One as deformed and horrible as myself, could not deny herself to me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects... with whom I can live in the interchange of those sympathies necessary for my being.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyEven where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. They know our infantine dispositions, which, however they may be afterwards modified, are never eradicated; and they can judge of our actions with more certain conclusions as to the integrity of our motives.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyI trembled, and my heart failed within me; when, on looking up, I saw, by the light of the moon, the daemon at the casement.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley