“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
Louise Penny
Born place: in Toronto, Canada
Born date July 1, 1958
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“No one was more surprised than I to realize that my newfound freedom had been purchased by giving up on eternity and settling for hell.”
― Carolyn Jessop, quote from Escape
“If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
“(...) You Sophotechs are smarter than I am; why did you let me do such a foolish thing?”
“We answer every question our resources and instruction parameters allow; we are more than happy to advise you, when and if we are asked.”
“That’s not what I’m thinking of, and you know it.”
“You are thinking we should use force to defend you against yourself against your will? That is hardly a thought worth thinking, sir. Your life has exactly the value you yourself place on it. It is yours to damage or ruin as you wish.”
(...)
“Is that another hint? Are you saying I’m destroying my life? People at the party, twice now, have said or implied that I’m going to endanger the Oecumene itself. Who stopped me?”
“Not I. While life continues, it cannot be made to be without risk. The assessment of whether or not a certain risk is worth taking depends on subjective value-judgments. About such judgments even reasonable men can differ. We Sophotechs will not interfere with such decisions. (...) If we were to overrule your ownership of your own life, your life, would, in effect, become our property, and you, in effect, would become merely the custodian or trustee of that life. Do you think you would value it more in such a case, or less? And if you valued it less, would you not take greater risks and behave more self-destructively? If, on the other hand, each man’s life is his own, he may experiment freely, risking only what is his, till he find his best happiness.”
“I see the results of failed experiments all around us, in these cylinders. I see wasted lives, and people trapped in mind sets and life forms which lead nowhere.”
“While life continues, experimentation and evolution must also. The pain and risk of failure cannot be eliminated. The most we can do is maximize human freedom, so that no man is forced to pay for another man’s mistakes, so that the pain of failure falls only on he who risks it. And you do not know which ways of life lead nowhere. Even we Sophotechs do not know where all paths lead.”
“How benevolent of you! We will always be free to be stupid.”
“Cherish that freedom, young master; it is basic to all others.”
― quote from The Golden Age
“Where have you been?" She thought, her mind running through the scenarios she could give him that he'd believe. "Just…trying to get my life together. You know, college, housing, making sure Dad's taken care of…getting engaged." He stopped all movement and I sighed, knowing what was coming. "Where's your ring if you're getting engaged?" "Well," Maggie started, "I don't have one yet." He turned a deep crimson before yelling over his shoulder. "Smarty! Get my meat dicer!" Every customer is the joint turned to stare at us, the ones causing the commotion. Maggie tried damage control. "Big John, it's fine. I didn't want one. Caleb's family is very…traditional. He has other things planned for me instead of a ring." "Like what?" he boomed and got closer to look down at me. "What kind of dolt doesn't get his girl a ring?" "The kind that buys her a house instead,”
― Shelly Crane, quote from Independence
“Still, I look down, and the grass is so green, I cannot understand how it does not wither and die with sorrow.
~Song of the Sparrow”
― Lisa Ann Sandell, quote from Song of the Sparrow
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The Social Contract
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