Colette quotes

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. (Colette)
When she raises her eyelids it's as if she were taking off all her clothes.
Colette
It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanism of friendship.
Colette
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.
Colette
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
Colette
Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
Colette
The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time.
Colette
Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
Colette
To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
Colette
You do not notice changes in what is always before you.
Colette
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. (Colette)
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.
Colette
It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.
Colette
Boredom helps one to make decisions.
Colette
On this narrow planet, we have only the choice between two unknown worlds. One of them tempts us - ah! what a dream, to live in that! - the other stifles us at the first breath.
Colette
In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge.
Colette
What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
Colette
Nothing ages a woman like living in the country.
Colette
Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette.
Colette
My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.
Colette
In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness. (Colette)
If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles.
Colette
We only do well the things we like doing.
Colette
Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.
Colette
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.
Colette