All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #16)

by Louise Penny

“Patience. Patience. With patience comes choice, and with choice comes power.”

“But it was compassionate to spare them. Life can be cruel, as you know. But it can also be kind. Filled with wonders. You need to remember that. You have your own choice to make, Armand. What’re you going to focus on? What’s unfair, or all the wonderful things that happen? Both are true, both are real. Both need to be accepted. But which carries more weight with you?” Stephen tapped the boy’s chest. “The terrible or the wonderful? The goodness or the cruelty? Your life will be decided by that choice.”

C. S. Lewis wrote that we can create situations in which we are happy, but we cannot create joy. It just happens.