Emile Zola

“I believe that the future of humanity is in the progress of reason through science. I believe that the pursuit of truth, through science, is the divine ideal which man should propose to himself.”

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

“In Paris, everything's for sale: wise virgins, foolish virgins, truth and lies, tears and smiles.”

“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”

“People like comfort; that's natural. But as for making money simply for the sake of making it, and giving yourself far more trouble and anxiety to gain it than you can ever get pleasure from it when it's gained, why, as for me, I'd rather sit still and cross my arms.”

“I believe that all is illusion and vanity outside the treasure of truths slowly accumulated, and which will never again be lost. I believe that the sum of these truths, always increasing, will at last confer on man incalculable power and peace, if not happiness. Yes, I believe in the final triumph of life.”

“If you shut up truth, and bury it underground, it will but grow.”

“Keep well; that is the half of wisdom and of happiness.”

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

“One must be arrogant, indeed, to imagine that one can take everything in one's hand and know everything!”

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

“Up to this day, there has been no proof of the existence of any intelligence other than the human.”

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

“One forges one's style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines.”

“Selling beauty is something I can understand. Even selling false beauty seems perfectly natural; it's a sign of progress.”

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

“The fear of life, the fear of burdens and of duties, of annoyances and of catastrophes! The fear of life, which makes us, through dread of its sufferings, refuse its joys. Ah! I tell you, this cowardliness enrages me; I cannot forgive it. We must live - live a complete life - live all our life.”

“Vines will be planted, corn will spring up, a whole growth of new crops; and people will still fall in love in vintages and harvests yet to come. Life is eternal; it is a perpetual renewal of birth and growth.”

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”

“I defy you to find any real will, any reasoning force, outside of life. And everything is there; there is, in the world, no other will than this force which impels everything to life, a life even broader and higher.”