Quotes from Germinal

“Blow the candle out, I don't need to see what my thoughts look like.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“If people can just love each other a little bit, they can be so happy.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“There’s only one thing that warms my heart, and that is the thought that we are going to sweep away these bourgeois.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Oui, c'est votre idée, à vous tous, les ouvriers français, déterrer un trésor, pour le manger seul ensuite, dans un coin d'égoïsme et de fainéantise. Vous avez beau crier contre les riches, le courage vous manque de rendre aux pauvres l'argent que la fortune vous envoie... Jamais vous ne serez dignes du bonheur, tant que vous aurez quelque chose à vous, et que votre haine des bourgeois viendra uniquement de votre besoin enragé d'être des bourgeois à leur place.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Men were springing up, a black avenging host was slowly germinating in the furrows, thrusting upward for the harvests of future ages. And very soon their germination would crack the earth asunder.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“This sounded the death knell of small family businesses, soon to be followed by the disappearance of the individual entrepreneur, gobbled up one by one by the increasingly hungry ogre of capitalism, and drowned by the rising tide of large companies.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Il y avait des hommes si ambitieux qu'ils auraient torché les chefs, pour les entendre seulement dire merci.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“It was at times like this that one of those waves of bestiality ran through the mine, the sudden lust of the male that came over a miner when he met one of these girls on all fours, with her rear in the air and her buttocks busting out of her breeches.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“All round there was a rising tide of beer, widow Désir's barrels had all been broached, beer had rounded all paunches and was overflowing in all directions, from noses, eyes - and elsewhere. People were so blown out and higgledy-piggledy, that everybody's elbows or knees were sticking into his neighbour and everybody thought it great fun to feel his neighbour's elbows. All mouths were grinning from ear to ear in continuous laughter.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“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.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“On a pitch black, starless night, a solitary man was trudging along the main road from Marchiennes to Montsou, ten kilometres of cobblestones running straight as a die across the bare plain between fields of beet.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“They spoke one after the other in a despairing voice, giving expression to their complaints. The workers could not hold out; the Revolution had only aggravated their wretchedness; only the bourgeois had grown fat since ‘89, so greedily that they had not even left the bottom of the plates to lick. Who could say that the workers had had their reasonable share in the extraordinary increase of wealth and comfort during the last hundred years? They had made fun of them by declaring them free. Yes, free to starve, a freedom of which they fully availed themselves. It put no bread into your cupboard to go and vote for fine fellows who went away and enjoyed themselves, thinking no more of the wretched voters than of their old boots. No! one way or another it would have to come to an end, either quietly by laws, by an understanding in good fellowship, or like savages by burning everything and devouring one another. Even if they never saw it, their children would certainly see it, for the century could not come to an end without another revolution, that of the workers this time, a general hustling which would cleanse society from top to bottom, and rebuild it with more cleanliness and justice.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“No, the only good in life lay in not being - or, if one had to be, then in being a tree, a stone, or even less than that, the grain of sand that cannot bleed beneath the grinding heel of a passer-by.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Quem era o idiota que punha a felicidade deste mundo na repartição da riqueza?”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Desprezava os discursadores, os astutos que entram na política como quem entra na advocacia, para ganhar dinheiro com a retórica.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Não era um grito de fome que rolava com o vento de março através destes campos nus? As rajadas do vento haviam aumentado e pareciam trazer consigo a morte do trabalho, uma escassez que mataria muitos homens. E, com os olhos errando de um ponto a outro, ele se esforçava por furar as sombras, atormentado pelo desejo e pelo medo de ver.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Decididamente, ela era encantadora. Assim que acabasse de comer, tomá-la-ia em seus braços e beijaria aqueles lábios grossos e róseos. Era a resolução de um tímido, um pensamento de violência que chegava a estrangular-lhe a voz.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Então era possível que uma pessoa se matasse num trabalho de escravo, no fundo dessas trevas horrendas, e nem sequer conseguisse ganhar os parcos tostões para o pão de cada dia?”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Homens brotavam, um exército negro, vingador, que germinava lentamente nos sulcos da terra, crescendo para as colheitas do século futuro, cuja germinação não tardaria em fazer rebentar a terra.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Zavallı insanlar makinelerde yem gibi öğütülüyor, işçi mahallelerindeki daracık izbelere hayvanlar gibi tıkılıyor, büyük işletmelerce kuralına uydurulan kölelik sayesinde, emekçi halk, milyonlarca kafa ve kol, sırf bin kadar sömürücü tembel, el bebek gül bebek yaşasın, servetlerine servet katabilsin diye, asker gibi çalıştırılıp yavaş yavaş tüketiliyordu. Ama madencinin gözü açılmıştı, toprağın dibinde ezilen cahil bir adam değildi artık. Madenocaklarının derinliklerinden bir ordu, filizlenmekte olan bir yurttaşlar ordusu fışkıracaktı; evet, tohum yeşerecek ve güneşli bir günde toprağı delip çıkacaktı. İşte o zaman, kırk yıl emek verdikten sonra öksürdükçe kömür tüküren, madenin rütubetiyle bacakları tutulmuş altmış yaşındaki bir ihtiyara, yüz elli frank emekli aylığı vermeye kalkışmak ne demekmiş göreceklerdi! Evet! Emek, kapitalizmden hesap soracaktı.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Dans la plaine rase, sous la nuit sans étoiles, d'une obscurité et d'une épaisseur d'encre, un homme suivait seul la grande route de Marchiennes à Montsou, dix kilomètres de pavé coupant tout droit, à travers les champs de betteraves. Devant lui, il ne voyait même pas le sol noir, et il n'avait la sensation de l'immense horizon plat que par les souffles du vent de mars, des rafales larges comme sur une mer, glacées d'avoir balayé des lieues de marais et de terres nues. Aucune ombre d'arbre ne tachait le ciel, le pavé se déroulait avec la rectitude d'une jetée, au milieu de l'embrun aveuglant des ténèbres.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“They were brutes, no doubt, but brutes who could not read, and who were dying of hunger.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

“Мора бити да је гвожђе на пречагама засецало њене ноге, јер јој се чинило да је тестеришу као до костију. После сваког хватања очекивала је да ће руке испустити греде дуж лествица; руке су јој биле толико огуљене и укочене да није могла да савија прсте. Мислила је да ће се ишчупаних рамена и растављених удова преврнути услед непрестаног напора. Нарочито јој је сметао мали нагиб готово сасвим усправних лествица. Због тога је морала да се пење уместо песница, с трбухом приљубљеним уз дрво. Тешко дисање људи заглушивало је шум ногу. Страховити ропац, који се удесетостручио одбијајући се од преграде отвора, подизао се са дна и нестајао тек на површини земље. Чуло се јечање. Пренела се вест: неки шегрт је разбио лобању о ивицу одморишта.”
― Émile Zola, quote from Germinal

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.