Colette

"It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud onl…"

"Don’t ever wear artistic jewellry; it wrecks a woman’s reputation."

"You must not pity me because my sixtieth year finds me still astonished. To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly."

"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."

"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."

"Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette."

"Her childhood, then her adolescence, had taught her patience, hope, silence and the easy manipulation of the weapons and virtues of all prisoners."

"Humility has its origin in an awareness of unworthiness, and sometimes too in a dazzled awareness of saintliness."