Quotes from The Long Way Home

“After spending most of her life scanning the horizon for slights and threats, genuine and imagined, she knew the real threat to her happiness came not from the dot in the distance, but from looking for it. Expecting it. Waiting for it. And in some cases, creating it. Her father had jokingly accused her of living in the wreckage of her future. Until one day she’d looked deep into his eyes and saw he wasn’t joking. He was warning her.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“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, quote from The Long Way Home

“I’ll pray that you grow up a brave man in a brave country. I will pray you find a way to be useful.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“You too?" She asked Ruth. "How do your poems start out?"

"They start as a lump in the throat," she said.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Turmoil shook loose all sorts of unpleasant truths. But it took peace to examine them.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“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, quote from The Long Way Home

“[Being jealous] is like drinking acid, and expecting the other person to die.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Not everyone’s an explorer, and not every explorer makes it back alive. That’s why it takes so much courage.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“If love was compass enough, said Armand quietly, there would be no missing children.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Annie laughed. She had a face, a body, made not for a Paris runway but for good meals and books by the fire and laughter. She was constructed from, and for, happiness. But it had taken Annie Gamache a long while to find it. To trust it.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Her voice was flat, in a way Myrna recognized from years of listening to people trying to rein in their emotions. To squash them down, flatten, them, and with them their words and their voices. Desperately trying to make the horrific sound mundane.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Clara didn't carry a grudge. They were too heavy and she had too far to go.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“I’ll pray that you grow up a brave man in a brave country,” Clara said. “I will pray you find a way to be useful,” Gamache completed the quote. Reine-Marie dropped her eyes to her hands and saw the paper napkin twisted and shredded there. Clara nodded slowly. “I think you might be right. Peter went to Paris not to find a new artistic voice. It was simpler than that. He wanted to find a way to be useful.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“How do your poems start out?” “They start as a lump in the throat,” she said. “Isn’t that normally just a cocktail olive lodged there?” Olivier asked. “Once,” Ruth admitted. “Wrote quite a good poem before I coughed it up.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“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, quote from The Long Way Home

“Peter's a lucky man except in one respect, he doesn't seem to know how lucky he is.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Every morning he went for a walk with his wife, Reine-Marie, and their German shepherd Henri. Tossing the tennis ball ahead of them, they ended up chasing it down themselves when Henri became distracted by a fluttering leaf, or a black fly, or the voices in his head. The dog would race after the ball, then stop and stare into thin air, moving his gigantic satellite ears this way and that. Honing in on some message. Not tense, but quizzical. It was, Gamache recognized, the way most people listened when they heard on the wind the wisps of a particularly beloved piece of music. Or a familiar voice from far away.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Turmoil shook loose all sorts of unpleasant truths. But it took peace to examine them.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“There is a balm in Gilead,” she read from the back, “to make the wounded whole—” “There’s power enough in Heaven / To cure a sin-sick soul.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Peter always had a ‘best before’ date stamped on his forehead,” said Ruth. “People who live in their heads do. They start out well enough, but eventually they run out of ideas. And if there’s no imagination, no inspiration to fall back on? Then what?”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Armand Gamache had seen the worst. But he’d also seen the best. Often in the same person.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Most people want to be led. But suppose they choose the wrong leader? They end up with the Donner party.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“In a life filled with great good fortune of health, of creativity, of friends, living in safety and privilege with the loving partner. There was just one bit of misfortune in his life and that was that Peter Morrow seemed to have no idea how very fortunate he was.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Dr. Vincent Gilbert lived in the heart of the forest. Away from human conflict, but also away from human contact. It was a compromise he was more than happy to make.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“He loved Clara. I miss a lot in life,” said Gilbert. “But I have a nose for love.” “Like a truffle pig,” said Beauvoir, then regretted it when he saw the asshole saint’s reaction. Then, unexpectedly, Gilbert smiled. “Exactly. I can smell it. Love has an aroma all its own, you know.” Beauvoir looked at Gilbert, amazed by what he’d just heard. Maybe, he thought, this man was— “Smells like compost,” said Gilbert. —an asshole after all.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“An unsuspected yearning uncovered, discovered. For a simpler time and a simpler life. Before Internet, and climate change, and terrorism. When neighbors worked together, and separation was not a topic or an issue or wise.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“This was the great benefit of seeing worse. Fewer things worried him now.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“A coy smile could capture him, but it was finally a hearty laugh that had freed him.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

“Sometimes the only way up is down. Sometimes the only way forward is to back up.”
― Louise Penny, quote from The Long Way Home

About the author

Popular quotes

“As I'm sure you know, there are two types of "What?" in the world. The first type simply means "Excuse me, I didn't hear you. Could you please repeat yourself?" The second type is a little trickier. It means something more along the lines of "Excuse me, I did hear you, but I can't believe that's really what you meant.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from The Austere Academy

“-BDB on the board-
Knitter's Anonimous
May 8, 2006
Rhage (in his bedroom posting in V's room on the board)
Hi, my name is V.
("Hi, V")
I've been knitting for 125 years now.
(*gasping noises*)
It's begun to impact my personal relationships: my brothers think I'm a nancy. It's begun to affect my health: I'm getting a callus on my forefinger and I find bits of yarn in all my pockets and I'm starting to smell like wool. I can't concentrate at work: I keep picturing all these lessers in Irish sweaters and thick socks.
(*sounds of sympathy*)
I've come seeking a community of people who, like me, are trying not to knit.
Can you help me?
(*We're with you*)
Thank you (*takes out hand-knitted hankie in pink*)
(*sniffles*)
("We embrace you, V")

Vishous (in the pit): Oh hell no...you did not just put that up. And nice spelling in the title. Man...you just have to roll up on me, don't you. I got four words for you, my brother.

Rhage: Four words? Okay...lemme see... Rhage, you're so sexy.
hmmm....
Rhage, you're SO smart. No wait! Rhage, you're SO right! That's it, isn't it...g'head. You can tell me.

Vishous: First one starts with a "P"
Use your head for the other three.
Bastard.

Rhage: P? Hmm... Please pass the yarn

Vishous: Payback is a bitch!

Rhage: Ohhhhhhhhhhhh
I'm so scuuuuuurred.
Can you whip me up a blanket to hide under?”
― J.R. Ward, quote from The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide

“You know that deep down, a tiny part of that proper, respectable woman you are, wants to visit that reckless, sexy, uninhibited place inside you that’s begging to get out. A place I can undoubtedly help you find.”
― K. Bromberg, quote from Driven

“Textbooks in American history stand in sharp contrast to other teaching materials. Why are history textbooks so bad? Nationalism is one of the culprits. Textbooks are often muddled by the conflicting desires to promote inquiry and to indoctrinate blind patriotism.”
― James W. Loewen, quote from Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms”
― T.S. Eliot, quote from Collected Poems, 1909-1962

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.