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Depravity Quote by Émile Zola

““You'd never get Burle to behave decently. When a man sank as low as that, the only thing to do was to throw a spadeful of mud over him and get rid of him like the rotting carcass of some poisonous beast. And even if you shoved his nose in his own shit, he'd only start again the next day and end up stealing a few sous to buy sticks of barley sugar for lice-ridden little beggar-girls.””

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More by Émile Zola

“Hélène, her eyes once more raised and remote, was deep in a dream. She was Lady Rowena, she was in love, with the deep…

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The vague torment of ... ambition.

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How evil life must be if it were indeed necessary that such imploring cries, such cries of physical and moral wretchedness, should ever and…

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“he was carried aloft, for the moment, on one of those great waves of hope from which he was usually plunged deep into the…

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“Death had to take her little by little, bit by bit, dragging her along to the bitter end of the miserable existence she'd made…

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If something's just, I'll let myself be hacked to bits for it.

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

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“vexation, yet filled with unconscious regret for the terrible unknown things that might have, but had not, happened (23)”

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“Good gracious!" she exclaimed, "she's been more than an hour in there! When the priests set about cleansing her of her sins, the choir-boys…

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The only basis for living is believing in life, loving it, and applying the whole force of one's intellect to know it better.

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“A new dynasty is never founded without a struggle. Blood makes good manure. It will be a good thing for the Rougon family to be founded on a massacre, like many illustrious families." --Monsieur de Carnavant”

I believe that all is illusion and vanity outside the treasure of truths slowly accumulated, and which will never again be lost. I believe…

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Explore all 243 Émile Zola quotes

More Depravity quotes

We instantly believe everything we think. Isn't that insane? It's good for us to explore the depravity of our minds, so we know we…

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Total depravity means the entire absence of holiness, not the highest intensity of sin. A totally depraved man is not as bad as he…

William Greenough Thayer Shedd

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The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may be…

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If I created a new depravity I would be a priestess, while my imitators would founder, after my reign, in abominable filth...Don't you think…

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It is of interest to note that most secular humanists continue to belabor the horrors of the Inquisition in order to establish the moral…

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It is when my umbrella turns inside out that I am convinced of the total depravity of inanimate things.

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“All these institutions [prisons] seemed purposely invented for the production of depravity and vice, condensed to such a degree that no other conditions could…

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The portions of a woman which appeal to man's depravity Are constructed with considerable care.

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The depravity which sin has produced in human nature extends to the whole of it. There is no part of man's nature which is…

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Someone who is perennially surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable…

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It's not what people do that scares me. It's what they hide. It's the secrets that keep us from bonding and create distrust. If we were more willing to accept each other's depravity we'd be more united, we'd be more honest. If you hide two things from me, I'll assume you're hiding a million. And I'll keep you at a…

But this is not difficult, O Athenians! to escape death; but it is much more difficult to avoid depravity, for it runs swifter than death. And now I, being slow and aged, am overtaken by the slower of the two; but my accusers, being strong and active, have been overtaken by the swifter, wickedness. And now I depart, condemned by…

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