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

by Louise Penny

where else would you find darkness but right up against the light? What greater triumph for evil than to ruin a garden?

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

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.”

Less a hunter than an explorer, Armand Gamache delved into what people thought, but mostly how they felt. Because that was where actions were conceived.

“And the crack in the tea-cup opens / A lane to the land of the dead.”

If there was one thing the senior police officer understood, it was that everyone had strengths. And weaknesses. The important thing was to recognize them. And not expect something from someone who didn’t have it to give.

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”

Don’t believe everything you think.

“Hell is the truth seen too late,”

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

“Sometimes we don’t recognize we’ve wandered into Hell until it’s too late.”

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

We just don’t know. The key is to keep going. Joy might be just around the corner.