The only virtue on which I pride myself is my self-doubt; when a writer loses her self-doubt, the time has come to lay aside her pen.
SIDONIE GABRIELLE COLETTEIf I can’t have too many truffles, I’ll do without truffles.
More Sidonie Gabrielle Colette Quotes
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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.
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We only do well the things we like doing.
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Writing only leads to more writing.
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Jealousy is not at all low, but it catches us humbled and bowed down, at first sight.
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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.
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A few days later, I found my mother beneath the tree, motionless with excitement, her head turned toward the heavens in which she would allow human religions no place.
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In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.
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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.
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That lovely voice; how I should weep for joy if I could hear it now!
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In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge.
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To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
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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.
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I believe there are more urgent and honorable occupations than the incomparable waste of time we call suffering.
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A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trade with the men.
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You don’t think before you do something foolish. You do your thinking afterwards.
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No one asked you to be happy. Get to work.
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No temptation can ever be measured by the value of its object.
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What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.
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Total absence of humor renders life impossible.
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Be happy. It’s one way of being wise.
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It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.
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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.
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Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette.
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A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.
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The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike.
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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