Germinal Zola Quotes

The shelves had the melancholy emptiness and the false luxury of families where inferior meat is purchased, so as to be able to put flowers on the table. ~ Emile Zola

It was the red vision of the revolution, which would one day inevitably carry them all away, on some bloody evening at the end of the century. Yes, some evening the people, unbridled at last, would thus gallop along the roads, making the blood of the middle class flow, parading severed heads and sprinkling gold from disembowelled coffers. The women would yell, the men would have those wolf-like jaws open to bite. Yes, the same rags, the same thunder of great sabots, the same terrible troop, with dirty skins and tainted breath, sweeping away the old world beneath an overflowing flood of barbarians. ~ Emile Zola

The road to Lourdes is littered with crutches, but not one wooden leg. ~ Emile Zola

I'm a huge Emile Zola fan, and when Bill Gallagher said he was writing a new character for 'The Paradise' and had me in mind for the role, I knew I wanted to play Tom Weston before I'd even read a word of the script. ~ Ben Daniels

...the water was scarcely inviting; for, through fear lest the output of the source should not suffice, the Fathers of the Grotto only allowed the water of the baths to be changed twice a day. And nearly a hundred patients being dipped in the same water, it can be imagined what a terrible soup the latter at last became. All manner of things were found in it, so that it was like a frightful consomme of all ailments, a field of cultivation for every kind of poisonous germ, a quintessence of the most dreaded contagious diseases; the miraculous feature of it all being that men should emerge alive from their immersion in such filth. ~ Emile Zola

He had ceased to believe in the efficacy of alms; it was not sufficient that one should be charitable, henceforth one must be just. Given justice, indeed, horrid misery would disappear, and no such thing as charity would be needed. ~ Emile Zola

Agatha: She uses poison?!
Gil: Well, I always thought she just couldn't make coffee. But now, I'm not so sure. ~ Kaja Foglio

I'm going down the apples and pears, into the jam jar, down the frog and toad into the rub-da-dub-dub, and I'm going to have pig's ear. ~ Gianfranco Zola

Sin became a luxury, a flower set in her hair, a diamond fastened on her brow. ~ Emile Zola

In all change, well looked into, the germinal good out-veils the apparent ill. ~ Francis Thompson

As he talked a good deal, had seen active service, and was naturally regarded as a man of energy and spirit, he was much sought after and listened to by simpletons. ~ Emile Zola

In Paris, everything's for sale: wise virgins, foolish virgins, truth and lies, tears and smiles. ~ Emile Zola

Hélène slowly surveyed the room. In this respectable society, amongst these apparently decent middle-class people, were there none but faithless wives? With her strict provincial morality, she was amazed at the licensed promiscuity of Parisian life. ~ Emile Zola

Living in musty shadows and dismal, oppressive silence, Thérèse could see her whole life stretching out before her totally void, bringing night after night the same cold bed and morning after morning the same empty day. ~ Emile Zola

I know for sure that nothing matters. ~ Zola Jesus

to study the ambitions and appetites of a family launched upon the modern world, making superhuman efforts but always failing because of its own nature and the influences upon it, almost getting there only then to fall back again, and ending up by producing veritable moral monsters, the priest, the murderer, the artist. The times are in turmoil, and it is this turmoil of the moment which I shall depict. (vii) ~ Emile Zola

It is not I who am strong, it is reason, it is truth. ~ Emile Zola

Raising her arms, she defied Heaven.
'So,' she cried, 'you prefer your God to me? You think he is stronger than I am. You think he will love you better than I would? Ah, what a child you are! Do stop talking such twaddle. What we are going to do is go back to the garden together, and love each other, be happy and free, for that is life. ~ Emile Zola

When a man was honest in his dealings, you could forgive him the rest. ~ Emile Zola

Even Émile Zola was reduced to disingenuously commenting on the work's formal qualities rather than acknowledging the subject matter. He paid tribute to Manet's honesty, however, "When our artists give us Venuses, they correct nature, they lie. Édouard Manet asked himself why lie, why not tell the truth; he introduced us to Olympia, this fille of our time, whom you meet on the sidewalks. ~ Emile Zola

She wanted to live, and live fully, and to give life, she who loved life! What was the good of existing, if you couldn't give yourself? ~ Emile Zola

After a time, she believed in the reality of this comedy ~ Emile Zola

Was the process of institutionalization both so powerful and subtle, that I could be aware of it and yet be unable to resist? ~ Irving Kenneth Zola

It's best that I hide my real personality. I cannot tell you what it is because I don't want to go to prison. ~ Gianfranco Zola

Men have been found to resist the most powerful monarchs and to refuse to bow down before them, but few indeed have been found to resist the crowd, to stand up alone before misguided masses, to face their implacable frenzy without weapons and with folded arms to dare a no when a yes is demanded. Such a man was Zola! ~ Hannah Arendt

The festivity had reached that apogee of joy when you face the happy fate of being crushed to death. ~ Emile Zola

What will be the death of me are buillabaisses, food spiced with pimiento, shellfish, and a load of exquisite rubbish which I eat in disproportionate quantities. ~ Emile Zola

On her [Thérèse's] part she seemed to revel in daring and shamelessness. Not a single moment of hesitation or fear possessed her. She threw herself into adultery with a kind of furious honesty, flouting danger, and as it were, taking pride in doing so. ~ Emile Zola

In love as in speculation there is much filth; in love also, people think only of their own gratification; yet without love there would be no life, and the world would come to an end. ~ Emile Zola

Everything I do is a reflection of the duality within me. Musically, I really love things that are very synthetic and unnatural. And I also like the organic and human ... the intrinsic, I guess. ~ Zola Jesus

the vague feeling of ambitions in common, the awakening of a higher intelligence among the vulgar herd of dunces and dunderheads they had to contend with in class (27) ~ Emile Zola

This was the time when the rush for the spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of hounds, the cracking of whips, the flaring of torches. The appetites let loose were satisfied at last, shamelessly, amid the sound of crumbling neighbourhoods and fortunes made in six months. The city had become an orgy of gold and women. ~ Emile Zola

The Revolution of 1848 found all the Rougons on the lookout, frustrated by their bad luck, and ready to use any means necessary to advance their cause. They were a family of bandits lying in wait, ready to plunder and steal. ~ Emile Zola

The more grievous the sin, the greater the repentance, God was bidding His time. ~ Emile Zola

She [Sidonie Rougon] never spoke of her husband, nor of her childhood, her family, or her personal concerns. There was only one thing she never sold, and that was herself. ~ Emile Zola

For Madame Raquin, there was such a fathomless depth in this thought, that she could neither reason it out, nor grasp it clearly. She experienced but one sensation, that of a horrible disaster; it seemed to her that she was falling into a dark, cold hole. And she said to herself: "I shall be smashed to pieces at the bottom. ~ Emile Zola

But his doubts were again coming back to him; when you needed a miracle to gain belief, it means that you are incapable of believing. There is no need for the Almighty to prove His existence. ~ Emile Zola

With his mouth open, he gave off that alcoholic smell that you get from an old brandy cask when you take out the bung. ~ Emile Zola