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.
Interpretation
Staying astonished keeps us youthful and open to life's wonders.
In this quote, Colette expresses that experiencing astonishment is essential to maintaining a sense of wonder and vitality as we age. Rather than succumbing to the cynicism that can accompany growing older, she emphasizes the importance of staying curious and appreciative of the world around us, which in turn helps to keep our spirits youthful and alive.
In practice
Using this quote in a motivational speech about embracing life's surprises at a retirement party.
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 only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses.
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.
I went to collect the few personal belongings which...I held to be invaluable: my cat, my resolve to travel, and my solitude.
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.
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.
I did not look for her, because I was afraid of dispelling the mystery we attach to people whom we know only casually.
For each illness that doctors cure with medicine, they provoke ten in healthy people by inoculating them with the virus that is a thousand times more powerful than any microbe: the idea that one is ill.
A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
I feel that there is reason lurking in you somewhere, so we will patiently grope round for it.
We all like to look good. However, this basic human desire can often get in the way of our listening and our speaking. This tendency often evinces itself in two simple words: 'I know.' But if I know everything, what can I learn? Absolutely nothing.
There is nothing like first-hand evidence.
As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.