Tag: Emile Zola

Civilization Will Not Attain To Its Perfection, Until the Last Stone from the Last Church Falls on the Last Priest

Émile Zola? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: The prominent French novelist and journalist Émile Zola has been credited with an inflammatory anti-clerical statement. Here are three versions in English:

  1. Civilization will thrive only when the last stone, from the last church has fallen on the last priest.
  2. Civilization will not attain perfection, until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.
  3. Humanity will not fulfill its true potential until the last stone from the last church falls on the last preacher.

Would you please explore the provenance of this remark?

Quote Investigator: Émile Zola’s 1901 novel “Travail” contains a scene during which the last church collapses on top of the last abbot. Here is a rendering of the dramatic event in English. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1] 1901, Travail: Labor: A Novel by Émile Zola, Quote Page 542, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Google Books Full View) link

The roof cracked open with a sound like thunder. The steeple shook, and then fell, laying the nave open to the sky, and pulling down with it the disjointed walls. Nothing remained under the bright sun but an enormous pile of stones and débris, beneath which they never found the mangled body of Abbé Marle, who seemed to have been crushed to dust under the ruins of the altar. Nor did they ever find any fragments of the great painted and gilded wooden crucifix, which also had been ground to powder. A religion had been killed along with the last priest, celebrating his last mass in the last church.

QI has not yet found solid evidence that Zola crafted the expression under analysis. Perhaps someone who read “Travail” constructed the statement to represent the attitude depicted within the novel. Next, the words were directly reassigned to Zola. This two-step process provides an admittedly speculative explanation for the existence of the quotation.

Émile Zola died in 1902. The first strong match for the quotation located by QI occurred in the 1930 citation listed further below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Civilization Will Not Attain To Its Perfection, Until the Last Stone from the Last Church Falls on the Last Priest

References

References
↑1 1901, Travail: Labor: A Novel by Émile Zola, Quote Page 542, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Google Books Full View) link

I Would Rather Die of Passion than of Boredom

Vincent van Gogh? Émile Zola? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: The famous Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh has been credited with the following fervent statement:

I would rather die of passion than of boredom.

Surprisingly, this remark has also been ascribed to the prominent French novelist Émile Zola. Would you please elucidate this topic?

Quote Investigator: In 1883 Émile Zola wrote a novel that contained an instance of this saying in French. In October 1884 Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo that included the quotation as part of a larger excerpt from Zola’s novel. Thus, both well-known figures employed the saying, but Zola was the originator.

In 1833 Émile Zola released “Au Bonheur des Dames” which has been given several different English titles: “The Ladies’ Paradise”, “The Ladies’ Delight”, and “The Shop Girls of Paris”. The book was part of an important and popular series of twenty novels called: Les Rougon-Macquart. The saying under examination was spoken by a character named Octave Mouret while he was conversing with a character named Paul Vallagnosc. Boldface has been added to excerpts:[1]1833, Au Bonheur des Dames by Émile Zola, Series: Les Rougon-Macquart, (Reprint of Charpentier edition from 1833 released by Hachette, Paris in 1980), Published by G. Charpentier, Paris. (Google … Continue reading

Agir, créer, se battre contre les faits, les vaincre ou être vaincu par eux, toute la joie et toute la santé humaines sont là!

— Simple façon de s’étourdir, murmura l’autre.

— Eh bien! j’aime mieux m’étourdir… Crever pour crever, je préfère crever de passion que de crever d’ennui!

Ils rirent tous les deux, cela leur rappelait leurs vieilles discussions du collège.

In 1883 a translation of Zola’s novel by Frank Belmont was published under the title “The Ladies’ Paradise”. The passage above was rendered as follows:[2] 1883, The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola (Émile Édouard C.A. Zola), Volume 3 of 3, Translated by Frank Belmont, Quote Page 35, Tinsley Brothers, London. (Google Books Full View) link

“To act, to create, to struggle against facts, to overcome them or be overthrown by them, all health, all human joy consists in that!”

“Simple method of diverting one’s self.”

“Well, I prefer diverting myself. Death against death, I would rather die of passion than of ennui!” They both laughed, this reminded them of their old discussions at college.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading I Would Rather Die of Passion than of Boredom

References

References
↑1 1833, Au Bonheur des Dames by Émile Zola, Series: Les Rougon-Macquart, (Reprint of Charpentier edition from 1833 released by Hachette, Paris in 1980), Published by G. Charpentier, Paris. (Google Books Full View) link
↑2 1883, The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola (Émile Édouard C.A. Zola), Volume 3 of 3, Translated by Frank Belmont, Quote Page 35, Tinsley Brothers, London. (Google Books Full View) link

Eat a Live Frog Every Morning, and Nothing Worse Will Happen to You the Rest of the Day

Mark Twain? Nicolas Chamfort? Émile Zola? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: There is a best-selling self-help book called “Eat That Frog!” that presents strategies to stop procrastination. The author discusses the meaning of the curious title in his introduction:[1]2007, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy, Second Edition, Section: Introduction, Quote Page 2, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San … Continue reading

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.

Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment.

The author emphasizes the desirability of focusing on and accomplishing this salient task. While reading this slim volume I started to wonder about the quotation attributed to Twain. I could not find it on the twainquotes.com website. Did Twain really say this?

Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that Mark Twain spoke or wrote the expression about eating a live frog each morning. A variant about eating two frogs also has no substantive linkage to Twain.

QI believes that the statement evolved from a quotation written by a famously witty French writer named Nicolas Chamfort who socialized with the aristocracy but supported the French Revolution. Chamfort’s collected works were published in French in the 1790s, and a memorably caustic remark about high-society was included. The words were actually credited to a person named Mr. de Lassay who functioned as a mouthpiece for Chamfort. Here is the French version:[2]Date: L’an 3 de la République (Third year of the Republic overlapped 1794 and 1795), Oeuvres de Chamfort (Works of Chamfort), Recueillies et publiées par un de ses Amis (Collected and … Continue reading

M. de Lassay, homme très-doux, mais qui avait une grande connaissance de la société, disait qu’il faudrait avaler un crapaud tous les matins, pour ne trouver plus rien de dégoûtant le reste de la journée, quand on devait la passer dans le monde.

In 1851 the expression moved into the English language when a group of essays called “Causeries Du Lundi” or “Monday Chats” were translated. One essay profiled Chamfort and included the quotation:[3]1851, Causeries Du Lundi (Monday Chats) by C. A. Sainte-Beuve (Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve), Volume 7, (July 1851 to September 1851), Translated by E. J. Trechmann, Chamfort (Article dated … Continue reading

M. de Lassay, a very indulgent man, but with a great knowledge of society, said that we should swallow a toad every morning, in order to fortify ourselves against the disgust of the rest of the day, when we have to spend it in society.

Metaphorically, the consumption provided protection, inoculation, or habituation. The original root saying used the French word for toad, but the sayings in English that grew from the root used either toad or frog.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Eat a Live Frog Every Morning, and Nothing Worse Will Happen to You the Rest of the Day

References

References
↑1 2007, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy, Second Edition, Section: Introduction, Quote Page 2, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, California. (Amazon Look Inside)
↑2 Date: L’an 3 de la République (Third year of the Republic overlapped 1794 and 1795), Oeuvres de Chamfort (Works of Chamfort), Recueillies et publiées par un de ses Amis (Collected and published by one of his friends), Tome IV (Volume 4), Quote Page 335, A PARIS Chez le Directeur de l’Imprimerie des Sciences et Arts, rue Thérèse (Published in Paris). (Google Books full view) link
↑3 1851, Causeries Du Lundi (Monday Chats) by C. A. Sainte-Beuve (Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve), Volume 7, (July 1851 to September 1851), Translated by E. J. Trechmann, Chamfort (Article dated September 22, 1851), Start Page 180, Quote Page 192, George Routledge &amp; Sons, London, E. P. Dutton &amp; Co., New York. (Google Books full view) <a href=”http://books.google.com/books?id=SFgGAQAAIAAJ&amp;q=toad#v=snippet&amp;”>link</a>
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