The Grey Wolf Quotes

“We will feel him in the rain, in the wind, in the bite of snow, in the scent of autumn leaves, and in deep and penetrating silence. We might miss him terribly but will never be away from him. Yves returns to joy. As we all will, one day.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“One evening, as they sat by a fire on the shore over there, the Cree elder told the Abbot something that had happened to him when he was a child. His grandfather, the Chief at the time, told the boy that he had two wolves at war inside him, tearing at his insides. One of them, a grey wolf, wanted the old man to be strong and compassionate. Wise and courageous enough to be forgiving. The other, a black wolf, wanted him to be vengeful. To forget no wrong. To forgive no slight. To attack first. To be cruel and cunning and brutal to friends and enemies alike. To spare no one. Hearing this from his grandfather terrified the child. He ran away. It took a few days before he dared approach the old man again. When he did, he asked his grandfather, ‘Which wolf will win, the grey or the black?’” Armand was now watching Jean-Guy. It was as though they were the first, last, and only people on earth. “His grandfather said, ‘The one that I feed.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“How easily humans could adjust to darkness. To dark thoughts and darker deeds. Until, finally, the darkness became normal. And they no longer missed, or looked for, or trusted, the light.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“The only reason democracy works is that there’s a contract between elected and those electing. A consent to be governed. But that contract is fragile.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“He’d noticed the white rose pin on her sweatshirt and knew what it meant. It was a symbol of the fourteen young women who’d been murdered at Montréal’s École Polytechnique. The engineering school. The gunman had killed them because they were women. Because they dared believe they belonged in a “man’s profession.” Dared believe they were equal to men. He’d murdered them for daring.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“He wondered what part of evolution this served. Why had a fly been given the ability to light itself? Or perhaps, he thought as he placed the paper where only Reine-Marie could find it, there was no purpose. Perhaps being a small light in the night was purpose enough. A show of defiance. These tiny creatures were the resistance against a vast darkness.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“Since Canada, as far as America’s political elite knew, did not really exist. And if it did, it was merely an inconvenient extension of their nation. A sort of annoying younger sibling that sometimes tried to assert itself but could always be put in its place.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“His rage, while understandable, was threatening to destroy not just him but the new life they were creating. No place is safe if built on a foundation of hatred.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“Canada might not be the most powerful nation on earth, but power was shifting from weapons to resources. And Canada was resource-rich. Which was tipping the balance of power.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“Gamache was very aware of the warning not to attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity. There was much more stupidity around than malice. Though both were dangerous. And he never discounted the malicious.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“One of us, thought Lacoste. There were few more dangerous phrases. Partly because it held truth. There were teams, tribes, families, companies. Friends. Us. But it was rarely just a description of a group. There was, about it, a distinction. “Us” implied there was a “Them.” And “Us” was better than “Them.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“Life was, after all, made up of tiny choices. Like a pointillist painting, no one dot, no one choice, defined it. But together? There emerged a picture. A life.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf: A Novel

“As Sister Prejean said, No one of us is as bad as the worst thing we’ve done.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“Gamache was very aware of the warning not to attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“But anger clouded judgment. It became another problem, not a solution.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“No place is safe if built on a foundation of hatred.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“Armand wondered fleetingly how one would grow nutmeg. It was a nut, no? That you grated? There were enough nuts in the village, at least one of them grating, but not of the same sort.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“Whitehead's mind was moving rapidly over terrain he'd studied but hoped never to have to visit. Like a vulcanologist, intimately familiar with volcanoes, who never wanted to be inside one when it erupted.
But General Whitehead could smell sulfur and feel the ground shifting beneath his feet.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“wolf, wanted the old man to be strong and compassionate. Wise and courageous enough to be forgiving. The other, a black wolf, wanted him to be vengeful. To forget no wrong. To forgive no slight. To attack first. To be cruel and cunning and brutal to friends and enemies alike.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“The sense Isabelle got, as she inhaled the scents, was one of comfort. As though Christmas and Easter, Thanksgiving, and the height of summer were holding a party.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“Life was, after all, made up of tiny choices. Like a pointillist painting, no one dot, no one choice, defined it. But together? There emerged a picture. A life. Where”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“We will feel him in the rain, in the wind, in the bite of snow, in the scent of autumn leaves, and in deep and penetrating silence. We might miss him terribly but will never be away from him.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“all, made up of tiny choices. Like a pointillist painting, no one dot, no one choice, defined it. But together? There emerged a picture. A life.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“One of them, a grey wolf, wanted the old man to be strong and compassionate. Wise and courageous enough to be forgiving. The other, a black wolf, wanted him to be vengeful. To forget no wrong. To forgive no slight. To attack first. To be cruel and cunning and brutal to friends and enemies alike. To spare no one.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“No one of us is as bad as the worst thing we’ve done.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“It could be used as an excuse to declare a nationwide state of emergency. Prompt mass arrests. The shutting down of news organizations and social media. Controlling all information. Curfews. Shoot-to-kill orders. Effectively a dictatorship.” “A coup.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“The only reason democracy works is that there’s a contract between elected and those electing. A consent to be governed. But that contract is fragile. That consent can be withdrawn. Sophisticated terrorists know this. They hit targets that can shatter that trust. And few things are more powerful, more symbolic, more important than water security.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“The thing about poisoning the drinking water isn’t just the deaths, it’s the knock-on effects. Hundreds of thousands would fall sick at the same time. Civilians, yes, but also essential services like police, firefighters, health care workers. Hospitals couldn’t cope. Not to mention the fact that millions would be without drinking water. How long can people last without it?” He stared at Beauvoir, who did not have the answer, but knew it wasn’t long. “Panic then spreads to other cities as they fear that their water is poisoned too. Rioting breaks out across the country to get what little bottled water, what little food is available. All authority breaks down. Businesses are vandalized. Misinformation, conspiracy theories, are everywhere, often planted by the terrorists. People don’t know what to believe, what to do, who to turn to for help. Who to trust. There’s chaos. Imagine a sudden, all-encompassing, catastrophic event. That we do to ourselves.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“the advice of Saint Augustine. It is solved by walking.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf

“And while climate change had hit Canada, especially in the form of terrible wildfires, it had been felt less forcefully than in most other areas. Even in the nation to the south, once green and fertile land had become dry and parched. Roaring rivers had withered to a trickle. Times were becoming desperate. People were becoming desperate.”
― Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf