Mireille Guiliano Quotes

In #‎ France we have a saying, 'Joie de Vivre,' which actually doesn't exist in the English language. It means looking at your life as something that is to be taken with great pleasure and enjoy it.

Intelligence, knowledge or experience are important and might get you a job, but strong communication skills are what will get you promoted.

Taking care of your mental and physical health is just as important as any career move or responsibility.

In America, you look at food as bad and guilty. In France, we love food and we enjoy food; food is pleasure.

I would advocate that chocolate be covered by health insurance, but that is admittedly a very French public policy perspective.

In the U.S., too many yogurts are filled with corn syrup, preservatives, artificial this and that. To me, this is poison.

French women love bread and would never consider a life without carbs.

Once you have to start counting calories, it takes away from the joy of eating.

French women typically think about good things to eat. American women typically worry about bad things to eat.

When I grew up in France, I was a normal size. And then I came to the United States and I gained 20 pounds.

Making choices that are meaningful to you is the essence of the French woman's secret.

One does not laugh because one is happy; one is happy because one laughs.

I've never been ambitious.

Just as established products and brands need updating to stay alive and vibrant, you periodically need to refresh or reinvent yourself.

We women are so judged by the way we dress, and men are not. So style is part of developing your own brand.

I can never leave a bookstore without buying a book. I read four or five at a time.

I find it so unattractive when women wear sneakers with their business suits. I wear a nice pair of loafers or low-heeled pumps, and that's that.

Being and working in America, it's very important to work hard, work smart and work in a certain way. France and Europe has, with the tradition and culture, it's slow-moving and it's not always good.

You and I don't have the same genetics, we don't live in the same places, but we can have the same basic attitude - being comfortable in our skin.

French women eat and serve what's in season, for maximum flavor and value, and know availability does not equal quality.

I cannot live without flowers everywhere. I grew up having a big garden, the size of a city block, in Rombas.

French women don't eat Wonder Bread.

French women don't have too many clothes - a few good pieces that last for a while and are classic and timeless.

Of course there are fat French women. There are fat people everywhere.

Give us being and feeling over having any day.

We only have one body, and you have to show respect for it.

Learn to say no, with an eye to saying yes to something else.

Since the pleasure of most foods is in the first few bites, eat one thing on your plate at a time, at least at the start of the meal when you can concentrate and enjoy the full flavors.

Expensive clothes with inappropriate or inexpensive shoes may send an unflattering message.

Nothing but beauty and douceur

My friends say everything I touch turns to gold. I'll say, 'I've been very lucky.

If you believe you can shed pounds quickly by force of will and deprivation, you will in all likelihood not only regain the ones you lost, but add a few more besides.

I'm not a great consumer. I always ask myself, 'Do I really need that piece?' I have friends who have 300 pairs of shoes; how would you leave the house in the morning?

I am a believer in change peu a' peu (little by little) since drastic changes, including lots of changes made all at once, are often the sort of modifications that don't stick.

With technology, there is so much isolation with people now, that there are very few places where you can connect.

There is no lasting glory in rapid weight loss.

People are unhappy when they are on diets, because it's 'don't do this, don't do that, do this, do that.

Once a day, take some 'Beach Time.'

You owe it to your loved ones as well as yourself to know and pursue your pleasures.