Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes 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

Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
—Colette

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

Jealousy is not at all low, but it catches us humbled and bowed down, at first sight. For it is the only suffering that we endure without ever becoming used to it.
—Colette
Topics: Jealousy

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

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

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

Time spent with cats is never wasted.
—Colette
Topics: Time, Cats

January, month of empty pockets! Let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer’s forehead.
—Colette
Topics: Seasons, Winter

You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
—Colette
Topics: Passion, Mistakes, Enthusiasm

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
Topics: The Past, Past

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

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

What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
—Colette

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

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

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

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

Is suffering so very serious?. I have come to doubt it. It may be quite childish, a sort of undignified pastime—I’m referring to the kind of suffering a man inflicts on a woman or a woman on a man. It’s extremely painful. I agree that it’s hardly bearable. But I very much fear that this sort of pain deserves no consideration at all. It’s no more worthy of respect than old age or illness.
—Colette
Topics: Suffering

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.
—Colette
Topics: Manners, Courtesy

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

For to dream and then to return to reality only means that our qualms suffer a change of place and significance.
—Colette
Topics: Reality, Dreams

Researchers, with science as their authority, will be able to cut Animals up, alive, into small pieces, drop them from a great height to see if they are shattered by the fall, or deprive them of sleep for sixteen days and nights continuously for the purposes of an iniquitous monograph… Animal trust, undeserved faith, when at last will you turn away from us? Shall we never tire of deceiving, betraying, tormenting animals before they cease to trust us?
—Colette
Topics: Science

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

What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
—Colette
Topics: Blessings, Living, Life, Happiness

A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
—Colette
Topics: Experience, Childhood

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

There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask.
—Colette

Can it be that chance has made me one of those women so immersed in one man that, whether they are barren or not, they carry with them to the grave the shriveled innocence of an old maid?
—Colette

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

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

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