It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms of friendship.
Sidonie Gabrielle ColetteWhen she raises her eyelids it's as if she were taking off all her clothes.
Sidonie Gabrielle ColetteAs 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.
Sidonie Gabrielle ColetteIn the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.
Sidonie Gabrielle ColetteIt is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place.
Sidonie Gabrielle ColetteAmong 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