Top 450 Louise Penny Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “In grief people were themselves and not themselves.”

— Louise Penny

302. “Character is not created in times like these. It’s revealed.”

— Louise Penny

303. “After more than a thousand years,” he continued, “an enemy finally broke through. Not because of superior firepower. Not because the Manchus were better fighters or strategists. They weren’t. The Manchus breached the Great Wall and took Beijing because someone opened a gate. From the inside. As simple as that. A general, a traitor, let them in and an empire fell.”

— Louise Penny

304. “I don’t know. I was wrong. I’m sorry.” Lacoste recited them slowly, lifting a finger to count them off. “I need help,” the Chief said, completing the statements. The ones he’d taught young Agent Lacoste many years ago. The ones he’d recited to all his new agents.”

— Louise Penny

305. “In Beauvoir’s experience Darwin was way wrong. The fittest didn’t survive, they were killed by the idiocy of their neighbors, who continued to bumble along oblivious.”

— Louise Penny

306. “Armand stood up, still holding Stephen’s hand, and said, “It’s time. Let him go.” Then he sat back down, his legs weak. If this was the right thing to do, why did it feel so wrong? But no, it didn’t feel wrong. It felt wretched. Horrific. A nightmare. But sometimes “right” felt like that.”

— Louise Penny

307. “Entitlement was, she knew, a terrible thing. It chained the person to their victimhood. It gobbled up all the air around it. Until the person lived in a vacuum, where nothing good could flourish.”

— Louise Penny

308. “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

309. “When Peter walked into a room he always swept it until he found Clara. And then he relaxed.”

— Louise Penny

310. “Clara rocked back and forth, back and forth, cradling her loss. Earlier in the day she’d felt someone had scooped her heart and her brain right out of her body. Now they were back, but they were broken. Her brain jumped madly about the place, but always back to that one scorched spot.”

— Louise Penny

311. “At my age I’ve long since stopped caring what others think.”

— Louise Penny

312. “Where once his grandparents put up crucifixes and images of the benediction on their walls, he and Reine-Marie put up books on theirs. History books. Reference books. Biographies. Fiction, nonfiction. Stories lined the walls and both insulated them from the outside world and connected them to it.”

— Louise Penny

313. “Good hearts get hurt. Good hearts get broken, Armand. And then they lash out.”

— Louise Penny

314. “Gamache had asked not because he didn’t know the answer, but because he wanted to see if Peter would lie to him. He had. And if he’d lie about that, what else had he lied about?”

— Louise Penny

315. “Not everyone makes the boat, she thought.”

— Louise Penny

316. “But I understand your doubts. They’re what make you a great man, not your certainties.”

— Louise Penny

317. “All will be as it should, if we just do our best.”

— Louise Penny

318. “It’s like drinking acid,” said Myrna, “and expecting the other person to die.” Gamache nodded.”

— Louise Penny

319. “Dreadful deeds were obvious. The divine was often harder to see.”

— Louise Penny

320. “She wasn’t afraid to be wrong. And that, the Chief knew, was a great strength.”

— Louise Penny

321. “Myrna understood how damaging it was to compare pain. To dismiss hurt just because it wasn’t the worst.”

— Louise Penny

322. “But he knew he needn’t worry. This man was afraid of nothing. “I count my blessings.” He turned and saw Irene on the terrasse, as though he’d sensed her there. “We’re all blessed and we’re all blighted, Chief Inspector,” said Finney. “Every day each of us does our sums. The question is, what do we count?” The old man brought his hand to his head and removed his hat, offering it to Gamache.”

— Louise Penny

323. “Gabri plugged the oven and the espresso machine into the generator,’ explained Olivier. ‘No lights, but we have the necessities.”

— Louise Penny

324. “He stared for ten seconds or more, which, when eating a chocolate cake isn’t much, but when staring, is.”

— Louise Penny

325. “They had such a profound effect on those who sang and heard them that the ancient chants became known as “the beautiful mystery.”

— Louise Penny

326. “I’m saying people change.” She held up her hands to ward off Clara’s protests. “I know, it’s easy to say. And it doesn’t undo the damage. But we’ve seen changes of heart. Changes of perception. It happens. Racists, homophobes, misogynists, they can change. And some do.” “Truth and reconciliation,” said Clara. “Yes. The truth must come first. And then, maybe, reconciliation. Maybe.”

— Louise Penny

327. “There is no way either would get into their wedding clothes. But they’d grown in other ways as well, and Gamach figured it was a good deal. If life meant growth in all directions, it was fine with him.”

— Louise Penny

328. “Maybe that’s what old men are for. To make decisions that no young man can.” He was watching Gamache closely. “Or should have to.”

— Louise Penny

329. “Homes, Gamache knew, were a self-portrait. A person’s choice of color, furnishing, pictures.”

— Louise Penny

330. “The morning after their deaths, Armand had gone into their room. The scent of them, the sense of them, almost too much to bear. The clothing. The book. The bookmark. The bedside clock, still ticking. He’d thought that strange. Surely it should have stopped.”

— Louise Penny

331. “I’ve seen enough successful writers who no longer seem to care when they are recognized with an award, and I think that’s just tragic.”

— Louise Penny

332. “Yes, the real danger always came from the thing you couldn’t see.”

— Louise Penny

333. “Rummaging through the cupboard like a wartime surgeon frantically searching for the right bandage, Peter swept aside Yogi Tea and Harmony Herbal Blend, though he hesitated for a second over chamomile. But no. Stay focused, he admonished himself. He knew it was there, that opiate of the Anglos. And his hand clutched the box just as the kettle whistled. Violent death demanded Earl Grey.”

— Louise Penny

334. “Friend of Bill was code. For a member of AA. Of which this Anton was clearly one. It was like finding a member of his tribe, unexpectedly. The two men stood in the warm kitchen, the sleet hitting the windows, and realized that while they knew nothing about each other, they actually knew each other better than almost anyone else on earth.”

— Louise Penny

335. “But they both knew that words were weapons too, and when fashioned into a story their power was almost limitless.”

— Louise Penny

336. “Rules meant order. Without them they’d be killing each other. It began with butting in, with parking in disabled spaces, with smoking in elevators. And it ended in murder.”

— Louise Penny

337. “It was no use telling her he understood. Or that it was all right. She’d earned the right to no easy answer.”

— Louise Penny

338. “Gamache had been to Three Pines on previous investigations and each time he’d had the feeling he belonged. It was a powerful feeling. After all, what else did people really want except to belong? He.”

— Louise Penny

339. “Recruiters, for terrorist cells and police forces and armies, relied on this simple truth: if you got people young enough, they could be made to do just about anything.”

— Louise Penny

340. “We knew who would want him found, Dr Croix, but who wants him to remain buried?”

— Louise Penny

341. “It seemed Yolande had become so self-absorbed she no longer existed. She’d finally absorbed herself.”

— Louise Penny

342. “They are four sentences we learn to say, and mean.’ Gamache held up his hand as a fist and raised a finger with each point. ‘I don’t know. I need help. I’m sorry. And one other.’ Gamache thought for a moment but couldn’t bring it to mind.”

— Louise Penny

343. “The reason “belonging” was so potent, so attractive, so much a part of the human yearning, was that it also meant safety, and loyalty. If you were “one of us” you were protected.”

— Louise Penny

344. “And fear. High school smelled of that more than anything else, even more than sweaty feet, cheap perfume and rotten bananas.”

— Louise Penny

345. “He remembered how it felt to find himself in the library, away from possible attack but surrounded by things far more dangerous than what roamed the school corridors. For here thoughts were housed.”

— Louise Penny

346. “He inhaled deeply and exhaled the word “people.” Not so much an indictment as in wonderment. That there could be so much deliberate cruelty and so much kindness in one species.”

— Louise Penny

347. “Entitlement was, she knew, a terrible thing. It chained the person to their victimhood. It gobbled up all the air around it. Until the person lived in a vacuum, where nothing good could flourish. And the tragedy was almost always compounded, Myrna knew. These people invariably passed it on from generation to generation. Magnified each time. The sore point became their family legend, their myth, their legacy. What they lost became their most prized possession. Their inheritance.”

— Louise Penny

348. “In winter the very ground seemed to reach up and grab the elderly, yanking them to earth as though hungry for them.”

— Louise Penny

349. “Dear God, thought Gamache, save me from a huffy priest.”

— Louise Penny

350. “It was, he knew, a sign of End of Days. Ruth refusing booze.”

— Louise Penny