The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6 Quotes

“Before laptops and BlackBerries and all the other tools that mistook information for knowledge. It was an old library, filled with old books and dusty old thoughts.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“You can’t get milk from a hardware store. So stop asking for something that can’t be given. And look for what is offered. She saw the fork of food, and the thin lips that rarely smiled at them, blowing on it.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“What was that Milton quote we were raised with? “The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“But she went from being a happy, carefree child to an embittered woman. Very solitary, not very likeable apparently. Then, near the end of her life, she wrote to a friend. In the letter she said that her father had said something to her. Something horrible and unforgivable.” “The brutal telling.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“Beauvoir unfolded the paper in his hands. I just sit where I’m put, composed of stone, and wishful thinking: “Who’s Vincent Gilbert, sir? You seemed to know him.” “He’s a saint.” Beauvoir laughed, but seeing Gamache’s serious face he stopped. “What do you mean?” “There’re some people who believe that.” “Seemed like an asshole to me.” “The hardest part of the process. Telling them apart.” “Do you believe he’s a saint?” Beauvoir was almost afraid to ask. Gamache smiled suddenly. “I’ll leave you here. What do you say to lunch in the bistro in half an hour?” Beauvoir looked at his watch. Twelve thirty-five. “Perfect.” He watched the Chief walk slowly back across the bridge and into Three Pines. Then he looked down again, at the rest of what Ruth had written. that the deity who kills for pleasure will also heal, Someone”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“Be careful,” Gamache whispered. “You’re making hurting a habit. Spreading it around won’t lessen your pain, you know. Just the opposite.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“I had three chairs in my house: one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.” “My favorite quote from Thoreau is also from Walden,” said Gamache. “A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“Didn’t he claim Rome was conspiring to take over North America and had sent the Jesuits to kill Lincoln?” asked Émile.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“Why did you say he was dead?” Marc asked. If he hadn’t Beauvoir would have. He’d always thought his own family more than a little odd. Never a whisper, never a calm conversation. Everything was charged, kinetic. Voices raised, shouting, yelling. Always in each other’s faces, in each other’s lives. It was a mess. He’d yearned for calm, for peace, and had found it in Enid. Their lives were relaxed, soothing, never going too far, or getting too close.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“He wanted them to soar. To find, if not heaven, then at least happiness. Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,” said Gamache. “You quoted the poem ‘High Flight’ when we first talked.” “Charles’s favorite. He was a naval aviator in the war. And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings. Beautiful.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“She radiated rage now. He felt his face would bubble and scald. And he knew why none of the Morrow children had ever been this close. And wondered, fleetingly, about Bert Finney, who had.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed . . . and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of.” Beauvoir looked over and saw the chief, his eyes closed and his head tilted back, but his lips moving, repeating a phrase. “Up, up the long delirious burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights . . . Where never lark, or even eagle flew.” “Where’s that from?” asked Beauvoir. “A poem called ‘High Flight’ by a young Canadian aviator in the Second World War.” “Really? He must’ve loved flying. Bees love flying. Can cover long distances for food, if they have to, but they stay close to the hive if they can.” “He died,” said Gamache. “Pardon?” “Says here the poet was killed. Shot down. The poem was quoted by President Reagan after the Challenger disaster.” But he’d lost Beauvoir to the bees again.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“mention that!). Teresa is way more than an agent. She’s also a lovely, thoughtful person. I’d also like to thank my good friends Susan McKenzie and Lili de Grandpré, for their help and support. And finally I want to say a word about the poetry I use in this book, and the others. As much as I’d love not to say anything and hope you believe I wrote it, I actually need to thank the wonderful poets who’ve allowed me to use their works and words. I adore poetry, as you can tell. Indeed, it inspires me—with words and emotions. I tell aspiring writers to read poetry, which I think for them is often the literary equivalent of being told to eat Brussels sprouts. They’re none too enthusiastic. But what a shame if a writer doesn’t at least try to find poems that speak to him or her. Poets manage to get into a couplet what I struggle to achieve in an entire book. I thought it was time I acknowledged that. In this book I use, as always, works from Margaret Atwood’s slim volume Morning in the Burned House. Not a very cheerful title, but brilliant poems. I’ve also quoted from a lovely old work called The Bells of Heaven by Ralph Hodgson. And a wonderful poem called “Gravity Zero” from an emerging Canadian poet named Mike Freeman, from his book Bones. I wanted you to know that. And I hope these poems speak to you, as they speak to me.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“Emily Carr. And the ridicule she’d endured at the hands of gallery owners, critics, a public too afraid to go where she wanted to take them.”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6

“A”
― Louise Penny, The Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series, Books 4-6