Like a first love, the place where peace is first found is never, ever forgotten.
Hope offered, then denied. A particular cruelty.
The terror of falling asleep knowing that on waking she’d relive the loss, like Prometheus bound and tormented each day. Everything had changed. Even her grammar. Suddenly she lived in the past tense. And the singular.
We see it when bullies are in charge. It becomes part of the culture of an institution, a family, an ethnic group, a country. It becomes not just acceptable, but expected. Applauded even.
Chief Inspector Gamache’s says there are ’four sentences that lead to wisdom: I don’t know. I need help. I’m sorry. I was wrong.
As a good rule of thumb, if you have to lie, you might be doing something wrong.
If love was compass enough, said Armand quietly, there would be no missing children.
Non. He said, ‘Be very, very careful who you let into your life. And learn to make peace with whatever happens. You can’t erase the past. It’s trapped in there with you. But you can make peace with it. If you don’t,’ he said, ’you’ll be at perpetual war.
Not everything buried is actually dead. For many, the past is alive.
There are generally three parties to child abuse: the abused, the abuser and the bystander.
What could be worse? Dying, and not being missed.
Just because it’s the truth doesn’t make it less insulting.
Gamache enjoyed going to churches for their music and the beauty of the language and the stillness. But he felt closer to God in his Volvo.
It was one thing to forgive, it was another to climb back into the cage with that bear, even if it was wearing a tutu and smiling.
Clara didn’t carry a grudge. They were too heavy and she had too far to go.
Had peace and quiet become so rare that when finally found they could be mistaken for something grotesque and unnatural? It would appear so.
Not everyone’s an explorer, and not every explorer makes it back alive. That’s why it takes so much courage.
Most people want to be led. But suppose they choose the wrong leader? They end up with the Donner party.
It wasn’t really, he knew, about less fear. It was about more courage.
We choose our thoughts. We choose our perceptions. We choose our attitudes.