Emile ZolaThinkers

Ambition is a vague torment.

Anger's fate is indissolubly connected with the fate of men.

The Animal is a being whose protection from cruelty is man's highest duty.

Art is a negation of society, an affirmation of the individual, outside of all the rules and all the demands of society.

Civilization always reduces itself to the superiority of smelling nice and living well as a way of covering a human mire lying underneath.

The Crowd is a thing over which there always seems to float a vague distress, an atmosphere of pervasive melancholy, as if any large gathering of people creates an aura of terror and pity.

The Deadline is the terrible anvil on which one forges one's style.

The Genius is, according to the deformity of classical education, merely those men of correct, facile talent, who follow the beaten track.

A Glance is sometimes a powerful thing. An entire lifetime would not be long enough for you to exhaust the glance of the young harvest-girl.