It’s like drinking acid,” said Myrna, “and expecting the other person to die.” Gamache nodded.
How often we made our worst fears come true, by behaving as though they already were.
Some people keep their darkness inside, and some hide their light. You, mon ami, almost certainly have a croissant in there.
You have one hour to live. Who is it, exactly, you have needed all these years to forgive?” Myrna.
When Peter walked into a room he always swept it until he found Clara. And then he relaxed.
We love life, thought Reine-Marie as she watched Ruth and Rosa sitting side by side, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. Nietzsche. How Armand would kid her if he knew she was quoting Nietzsche, even to herself.
I had three chairs in my house: one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.” “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.
All year his mouth watered for the home-made Manoir Bellechasse lemonade. It tasted fresh and clean, sweet and tart. It tasted of sunshine and summer.
What was it Oscar Wilde said?” “I can resist everything except temptation.
It was, he knew, a sign of End of Days. Ruth refusing booze.
Alcohol stole dignity and friends and family and livelihoods before finally taking the life. Alcohol was a thief. And often a murderer.
Myrna understood how damaging it was to compare pain. To dismiss hurt just because it wasn’t the worst.
Living in the wreckage of her future sure took the joy out of the present.
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.
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.
You can’t get milk from a hardware store. So stop asking for something that can’t be given. And look for what is offered. She saw the fork of food, and the thin lips that rarely smiled at them, blowing on it.
I’ve realised that anyone can be a critic but it takes a remarkable person to offer praise.
She took the long way home,” said Ruth. “Some do, you know. They seem lost. Sometimes they might even head off in the wrong direction. Lots of people give up, say they’re gone forever, but I don’t believe that. Some make it home, eventually.
Below that was the thrum of bumblebees climbing in and over and around the peonies. Getting lost. Bumbling around. It looked comical, ridiculous. But then so much did, unless you knew.
It seemed Yolande had become so self-absorbed she no longer existed. She’d finally absorbed herself.