Strength and intelligence, composure and courage, free-thinkers and style makers. French women from history and today offer in today’s post words to ponder about the subject of women and the journey we all are on: life.

It is how we choose to live it that will make all the difference, and the awareness that indeed refusing to remain ignorant, lifting other women up as we too rise and finding what we individually can offer to the world and refusing to squander it, is what is required. In other words courage and conscious living is required.

Now to their words . . .

1. On Appearing Effortlessly Stylish

“To the French, looking overly polished visually communicates a less interesting life . . . Parisian women love to look pretty, but they need to look a bit messy, too.” —Lola Burstein-Rykiel, granddaughter of Sonia Rykiel and founder of Le Chocolat Noir PR firm in Paris

2. Keeping the Bar High 

“A woman has to be intelligent, have charm, a sense of humor, and be kind. It’s the same qualities I require from a man.” —Catherine Deneuve

3. Self-Confidence

“How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than create it herself.” —Anais Nin

4. Know Thyself

“Making choices that are meaningful to you is the essence of the French woman’s secret.”—Mireille Guiliano

5. Trust Your Unique Journey

“I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth – and truth rewarded me.” — Simone de Beauvoir

6. Pave a Better Way for the Journey of the Women Who Will Follow You

“The world will know and understand me someday. But if that day does not arrive, it does not greatly matter. I shall have opened the way for other women.” —George Sand, a pseudonym (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin was her real name), French novelist and memoirist

7. Freedom to Choose

“I feel so lucky that I live in a society that lets women be. I think that’s the one of the biggest fights to keep having, is to fight for women to have the right to live their life the way they want to live it.” —Clemence Poesy, actress in The Tunnel, Harry Potter and Last Love

8. Continued Learning and Speaking Up

“I learned that you can constantly improve, and that you should not be shy about your views, and about the direction that you believe is right.” — Christine Lagarde, current Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, French lawyer and politician

9. Curate a Life that Enables You to Shine Your Brightest

“The best color in the whole world is the color that looks best on you.” —Coco Chanel, founder of Chanel

~View TSLL French-Inspired Posts from the Archives HERE: