on the Chief Inspector's face, it almost broke the abbot's heart. "The one I feed.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“Like the rest of the Québécois? Like Beauvoir himself? Did they curse the Church? Câlice! Tabernac! Hostie! The Québécois had turned religious words into dirty words.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery



“precision and clarity where the police”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“Beauvoir was so close to Frère Raymond”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“Gamache in anger. “He knew that’s”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


“believe the copy of this e-book you are reading”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Beautiful Mystery


About the author

Louise Penny
Born place: in Toronto, Canada
Born date July 1, 1958
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