Martin Svoboda favourite quotes (page 14)

“The extraordinary woman depends on the ordinary woman.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

"Women and Fiction"
Granite and Rainbow (1958)
Context: The extraordinary woman depends on the ordinary woman. It is only when we know what were the conditions of the average woman's life … it is only when we can measure the way of life and the experience of life made possible to the ordinary woman that we can account for the success or failure of the extraordinary woman as a writer.

“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

Source: A Room of One's Own / Three Guineas

“With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.”

Steven Weinberg (1933) American theoretical physicist

“Inability, human incapacity, is the only boundary to an art.”

Emile Zola (1840–1902) French writer (1840-1902)

Source: Le Naturalisme Au Theatre

“These young people naturally grow up with ideas different from ours, for they are born for times when we shall no longer be here”

Emile Zola (1840–1902) French writer (1840-1902)

Source: Work

“If people can just love each other a little bit, they can be so happy.”

Emile Zola book Germinal

Source: Germinal

“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, I will answer you: I am here to live out loud!”

Emile Zola (1840–1902) French writer (1840-1902)

As quoted in Writers on Writing‎ (1986) by Jon Winokur.
Variant: If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.

“Civilization will not attain perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.”

Emile Zola (1840–1902) French writer (1840-1902)

Cited as attributed to Zola in The Heretic's Handbook of Quotations : Cutting Comments on Burning Issues (1992) by Charles Bufe, p. 183, but no earlier citation has yet been located, and this appears to be very similar to remarks often attributed to Denis Diderot: "Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest" and "Let us strangle the last king with the guts of the last priest" — these are loosely derived from a statement Diderot actually did make: "his hands would plait the priest's entrails, for want of a rope, to strangle kings."
This quote appeared in soviet popular-scientific work "Satellite atheist" (Sputnik ateista) http://books.google.ru/books/about/%D0%A1%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA_%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0.html?id=Lq9AAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y (1959), p. 491.
Disputed

“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”

Emile Zola book Au Bonheur des Dames

Source: The Ladies' Paradise

“It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.”

Emil Zátopek (1922–2000) Czech Olympic long-distance runner

Attributed in "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ("Swifter, Higher, Stronger"), an unsigned article from Khaleej Times, 8 August 2008 (Galadari Printing and Publishing Co.) http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/weekend/2008/August/weekend_August25.xml&section=weekend&col=

“Essentially, we distinguish ourselves from the rest. If you want to win something, run the 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon.”

Emil Zátopek (1922–2000) Czech Olympic long-distance runner

Attributed in "Making a run at the Olympic dream", an unsigned article from The StarPhoenix, 9 May 2007, at canada.com (CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.) http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/sports/story.html?id=b111ee9e-182a-4cff-831a-f784cc7bb37e