Inspirational Quotes by Colette (French Novelist, Performer)

Inspirational Quotations by Colette (French Novelist, Performer)

Colette (1873–1954,) fully Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, also Colette Willy, was a French writer who produced some of the most memorable female characters in literature. She was a novelist, short-story writer, journalist, essayist, memoirist, actress, and music-hall performer. Her best novels, mainly concerned with feminine independence in experiencing the joys and sorrows of love, are extraordinary for their command of sensual description.

Born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Burgundy, Colette ghost-wrote her early novels, including the first four Claudine novels (Claudine à l’école (1900,) Claudine à Paris (1901,) Claudine en ménage (1902,) and Claudine s’en va (1903,)) using her first husband’s pseudonym, Willy. From 1904 (the end of their association) to 1916 she wrote under the name ‘Colette Willy.’

In 1906, Colette appeared in music halls in dance and mime, and out of this period came La Vagabonde (1910; The Vagabond, 1955) and L’Envers du Music-hall (1913; Music-Hall Sidelights, 1957.) She also became the mistress of the actress Mathilde “Missy” de Morny—Colette wrote Les Vrilles de la vigne (1908; Tendrils of the Vine) about her affair with Missy.

Colette is one of the most prolific literary geniuses of the modern era and is recognized as one of the great stylists of the French language. Her utmost strength as a writer is an exact sensory evocation of sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and colors of her world. Her most famous novels include Chéri (1920,) La Fin de Chéri (1926; The Last of Chéri, 1932,) la Chatte (1933; The Cat, 1936) and Gigi (1944.)

Colette is the subject of numerous biographies, songs, and films, including the biopic Colette (2018) starring Keira Knightley.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Colette

Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette.
—Colette
Topics: Smoking

No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.
—Colette
Topics: Temptation

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

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

We only do well the things we like doing.
—Colette
Topics: Success, Enjoyment, Appropriateness, Aptness

Look for a long time at what pleases you, and a longer time at what pains you.
—Colette
Topics: Pleasure

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
Topics: Girls, Children

It was on that road and at that hour that I first became aware of my own self, experienced an inexpressible state of grace, and felt one with the first breath of air that stirred, the first bird, and the sun so newly born that it still looked not quite round.
—Colette
Topics: Beginnings

Real poverty is lack of books.
—Colette
Topics: Poverty

We only do well the things we like doing.
—Colette
Topics: Appropriateness, Aptness, Success, Enjoyment

Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower nor is modesty either.
—Colette
Topics: Sincerity

But just as delicate fare does not stop you from craving for saveloys, so tried and exquisite friendship does not take away your taste for something new and dubious.
—Colette
Topics: Friends and Friendship

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
Topics: Crime

Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of frenzy into an abyss. But they survive, they come to the surface again. And they develop a routine of the abyss: “It’s four o clock. At five I have my abyss… “
—Colette

Girls usually have a paper mache face on their wedding day.
—Colette
Topics: Marriage, Weddings

And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised.
—Colette
Topics: Friendship, Friends and Friendship

My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.
—Colette
Topics: Friends and Friendship

I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we call suffering.
—Colette
Topics: Adversity

It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.
—Colette
Topics: Children

The woman who thinks she is intelligent demands equal rights with men. A woman who is intelligent does not.
—Colette
Topics: Intellectuals, Intelligence

Don’t ever wear artistic jewelry; it wrecks a woman’s reputation.
—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
Topics: Authors & Writing, Writing

It takes time for the absent to assume their true shape in our thoughts. After death they take on a firmer outline and then cease to change.
—Colette
Topics: Absence

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
Topics: Choices, Choice

Shall we never have done with that cliche, so stupid that it could only be human, about the sympathy of animals for man when he is unhappy? Animals love happiness almost as much as we do. A fit of crying disturbs them, they’ll sometimes imitate sobbing, and for a moment they’ll reflect our sadness. But they flee unhappiness as they flee fever, and I believe that in the long run they are capable of boycotting it.
—Colette
Topics: Animals

One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave.
—Colette
Topics: Aging, Age

Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
—Colette

Be happy. It’s one way of being wise.
—Colette
Topics: Happiness, Wisdom

Music is love in search of a word.
—Colette
Topics: Music, One liners