Sidonie Quotes & Sayings

He looked younger, kinder, a brighter image of the man she knew. A man life hadn't mistreated or betrayed. Whatever the pain of this union, she loved that she gave him this momentary peace. This encounter lurched from the physical onto a different plane. A plane revealing a new emotional landscape. She felt lightheaded, lost. — Anna Campbell

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

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

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

I wonder why peopke are so afraid of love. Of different kinds of love. I just don't get it. Why aren't we afraid of racism Of war? But love? It just doesn't make sense. — Gail Sidonie Sobat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sidonie," he said, his voice strangely hoarse. "You are the most - I mean, you are so ... I find you ... ah, devil take it! Never mind!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Nothing," he growled. "I misspoke. What did you say about oranges? — Liz Carlyle

She loved his laughter. She loved that he faced the world with a reckless smile on his scarred face. Her heart crashed against her chest. A revelation descended. A revelation unrelated to the desire heating her blood. — Anna Campbell

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

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

Mrs. [Sidonie Matsner] Gruenberg [in Radio and Children]. . . says:
Probably the 'good' effects upon children's characters are as unpremeditated as the 'bad.' We have not yet found any sure way through our didactic teaching or other devices to make our children 'good.' We may at least suspect that some of the objectionable lessons are equally ineffective in making them 'bad. — Judith C. Waller

She shook her head. "No, Jonas."
" 'No, Jonas' is all you ever say," he responded with a hint of savagery. He knew he was unfair, but he was just so damned miserable.
Her smile wavered into a warmth that calmed his anger. "Not always."
He shut his eyes as the memory of wild nights overpowered him. Good God, at this rate, he'd be bawling like a motherless calf. — Anna Campbell

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

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

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

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

At sixty-three years of age, less a quarter, one still has plans. — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Sidonie, I know you don't remember it, but you once promised to trust me beyond all reason. And I swear to you that all that I am, all that I possess, including this gem-stone, is yours. I need you. I can't do this alone. Forget your memories. Look into your heart. And if you can find somewhere there, some lingering spark of trust that owes naught to reason, I beg you to speak the word written here. — Jacqueline Carey

Smokers, male and female, inject and excuse idleness in their lives every time they light a cigarette. — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

the centre is the light of the sun. If you choose to take on the role of the sun as the centre of the whole, you must then be responsible for generating your own light. Any light you give to others is at your expense and it is then your duty to recharge your own light. This is a very difficult task, and certainly not the one you were intended to take on when you came to Earth. — Sidonie Bouchet

Open your mouth, tesoro." He angled her face higher. "Open your mouth for me."
At his raw demand, her eyes flared wide. For a drunken moment, he drowned in glorious brown, rich, autumnal, sensual. — Anna Campbell

On the first of May, with my comrades of the catechism class, I laid lilac, chamomile and rose before the altar of the Virgin, and returned full of pride to show my blessed posy. My mother laughed her irreverent laugh and, looking at my bunch of flowers, which was bringing the may-bug into the sitting-room right under the lamp, she said: Do you suppose it wasn't already blessed before? — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

The faults of husbands are often caused by the excess virtues of their wives. — 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

The truth is, Sidonie, I don't fare well with women." He spoke coolly, and without looking at her. "It is my own fault, of course. I ... I neglect them. I forget where I'm supposed to be, and when I'm supposed to be there. I'm irresponsible. I drink to excess, gamble to excess, and sometimes I brawl. I never remember special occasions. And I very often go to sleep before they've ... well, never mind that." Devellyn fell silent for a moment. "And I cheat on them," he quietly added. "Dreadfully. Did I mention that?"
"You did not," she answered. "But a full disclosure of one's fidelity, or even one's skill in the bedroom, is not, strictly speaking, necessary before having dinner with someone."
Devellyn smiled down at her a little wearily. "Ah, Sid, I have no charm at all, have I?" he said almost regretfully. — Liz Carlyle

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

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

I've entered the world of wine without any professional training, but a definite appetite for good bottles. — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

She [Sidonie Rougon] never spoke of her husband, nor of her childhood, her family, or her personal concerns. There was only one thing she never sold, and that was herself. — Emile Zola

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

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

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

Researchers, with science as their authority, will be able to cut animals up, alive, into small pieces, drop them from a great height to see if they are shattered by the fall, or deprive them of sleep for sixteen days and nights continuously for the purposes of an iniquitous monograph ... Animal trust, undeserved faith, when at last will you turn away from us? Shall we never tire of deceiving, betraying, tormenting animals before they cease to trust us? — 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

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

A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts. — 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

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

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

There are connoisseurs of blue just as there are connoisseurs of wine. — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette