Sidonie Gabrielle Colette Quotes

Truffles must come to the table in their own stock and as you break open this jewel sprung from a poverty-stricken soil, imagine - if you have never visited it - the desolate kingdom where it rules. ~ 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

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 ... ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

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

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

One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

By an image we hold on to our lost treasures, but it is the wrenching loss that forms the image, composes, binds the bouquet. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Perhaps the only misplaced curiosity is that which persists in trying to find out here, on this side of death, what lies beyond the grave. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

A kindly gesture bestowed by us on an animal arouses prodigies of understanding and gratitude. ~ 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

Sincerity is not a spontaneous flower nor is modesty either. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle 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. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

It was fun to see him becoming sententious again, glorying in a science he had invented, and as positive as a village soothsayer.

'So one should neither give nor receive?' I laughed. 'And if the lover is poor, his mistress indigent, then both she and he must tactfully let themselves and each other die?'

'Let them die,' he repeated.

I had accompanied him as far as the revolving glass door of the lobby.

'Let them die,' he said again. 'It's less dangerous. I can swear on my word of honor that I never gave a present or made a loan or an exchange of anything except . . . this . . .'

He waved both hands in a complicated gesture which fleetingly indicated his chest, his mouth, his genitals, his thighs. Thanks no doubt to my fatigue, I was reminded of an animal standing on its hind legs and unwinding the invisible. Then he resumed his strictly human significance, opened the door, and easily mingled with the night outside, where the sea was already a little paler than the sky. ~ Colette

Thackeray's a good writer and Flaubert is a great artist. Trollope is a good writer and Dickens is a great artist. Colette is a very good writer and Proust is a great artist. Katherine Anne Porter was an extremely good writer and Willa Cather was a great artist. ~ Truman Capote

The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

By means of an image we are often able to hold on to our lost belongings. But it is the desperateness of losing which picks the flowers of memory, binds the bouquet. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

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

You do not notice changes in what is always before you. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Is suffering so very serious? ... I'm referring to the kind of suffering a man inflicts on a woman or a woman on a man. It's extremely painful ... hardly bearable. But I very much fear that this sort of pain ... is no more worthy of respect than old age or illness. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle 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. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

If we want to be sincere, we must admit that there is a well-nourished love and an ill-nourished love. And the rest is literature. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

The day after that wedding night I found that a distance of a thousand miles, abyss and discovery and irremediable metamorphosis, separated me from the day before. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

Among all the modernized aspects of the most luxurious of industries, the model, a vestige of voluptuous barbarianism, is like some plunder-laden prey. She is the object of unbridled regard, a living bait, the passive realization of an ideal. No other female occupation contains such potent impulses to moral disintegration as this one, applying as it does the outward signs of riches to a poor and beautiful girl. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

The more sensitive the lunatic, the less able is he to resist this prying interest of the normal human being. I felt that Renée's change of key - to myself, I compared Renée to a sweet melody, a little flat despite its laborious harmonies - was approaching. ~ Colette

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

I am indebted to the cat for a particular kind of honorable deceit, for a greater control over myself, for a characteristic aversion to brutal sounds, and for the need to keep silent for long periods of time. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

The faults of husbands are often caused by the excess virtues of their wives. ~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

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

THE AWARD CEREMONY is held at a high school in Hyannis. Though it's just a gymnasium (the scent of balls of both varieties is still palpable) and the ceremony hasn't started yet, everyone speaks in hushed tones, like it's church. Something important and literary is about to happen here. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

To baby boomers wailing that the internet is turning innocent kids into vicious bullies - au contraire, we've been monsters all along. ~ Gabrielle Moss

Three things which inspire the poet:An eye to see the world clearly A heart which feels sincerely And courage to render faithfully Little Book of Celtic Wisdom compiled by Giuletta Wood ~ Colette Ni Reamonn Ioannidou

The more we tune into our own frequency of love, the more love will spread. ~ Gabrielle Bernstein

If you want to stay fit, surround yourself with a couple of chicks who are fired up, so that the one day you're not, you can feed off their energy. ~ Gabrielle Reece

All minorities think they're immune, but we're absolutely part of the one in five that gets skin cancer! It's a myth, and myths are meant to be debunked! ~ Gabrielle Union

If you just set people in motion they'll heal themselves. ~ Gabrielle Roth

Colette," he told her. "I can love Stéphane. I can honor his memory. I can love your parents, and your brother, your uncles, your cousin. I can love them beside you, and I will, if you let me. ~ Julie Berry

deeply. "I don't not love you, too, Gabrielle. There's nothing but you. You are all I see, all I need" He plants ~ Lena Black

The tension drained from her face and she softened in his hold until she was again the fluid, responsive woman who had kissed him within an inch of his life. This time he knew better than to restrain her when she slipped from the bed. He bit back an appeal for her to stay with him. If his life depended on it, he couldn't say whether he wanted her to stay an hour, a day, or forever. ~ Anna Campbell

Why is any one book different from any other book? They are different, A.J. decides, because they are. We have to look inside many. We have to believe. We agree to be disappointed sometimes so that we can be exhilarated every now and again. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

Those two are trying to hide,' Chéri thought. 'They're deceiving someone somewhere. The whole world's busy deceiving and being deceived. But I . . .' He did not finish the sentence, but a repugnance made him jump to his feet, an action that meant, 'But I am chaste.' A faint ray of light, flickering uncertainly over stagnant, hitherto unfeeling regions of his inmost being, was enough to suggest that chastity and loneliness are one and the same misfortune. ~ Colette

A.J. feels for the engagement ring in his pocket. Is this the moment? No, too Jumbotron. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

I'm afraid Pierre finds me lacking. (Gabrielle)
If he's stupid enough to let me know, he'll find his face lacking a nose. (Carlos) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

Candlelight flickered in the adjacent bedroom. She followed the ambient warmth to the threshold and paused there, marveling at what she saw. Lucan's austere bedroom had been transformed into something out of a dream. Four tall black pillar candles set into intricate silver sconces burned in each corner. Red silk draped the bed. On the floor before the fireplace was a cushioned next of fluffy pillows and even more crimson silk. It looked so romantic, so inviting.
A room intended for lovemaking.
She took a step farther inside. Behind her, the door closed softly on its own.
No, not quite on its own. Lucan was there, standing on the other side of the room, watching her. His hair was damp from a shower. He wore a loosely tied, satiny red robe that skated around his bare calves, and there was a heated look in his eyes that melted her where she stood.
"For you," he said, indicating the romantic setting. "For us tonight. I want things to be special for you."
Gabrielle was moved, instantly aroused by the sight of him, but she couldn't bear to make love the way things had been left between them.
"When I left tonight, I wasn't going to come back," she told him from the safety of distance. If she went any closer, she didn't think she'd have the strength to say what had to be said. "I can't do this anymore, Lucan. I need things from you that you can't give me."
"Name them." It was a soft command, but still a command. He moved toward her with careful ste ~ Lara Adrian

If someone lacked decency or respect, I didn't allow that person to stay in my world. ~ Gabrielle Union

I want to take you to a place of pure magic ... It's the place athletes call the "zone". Buddhists call "satori" and ravers call "trance". I call it the Silver Desert. It's a place of pure light that holds the dark within it. It's a place of pure rhythm. ~ Gabrielle Roth

I don't run for my physical health, though that's a lucky side effect. I run because I'm tortured inside. I run to soothe the violence in my mind, the depression, the panic, the disappointments, the shame, the frustration, the helplessness against time. You could say I'm running from something... though I'd rather think I'm running TOWARD something. Though I'm probably running just to stay in one place. It seems like most of life is just maintenance, after all. ~ Gabrielle Bell

I let go of my need to control and allow the Universe to do her thing. ~ Gabrielle Bernstein

Speaking is physically difficult for me. ~ Gabrielle Giffords

Um…" Simon started slowly "at the risk of stating the obvious I feel I have to point out that Interpol has the worldʼs best database of international criminals."
"Thatʼs the idea " Gabrielle said with a nod.
"And I feel compelled to remind you that weʼre international criminals " he finished but Kat was already smiling.
"Donʼt worry Simon. Itʼs not like anyone in there knows it was a bunch of teenagers who robbed the
Henley. ~ Ally Carter

When you repeat a new pattern often, you literally change the neural pathways in your brain. This shift helps true change settle in. ~ Gabrielle Bernstein

The theme of the dance was "Great Romances," or some such nonsense. There were projections of supposedly great couples from the past on the walls of the gym. Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Hermione and Ron, Bonnie and Clyde, etc. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

And hard times are good in their own way, too. Because the only way you can achieve true happiness is if you experience true sadness as well. It's all about light and shade. Balance. ~ Gabrielle Williams

It is easier to reason with love than to conquer it ~ Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot De Villeneuve

You were listening at the door, Gigi!"
"No, Grandmamma."
"Yes, you had your ear to the keyhole. You must never listen at key-holes. You don't hear properly and so you get things all wrong. ~ Colette

I met a travler from an ancient land. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

Change courage into main characters, fear into antagonists, and peace and safety into supporting characters. Don't hold anything back. ~ B.A. Gabrielle

I always have a million things going on at once, but I try to put my energy into the most immediate need. ~ Gabrielle Reece

It takes discipline to be a free spirit. ~ Gabrielle Roth

But jackets are the redheaded stepchildren of book publishing. We blame them for everything. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

The thing about Shakespeare is you can only read his books if someone is making you. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

I'm a natural. That's why I make the big bucks. ~ Gabrielle Reece

Thus saying, I turned my full attention to the lock. Like a proper maiden, it resisted for a token moment. But, upon further adept agitation of its slender hole, it relinquished its charms with smooth, willing finesse. ~ Gabrielle Harbowy

In truth, she hadn't put much thought into whether she was happy before. She supposes that since she never thought about it, she must have been happy. People who are happy don't really need to ask themselves if they are happy or not, do they? They just are happy, she thinks. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

When I was around eight, I learned how to touch-type at school, and I received a computer as a present. I started writing plays, and for many years I thought I would be a playwright. ~ Gabrielle Zevin

A woman claims as many native lands as she had happy love affairs, Likewise, she is born under every sky where she recovers from the pain of loving. ~ Colette

That spring, Amelia takes Maya to the drugstore and lets her choose any polish color she likes. "How do you pick?" Maya says.
"Sometimes I ask myself how I'm feeling," Amelia says. "Sometimes I ask myself how I'd like to be feeling. ~ Gabrielle Zevin