"If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way."
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
“I am here to live out loud.”
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
“Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.”
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
"Nothing develops intelligence like travel."
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
"The only basis for living is believing in life, loving it, and applying the whole force of one's intellect to know it better."
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
"Did science promise happiness? I do not believe it. It promised truth, and the question is to know if we will ever make happiness with truth."
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
"Man's highest duty is to protect animals from cruelty."
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
"These young people naturally grow up with ideas different from ours, for they are born for times when we shall no longer be here"
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)
"Governments are suspicious of literature because it is a force that eludes them."
—Émile Zola (1840-1902)