Quotes from The Ladies' Paradise

Émile Zola ·  438 pages

Rating: (8.9K votes)


“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“Crever pour crever, je préfère crever de passion que de crever d'ennui !”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“Very well, sir. A woman's opinion, however humble she may be, is always worth listening to, if she's got any sense...If you put yourself in my hands, I shall certainly make a decent man of you.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“La certitude d'avoir empêche de désirer.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“Never subject to the rules, believing that the correct judgement and healthy nature keep her in the honesty she lived in.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise



“His creation was a sort of new religion; the churches, gradually deserted by a wavering faith, were replaced by this bazaar, in the minds of the idle women of Paris. Women now came and spent their leisure time in his establishment, the shivering and anxious hours they formerly passed in churches: a necessary consumption of nervous passion, a growing struggle of the god of dress against the husband, the incessantly renewed religion of the body with the divine future of beauty.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“Denise était venue à pied de la gare Saint-Lazare, où un train de Cherbourg l’avait débarquée avec ses deux frères, après une nuit passée sur la dure banquette d’un wagon de troisième classe. Elle tenait par la main Pépé, et Jean la suivait, tous les trois brisés du voyage, effarés et perdus, au milieu du vaste Paris, le nez levé sur les maisons, demandant à chaque carrefour la rue de la Michodière, dans laquelle leur oncle Baudu demeurait. Mais, comme elle débouchait enfin sur la place Gaillon, la jeune fille s’arrêta net de surprise.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“Mais il avait oublié l’inventaire, il ne voyait pas son empire, ces magasins crevant de richesses. Tout avait disparu, les victoires bruyantes d’hier, la fortune colossale de demain. D’un regard désespéré, il suivait Denise, et quand elle eut passé la porte, il n’y eut plus rien, la maison devint noire.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“en lo más hondo de aquel empecinamiento, clamaba la rebelión del modesto fabricante artesano contra la invasora vulgaridad de los artículos de bazar.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“Le había quedado, de los tiempos en los que soñaba con dedicarse a la literatura y se juntaba con poetas, una desesperación universal.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise



“no le había quedado más remedio que hacerse una confesión: aún temblaba al ver pasar a Mouret, pero ahora sabía que no era de miedo.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“Yo la quiero... Hace mucho que lo sabe. No juegue el juego cruel de fingir que no entiende... y no tema nada.”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


“¿Pero es que no ve lo que estoy sufriendo?... Que estupidez, ¿verdad? ¡Sufro como un niño!”
― Émile Zola, quote from The Ladies' Paradise


About the author

Émile Zola
Born place: in Paris, France
Born date April 2, 1840
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