Inspector Gamache Quotes & Sayings

I never understood what rules I was supposed to learn, and what rules I was supposed to break — Morton Feldman

The heart, like the mind, has a memory.
And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If I were on death row, my last meal would be from Steak 'n Shake. If I were to take President Obama and his family to dinner and the choice was up to me, it would be Steak 'n Shake. If the pope was to ask where he could get a good plate of spaghetti in America, I would reply, "Your Holiness, have you tried the Chili Mac or the Chili 3-Ways?" A downstate Illinois boy loves the Steak 'n Shake as a Puerto Rican loves rice and beans, an Egyptian loves falafel, a Brit loves bangers and mash, a Finn loves reindeer jerky, and a Canadian loves doughnuts. This doesn't involve taste. It involves a deep-seated conviction that a food is right, has always been right, and always will be. — Roger Ebert

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

When Olivier had been taken away Gamache had sat back down and stared at the sack. what could be worse than Chaos, Despair, War?
What would even the Mountain flee from? Gamache had given it a lot of thought.
What haunted people even, perhaps especially, on their deathbed? What chased them, tortured them and brought some of them to their knees? And Gamache thought he had the answer.
Regret.
Regret for things said, for things done, and not done. Regret for the people they might have been. And failed to be.
Finally, when he was alone, the Chief Inspector had opened the sack and looking inside had realize he'd been wrong. The worst thing of all wasn't regret. — Louise Penny

My spirit is free. My heart is taken. — Crystal Woods

Yet for better or worse we love things that bear the marks of grime, soot, and weather, and we love the colors and the sheen that call to mind the past that made them. — Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

Our only hope is to control the ... — Medgar Evers

You cannot mock God because whatever good thing you do, you're gonna reap for it. — Joseph Prince

A strategic victory does not validate all the victor's operational and tactical methods or make them universally applicable. — Kalev I. Sepp

I didn't feel comfortable at first with pure mathematics, or as a professor of pure mathematics. I wanted to do a little bit of everything and explore the world. — Benoit Mandelbrot

Chief Inspector Gamache knew one thing about hate. It bound you forever to the person you hated. Murder wasn't committed out of hate, it was done as a terrible act of freedom. To finally rid yourself of the burden. — Louise Penny

God will only give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows — Timothy Keller

One of the elders told him that when he was a boy his grandfather came to him one day and said he had two wolves fighting inside him. One was gray, the other black. The gray 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 then returned to his grandfather. He asked, 'Grandfather, which of the wolves will win?'
The abbot smiled slightly and examined the Chief Inspector. 'Do you know what his grandfather said?'
Gamache shook his head ...
'The one I feed,' said Dom Philippe. — Louise Penny

No matter how much the government controls the economic system, any problem will be blamed on whatever small zone of freedom that remains. — Sheldon Richman

I do remember seeing Audio Adrenaline and The Newsboys, basically Christian rock, because that was what I was allowed to see by my parents. — Matty Mullins

I suppose I've always lived in my own head. I didn't discover boys till sixth form. Then suddenly it was, 'Oh! Boys!' — Malorie Blackman

The ideal state for a philosopher, indeed, is celibacy tempered by polygamy. — H.L. Mencken

I think my favorite role was playing Sarah Baker in 'Cheaper by the Dozen 1.' It was my first movie, and I worked with amazing professionals who had such strong work ethics that I immediately learned how to work in this industry. — Alyson Stoner