A saint addicted to excessive self-abnegation is a dangerous associate; he may infect you with poverty, and a stiffening of those joints which are needed for advancement — in a word, with more renunciation than you care for — and so you flee the contagion. – Victor Hugo
A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them. – Victor Hugo
The first symptom of love in a young man is timidity in a girl boldness. – Victor Hugo
The mountains, the forest, and the sea, render men savage they develop the fierce, but yet do not destroy the human. – Victor Hugo
Your mock saint who stands in a niche is not a woman if she have not suffered, still less a woman if she have not sinned. Fall at the feet of your idol as you wish, but drag her down to your level after that — the only level she should ever reach, that of your heart. – Baroness Emmuska Orczy