What haunted people even, perhaps especially, on their deathbed? What chased them, tortured them and brought some of them to their knees? And [he] thought he had the answer. Regret. Regret for things said, things done, and things not done. Regret for the people they might have been. And failed to be.

Louise Penny

Categorized in : People Done Regret

Myrna could spend happy hours browsing bookcases. She felt if she could just get a good look at a person’s bookcase and their grocery cart, she’d pretty much know who they were.

Louise Penny

happy-hour looking-good looks

The four sayings that lead to wisdom: I was wrong I'm sorry I don't know I need help

Louise Penny

four sorry needs

Fear lives in the head. And courage lives in the heart. The job is to get from one to the other.

Louise Penny

heart jobs

No good ever comes from putting up walls. What people mistake for safety is in fact captivity. And few things thrive in captivity.

Louise Penny

wall mistake people

Life is change. If you aren't growing and evolving, you're standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead.

Louise Penny

growing life world

The night is a strawberry.

Louise Penny

strawberries night

After spending most of her life scanning the horizon for slights and threats, genuine and imagined, she knew the real threat to her happiness came not from the dot in the distance, but from looking for it. Expecting it. Waiting for it. And in some cases, creating it. Her father had jokingly accused her of living in the wreckage of her future. Until one day she'd looked deep into his eyes and saw he wasn't joking. He was warning her.

Louise Penny

distance life father

Where there is love there is courage, where there is courage there is peace, where there is peace there is God. And when you have God, you have everything.

Louise Penny

Life is choice. All day, everyday. Who we talk to, where we sit, what we say, how we say it. And our lives become defined by our choices. It's as simple and as complex as that. And as powerful. so when I'm observing that's what I'm watching for. The choices people make

Louise Penny

powerful simple people

But you want murderous feelings? Hang around librarians," confided Gamache. "All that silence. Gives them ideas.

Louise Penny

silence giving ideas

Better to accept the wretched truth than struggle, twisting to make a wish a reality.

Louise Penny

struggle wish reality

What are you afraid of? I'm afraid of not recognizing Paradise.

Louise Penny

recognizing paradise

Every year the hunters shot cows and horses and family pets and each other. And unbelievably, they sometimes shot themselves, perhaps in a psychotic episode where they mistook themselves for dinner

Louise Penny

horse pet years

The leaves had fallen from the trees and lay crisp and crackling beneath his feet. Picking one up he marveled, not for the first time, at the perfection of nature where leaves were most beautiful at the very end of their lives.

Louise Penny

perfection feet beautiful

To be silent. In hopes of not offending, in hopes of being accepted. But what happened to people who never spoke, never raised their voices? Kept everything inside? Gamache knew what happened. Everything they swallowed, every word, thought, feeling rattled around inside, hollowing the person out. And into that chasm they stuffed their words, their rage.

Louise Penny

offending voice people

Her voice was slightly accented but her French was perfect. Someone who'd not just learned the language but loved it. And it showed with every syllable. Gamache knew it was impossible to split language from culture. That without one the other withered. To love the language was to respect the culture.

Louise Penny

voice perfect love

I'm just like this. I have no talent for choosing my battles. Life seems, strangely, like a battle to me. The whole thing.

Louise Penny

talent battle whole

Every decade of my life I attempted to write a novel. But I had nothing to say. I was far too self-absorbed, and now I realize I was writing for others, so that they'd applaud me, see my genius, tell me how wonderful I am, or be jealous of my success.

Louise Penny

jealous self writing

Now here's a good one: you're lying on your deathbed. You have one hour to live. Who is it, exactly, you have needed all these years to forgive?

Louise Penny

forgiving lying years

Don't mistake dramatics for a conscience.

Louise Penny

conscience mistake