Zola 7 Quotes

In one of Mary’s apparitions to Bernadette, Our Lady asked her to dig in the dirt. As she dug, a spring trickled through the dirt. The water from the spring proved itself to be miraculous, healing those who bathed in it. Even today, six million visitors come to Lourdes annually. The humble Bernadette and the healing waters of Lourdes confounded both the medical community and the enlightened philosophes, such as Émile Zola, who had poisoned the minds of millions with atheism and an uncritical worship of science. Zola even made a visit to Lourdes in the hopes of discrediting it, only to witness the miraculous healing of a woman suffering from three incurable diseases. Upon seeing her restored to wellness, he puffed, “To me she is still ugly,” and dismissed the miraculous event. He dug his heels in even deeper, saying, “Were I to see all the sick at Lourdes cured, I would not believe in a miracle.”7

Its motto, from Figaro’s monologue in the final act of Le Mariage de Figaro, was Sans la liberté de blâmer, il n’est point d’éloge flatteur: Without the freedom to criticize, there is no true praise. The august paper, whose writers had once included Albert Wolff, Émile Zola, and Alphonse Karr, had relocated to Vichy.