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Thérèse Raquin QUOTES

Thérèse Raquin QUOTES

1 " He knew that, from now on, every day would be alike, that they would all bring the same sufferings. And he saw the weeks, the months, the years that awaited him, gloomy and implacable, coming one after the other, falling on him and suffocating him bit by bit. When the future is without hope, the present takes on a vile, bitter taste. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

2 " They dared not peer down into their own natures, down into the feverish confusion that filled their minds with a kind of dense, acrid mist. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

3 " His remorse was purely physical. Only his body, strained nerves, and cowering flesh were afraid of the drowned man. Conscience played no part in his terrors, and he had not the slightest regret about killing Camille; in his moments of calm, when the spectre was not present, he would have committed the murder over again had he thought his interests required it. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

4 " The critics greeted this book with a churlish and horrified outcry. Certain virtuous people, in newspapers no less virtuous, made a grimace of disgust as they picked it up with the tongs to throw it into the fire. Even the minor literary reviews, the ones that retail nightly the tittle-tattle from alcoves and private rooms, held their noses and talked of filth and stench. I am not complaining about this reception; on the contrary I am delighted to observe that my colleagues have such maidenly susceptibilities. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

5 " All his [Laurent's] great powerful body wanted was to do nothing, to wallow in never-ending idleness and self-indulgence. He would have liked to eat well, sleep well, satisfy his passions liberally, without stirring from one spot or risking the misfortune of a bit of fatigue. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

6 " Quando non c’è più speranza nel futuro, il presente si colora di una spaventosa amarezza. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

7 " On her [Thérèse's] part she seemed to revel in daring and shamelessness. Not a single moment of hesitation or fear possessed her. She threw herself into adultery with a kind of furious honesty, flouting danger, and as it were, taking pride in doing so. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

8 " When there is no hope in the future, the present appears atrociously bitter. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

9 " Nothing could be more heart rending than this mute and motionless dispair "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

10 " In the sudden change that had come over her heart she no longer recognized herself "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

11 " Living in musty shadows and dismal, oppressive silence, Thérèse could see her whole life stretching out before her totally void, bringing night after night the same cold bed and morning after morning the same empty day. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

12 " They have so smothered me in their middle-class refinement that I don't know how there can be any blood left in my veins. I lowered my eyes, put on a dismal, silly expression, just like them; I was just as dead-and-alive as they were. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

13 " Sometimes she was seized with hallucinations and thought she was buried in some vault together with a lot of puppet-like corpses which nodded their heads and moved their legs and arms when you pulled the strings. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

14 " they seemed to be greater strangers than before "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

15 " When they got back into the carriage they felt greater strangers than before. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

16 " She made one instinctive effort to resist and then yielded, slipping down on to the floor. Not a single word was exchanged. The act was silent and brutal "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

17 " After a time, she believed in the reality of this comedy "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

18 " The couple fell one atop of the other, struck down, finding consolation, at last, in death. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

19 " Like certain devotees, who think they can fool God and wrest a pardon by paying lip-service to prayer and adopting the humble attitude of the penitent, Therese humiliated herself, beat her chest, found words of repentance, without having anything in the bottom of her heart except fear and cowardice. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin

20 " La disperazione non si era mai abbattuta con tanto furore su un essere umano. La sinistra verità bruciò con l’impeto di un lampo negli occhi della paralitica e s’insediò in lei con la ferocia senza scampo della folgore. Se avesse potuto alzarsi in piedi, vomitare l’orrore che l’afferrava alla gola, maledire gli assassini del figlio, avrebbe sofferto di meno. Invece, dopo aver ascoltato, dopo aver compreso, era condannata a rimanere immobile, chiusa nel silenzio, a custodire quel dolore scoppiante: non aveva scampo. "

― Émile Zola , Thérèse Raquin