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The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8) QUOTES

The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8) QUOTES

1 " He sat quietly for a moment, lost in what was now and forever the past. The scene he described would never be repeated. That overheard sound would never be heard again. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

2 " The Catholic Church wasn't just a part of his parents' live, and his grandparents', it ruled their lives. The priests told them what to eat, what to do, who to vote for, what to think. What to believe.

Told them to have more and more babies. Kept them pregnant and poor and ignorant.

They'd been beaten in school, scolded in church, abused in the back rooms.

And when, after generations of this, they'd finally walked away, the Church had accused them of being unfaithful. And threatened them with eternal damnation. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

3 " What did falling in love do for you? Can you ever really explain it? It filled empty spaces I never knew were empty. It cured a loneliness I never knew I had. It gave me joy. And freedom. I think that was the most amazing part. I suddenly felt both embraced and freed at the same time. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

4 " 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 , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

5 " Beauvoir knew that the root of all evil wasn’t money. No, what created and drove evil was fear. Fear of not having enough money, enough food, enough land, enough power, enough security, enough love. Fear of not getting what you want, or losing what you have. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

6 " Had peace and quiet become so rare that when finally found they could be mistaken for something grotesque and unnatural? It would appear so. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

7 " They don’t teach this at medical school, but I’ve seen it in real life. People die in bits and pieces. A series of petites morts. Little deaths. They lose their sight, their hearing, their independence. Those are the physical ones. But there’re others. Less obvious, but more fatal. They lose heart. They lose hope. They lose faith. They lose interest. And finally, they lose themselves. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

8 " Plenty of time for a close friendship to turn to hate. As only a good friendship could. The conduit to the heart was already created. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

9 " We can all fall,” said the abbot. “But perhaps not as hard and not as fast and not as far as someone who spends his life on the ascent. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

10 " We don't just sing; we are the song. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

11 " The glass was old. Leaded. Imperfect. And it was the imperfections that were creating the play of light. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

12 " like a living chant. Each of us individual notes. On our own, nothing. But together? Divine. We don’t just sing, we are the song. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

13 " There's no wrong answer. Just the truth. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

14 " It was like walking into joy. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

15 " Apart they were individual colors, but together they made giddy light. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

16 " Jeez,” said Beauvoir. “The Inquisition. I didn’t expect that.” “No one does,” said Gamache. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

17 " Abbots and priors and monks, oh my. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

18 " 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 , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

19 " In trying to capture the beautiful mystery, this monk had invented written music. Not yet notes, what he’d written became known as neumes. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)

20 " They believe in a virgin birth, a resurrection, walking on water and some old guy with a white beard floating in the sky and running the world, but this they find unbelievable?” Gamache was quiet for a moment, then nodded. “It is interesting,” he agreed, “what people choose to believe.” And what they’d do in the name of that faith. "

― Louise Penny , The Beautiful Mystery (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #8)