Armand Gamache Quotes & Sayings

Houses are like people, Agent Lemieux. They have secrets. I'll tell you something I've learned.'
Armand Gamache dropped his voice so that Agent Lemieux had to strain to hear.
'Do you know what makes us sick, Agent Lemieux?'
Lemieux shook his head. Then out of the darkness and stillness he heard the answer.
'It's our secrets that make us sick. — Louise Penny

Humor today goes hand in hand with our rationality, and not just rationality in the sense of cognitive sophistication, but also in the sense of a rational attitude toward the world. Part of this attitude is viewing things critically, and people with a well developed sense of humor naturally look at things critically, because they are looking for incongruity. — John Morreall

Chief Superintendent Arnot might hold power, but Armand Gamache was the more powerful man. — Louise Penny

The Beautiful Mystery Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #8:
"Do you know why our emblem is two wolves intertwined?" Gamache shook his head.
..."One of the (native) elders told him that when he was a boy his grandfather came to him and told him he had two wolves fighting inside him. One was grey, the other black. The grey one wanted his grandfather to be courageous, and patient, and kind. The other, the black one, wanted his grandfather to be fearful and cruel. This upset the boy, and he thought about it for a few days and returned to his grandfather. He asked, 'Grandfather, which of the wolves will win?' Do you know what his grandfather said?" Gamache shook his head. There was such a look of sadness on the Chief Inspector's face, it almost broke the abbot's heart. "The one I feed. — Louise Penny

The confinement she feels is spreading, becoming intolerable, because in a hostile mind limitations grow to a maddening degree. Moreover, God had strongly warned, "You shall surely die." But the woman now softens it to ". . . lest you die." Now that her view of the consequences is less alarming, Satan springs on that very point: — Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.

If you want to prove yourself to God, improve yourself. Words of guidance are so simple, yet so deep - anybody can win, if he be the soul entry.
Unfortunately, in every field, there are so many entries and so to win , one has to cultivate excellence. — Chinmayananda Saraswati

Armand Gamache had seen the worst. But he'd also seen the best. Often in the same person. — Louise Penny

Every rebellion which is not in its own nature self-destructive, is an expression of the divine spirit. — Paul Carus

... it's not the truth about others that will set you free, but the truth about yourself. — Louise Penny

Wait, Armand, he heard behind him but kept walking, ignoring the calls. Then he remembered what Emile had meant to him and still did. Did this one bad thing wipe everything else out?
That was the danger. Not that betrayals happened, not that cruel things happened, but that they could outweigh all the good. That we could forget the good and only remember the bad.
But not today. Gamache stopped. — Louise Penny

When you know how, it's a pleasure to burn. — Saahil Prem

Armand Gamache wondered whether CC de Poitiers was at that very moment trying to explain herself to a perplexed God and two very angry seals. — Louise Penny

Away she hurried, not beautiful, not supremely brilliant, but filled with something that took the place of both qualities - something best described as a profound vivacity, a continual and sincere response to all that she encountered in her path through life. — E. M. Forster

This was how to help a family who has just lost their child. Wash the clothes, make soup. Don't ask them what they need, bring them what they need. Keep them warm. Listen to them rant, and cry, and tell their story over and over. — Ann Hood

Hopefully before I'm done, I can be on an Olympic team. — Kevin Durant

I crossed my arms over my chest. Jeez, it was cold in here all of a sudden. And had he always smelled this good? Was it a cologne? Eau de Christmas Pie? — Lili St. Crow

I said I was only going to recite them once, and he could do with them as he wished." Armand Gamache lowered his fork to his plate and listened. "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. — Louise Penny

It's in the tilting and thrashing that we wangle our luck. — Chang-rae Lee

Do you know, Armand, I can't remember the last time I felt safe." "I know what you mean," said Gamache. "It feels as though this has been going on forever." "No, I don't mean just this mess. I mean all my life. — Louise Penny

Armand Gamache found murderers by following the trail of rancid emotions. Beside — Louise Penny

For Armand Gamache knew what not-nice was. He knew what cruelty, despair, horror were. And he knew what a forgotten, and precious quality 'nice'was. — Louise Penny

What a moron I was to think you were sweet and innocent, when it turns out you were actually college-educated the whole time! — Margaret Atwood

Stop!" She advances on me with the most severe, stern look I've ever seen from her, and she yells in a strong voice. "No more. Get it out of your head, Kai! We are not running. This is happening whether you like it or not. It's time to get your game face on and get ready to kick some ass."
Holy ... I honestly didn't think her capable of this kind of verbal badassery. Even in handcuffs she has taken control, walloped me, and forced my whiney inner child into a corner. — Wendy Higgins

I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. — Robert M. Gates

It was not the first time Faith had been alone with the dead of course. She had watched five younger brothers wane, felt the trusting pressure of their small hands in hers. And later, each time, she had done her part in keeping watch over the body for the wake. There always needed to be somebody watching over the newly dead, just in case they turned out not to be dead after all. It was best to know these things before anyone was actually buried. — Frances Hardinge

They lead "still" lives, waiting. - Myrna Landers
Waiting for what? - Armand Gamache
Waiting for someone to save them. Expecting someone to save them or at least protect them from the big, bad world. The thing is no one else can save them because the problem is theirs and so is the solution. - Myrna — Louise Penny

One day that ego of yours'll kill you. That's all it is, you know. You pretend it's selfless, you pretend to be the great teacher, the wise and patient Armand Gamache, but you and I both know it's ego. Pride. Be careful, my friend. She's dangerous. You've said so yourself. — Louise Penny

The reason Armand Gamache could go there was because it wasn't totally foreign to him. He knew it because he'd seen his own burned terrain, he'd walked off the familiar and comfortable path inside his own head and heart and seen what festered in the dark. And one day Jean Guy Beauvoir would look at his own monsters, and then be able to recognize others. And maybe this was the day and this was the case. He hoped so. — Louise Penny

I think we can all agree that the official language of the United States should be Latin. — Michel Templet

Armand Gamache had always held unfashionable beliefs. He believed the light would banish the shadows. That kindness was more powerful than cruelty, and that goodness existed, even in the most desperate places. He believed that evil had its limits. — Louise Penny