A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

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

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we call suffering.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette


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

It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

January, month of empty pockets! let us endure this evil month, anxious as a theatrical producer's forehead.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

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

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

Never touch a butterfly's wing with your finger.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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