The Brutal Telling (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #5)

by Louise Penny

Many native tribes believed evil lived in corners, which was why their traditional homes were rounded. Unlike the square homes the government had given them.

And he knew what a forgotten, and precious, quality “nice” was.

Funny how imperfections on the outside mean something splendid beneath.”

He’d driven snowmobiles, power boats, motorcycles and ATVs. While appreciating their convenience, and necessity, he disliked them all. They shattered the calm with their banshee screams, polluting the wilderness with noise and fumes.

All his life he’d been afraid, and all his life it had marred his judgment. He’d hoped that had stopped, but apparently not.

“They would be, if most of them hadn’t been destroyed in the late 1800s by the government or the church. But you can still see a fine one in the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa.” The irony wasn’t lost on either of them.

“Most unhappiness comes from not being able to sit quietly in a room.”

And over time Olivier grew to appreciate how very beautiful kindness was.

The Mountain King had arisen. Had assembled an army made of Bile and Rage and led by Chaos.

and on its now naked flank there marched Sorrow and Grief and Madness. And at the head of the army was Chaos.

“Julius Caesar was a genius. He’s really the cipher fanatic’s emperor. Brilliant. He used the Greek alphabet to send secret messages to his troops in France.

Where there is love there is courage, where there is courage there is peace, where there is peace there is God. And when you have God, you have everything.

It’s because we’re sickened by what people can do. People goaded by others, emboldened. Infected by cynicism and fear and suspicion. By jealousy and greed. They turn on each other. I want nothing to do with them.

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.”

“It’s a Buddhist belief. One of the states of man from the Wheel of Life. The more you eat the hungrier you get. It’s considered the very worst of the lives. Trying to fill a hole that only gets deeper. Fill it with food or money or power. With the admiration of others. Whatever.” “The Hungry Ghost,” said Gamache. “How horrible.”

it was vital to be aware of actions in the present. Because the present became the past, and the past grew. And got up, and followed you.