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
There are fathers who do not love their children there is no grandfather who does not adore his grandson. – Victor Hugo
Men like me are impossible until the day when they become necessary. – Victor Hugo
Be it true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and especially on their destinies, as what they do. – 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