"Smut detected in it by moral men is theirs rather than mine. Scientific truth was my touchstone for every scene, even the most febrile." -- Emile Zola, preface to second edition of Thérèse Raquin (1868) "When it comes down to it, you no longer have republican blood in your veins... It's a general you want in your bed. France, if you're not careful, you're on the road to dictatorship. And do you know where else you are going, France? You're on your way to the Church, you're going back to the past, that past of intolerance and theocracy, which your children fought, which they thought they had killed, by sacrificing their body and their spirit." -- Emile Zola, speaking of the Third Republic, in: Letter to France, 6 January 1898, "J'accuse." (I accuse) -- Emile Zola, Title and initial words of an open letter to the President of France regarding the Dreyfus affair, in: L'Aurore, 13 January 1898 "Since they have dared, I too shall dare. I shall tell the truth because I pledged myself to tell it if justice regularly empowered, did not do so fully, unmitigatedly. My duty is to speak; I have no wish to be an accomplice... I do not despair in the least of ultimate triumph. I repeat with intense conviction: the truth is on the march and nothing will stop it." -- Emile Zola, extracts from the letter J'accuse, in: L'Aurore, 13 January 1898

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