Émile Zola

“Oh, Justice, what frightful despair oppresses our hearts!”

— Émile Zola

I would rather die of passion than of boredom.

— Emile Zola

“an insane love for nudity desired but never possessed (42)”

— Émile Zola

The thought is a deed. Of all deeds she fertilizes the world most.

— Emile Zola

In my view you cannot claim to have seen something until you have photographed it.

— Emile Zola

If I cannot overwhelm with my quality, I will overwhelm with my quantity.

— Emile Zola

“they seemed to be greater strangers than before”

— Émile Zola

A ruined man fell from her hands like a ripe fruit, to lie rotting on the ground.

— Emile Zola

When a peasant begins to feel the need for instruction, he usually becomes fiercely calculating.

— Emile Zola

I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle,…

— Emile Zola

Perfection is such a nuisance that I often regret having cured myself of using tobacco.

— Emile Zola

“Kings may usurp thrones, republics may be established, but the town scarcely stirs. Plassan sleeps while Paris fights.”

— Émile Zola

What will be the death of me are buillabaisses, food spiced with pimiento, shellfish, and a load of exquisite rubbish which I…

— Emile Zola

“no le había quedado más remedio que hacerse una confesión: aún temblaba al ver pasar a Mouret, pero ahora sabía que no…

— Émile Zola

“Never subject to the rules, believing that the correct judgement and healthy nature keep her in the honesty she lived in.”

— Émile Zola

“With his mouth open, he gave off that alcoholic smell that you get from an old brandy cask when you take out…

— Émile Zola

Vines will be planted, corn will spring up, a whole growth of new crops; and people will still fall in love in…

— Emile Zola

Yes! live life with every fibre of one's being, surrender oneself to it, with no thoughts of rebellion, without deluding oneself that…

— Emile Zola

“Words failed him again; he began to stammer in his unsuccessful attempt to express the first vague stirrings of the future he…

— Émile Zola

People like comfort; that's natural. But as for making money simply for the sake of making it, and giving yourself far more…

— Emile Zola

“A god of kindness would be charitable to all. Your god of wrath and punishment is but a monstrous phantasy...It is not…

— Emile Zola

“There she stood, by herself, amidst all her treasures, with a whole horde of men grovelling at her feet. Like those dreaded…

— Émile Zola

“Lastly, I accuse the first court-martial of having violated the law by condemning an accused person on one document kept secret, and…

— Émile Zola

“Understand this! A year ago General Billot and Generals de Boisdeffre and Gonse knew that Dreyfus was innocent, and they have kept…

— Émile Zola

“On the summit of a desolate rock on Devil’s Island, far from the few palm trees on the shore, a small hut…

— Émile Zola

“How the thought of meeting lost loved ones would sweeten one's last moments, how eagerly would one embrace them, and what bliss…

— Émile Zola

“This was the time when the rush for the spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of hounds, the…

— Émile Zola

“The shrub that half concealed her was a malignant plant, a Madagascan tanghin tree with wide, box-like leaves with whitish stems, whose…

— Émile Zola

“The whole of Paris was lit up. The tiny dancing flames had bespangled the sea of darkness from end to end of…

— Émile Zola

“Angelique, with both hands open, lying limply on her knees, was giving herself. And Felicien remembered the evening on which she had…

— Emile Zola

“Endless love and voluptuous appetite pervaded this stifling nave in which settled the ardent sap of the tropics. Renée was wrapped in…

— Émile Zola

“In the midst of all his sadness, Pierre felt deep compassion penetrate his heart. He was upset by the thought that mankind…

— Émile Zola

Governments are suspicious of literature because it is a force that eludes them.

— Emile Zola

Inability, human incapacity, is the only boundary to an art.

— Emile Zola

“that they were often as thrilled by trash as by an acknowledged masterpiece (32)”

— Émile Zola

“After a time, she believed in the reality of this comedy”

— Émile Zola

When you have a sorrow that is too great it leaves no room for any other.

— Emile Zola

The truth is on the march and nothing will stop it.

— Emile Zola

A new dynasty is never founded without a struggle. Blood makes good manure.

— Emile Zola

Blow the candle out, I don't need to see what my thoughts look like.

— Emile Zola