A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #7)

by Louise Penny

Clara Morrow had painted the moment despair became hope.

“Maybe it isn’t hope at all,” said Marois, “but merely a trick of the light.”

Because if a weapon was drawn it meant all else had failed. All hell had broken loose.

Most of us are brought down by a bunch of tiny transgressions. Little things that add up until we collapse under them. It’s fairly easy to avoid doing the big bad things, but it’s the hundred mean little things that’ll get you eventually. If you listen to people long enough you realize it’s not the slap or the punch, but the whispered gossip, the dismissive look. The turned back. That’s what people with any conscience are ashamed of. That’s what they drink to forget.”