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.
Money is a handmaiden, if thou knowest how to use it A mistress, if thou knowest not.
Forgiveness is a gift to myself. I forgive, and I set myself free.
We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is over eager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure.
Irrigators channel waters; fletchers straighten arrows; carpenters bend wood; the wise master themselves.
I'm the world's original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.
Build the raft of meditation and self-discipline, to carry you across the river. There will be no ocean, and no rising tides to stop you; this is how comfortable your path shall be.
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