246 Quotes by Émile Zola

Violence has never prospered, you can’t remake the world in a day. Anyone who promises to change everything for you all at once is either a fool or a rogue!

Paris flared – Paris, which the divine sun had sown with light, and where in glory waved the great future harvest of Truth and of Justice.

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

It all seemed a hollow sham now – that strict code, that conscientious virtue that condemned her to the sterile joys of pious women! No, no, she’d had enough of that; she wanted to live!

Man’s highest duty is to protect animals from cruelty.

One forges one’s style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines.

Oh, the fools, like a lot of good little schoolboys, scared to death of anything they’ve been taught is wrong!

These young people naturally grow up with ideas different from ours, for they are born for times when we shall no longer be here.

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