Quotes By Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.

You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly.

No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.

Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.

The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike.

Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.

A woman who thinks she is intelligent demands the same rights as man. An intelligent woman gives up.

In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.

The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.

I love my past, I love my present. I am not ashamed of what I have had, and I am not sad because I no longer have it.

A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trade with the men.

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.

There is no need to waste pity on young girls who are having their moments of disillusionment, for in another moment they will recover their illusion.

The faults of husbands are often caused by the excess virtues of their wives.

Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette.

Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship.

Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.

My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.

Jealousy is not at all low, but it catches us humbled and bowed down, at first sight.

I am going away with him to an unknown country where I shall have no past and no name, and where I shall be born again with a new face and an untried heart.

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.

The woman who thinks she is intelligent demands equal rights with men. A woman who is intelligent does not.

Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower nor is modesty either.

As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime. The ordinary bad hat is always in part a decent fellow.

A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.

Total absence of humor renders life impossible.

Writing only leads to more writing.

If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles.