Quotes from Colette

The seventeenth, Desmond! Come along at once; everything's all right. We're going to buy a huge bracelet for my wife, an enormous cigarette-holder for Madame Peloux, and a tiny tie-pin for you

Two o'clock already! High time for a woman of letters who has turned out badly to go to sleep.

After you, probably anyone can have me who wants me. A woman, many women. But never another cat.

Incompatibility became established between them like a new season of the year.

Trudno zadowoli? jednocze?nie wszystkich i sam? siebie. Wol? zacz?? od siebie...

I've known perfectly well, for a long time, that I have an irrational heart. But knowing it doesn't stop me in the least.

The fairies have washed their linen in the water of your dress.

Desde hace algún tiempo, mis ojos siempre dan la impresión de saber algo que yo no sé.

Rest assured that long patience and jealously concealed sorrows have shaped, refined, and hardened that woman who makes people exclaim: "She's made of steel!" She's simply "made of woman," and that's sufficient.

A woman can never die of grief. She is such a solid creature, so hard to kill!

Does she deliberately make herself ugly out of modesty or pride?" Brice wondered, watching his wife walk pigeon-toed, run into the corner of the table, and rub her thigh. "It's a kind of lie, too.

Rien d'ailleurs ne rassure autant qu'un masque.

Un uomo che ha guai finanziari è un uomo costretto tutto il tempo ad avere idee per trovare denaro. Non abbiate timore. Quando un individuo deve cavarsela, se la caverà

Dans le « programme des examens » les choses ne se passent pas comme dans la vie.

Bien sûr, je ne conçois pas que des gens vivent à Paris pour leur plaisir.

Pureté et solitude sont un seul et même malheur.

Les beaux yeux qui ne demandent qu'à sourire !

For an instant, Madame Peloux took on her authentic character in her son's eyes; that is to say, he estimated her at her proper value, a woman high-spirited, all-consuming, calculating and at the same time rash, like a high financier; a woman capable of taking a humorist's delight in spiteful cruelty. "She is a scourge, certainly," he said to himself, "and no more. A scourge, but not a stranger.

I put on a martyred expression - like this - as if I was bored to death with every luxury under the sun. I had the time of my life.

No, she was not like a lover to me, for I forgot that she was beautiful, that we had come together in despite of a man, in the deep and growing indifference we felt toward that man. We were join in an infinity so pure that I never thought of death...

One can't write of love while making love.

Faites des bêtises, mais faites-les avec enthousiasme

Soyez sûrs qu'une longue patience, que des chagrins jalousement cachés ont formé, affiné, durci cette femme dont on s'écrie 'elle est en acier !' Elle est 'en femme', simplement, et cela suffit

Do not think, as you read this, that I am painting my own portrait. Be patient, it is only my model.