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Percy Bysshe Shelley Quotes - Page 13

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It is thus that the generality of mankind, whose lot is ignorance, attributes to the Divinity, not only the unusual effects which strike them, but moreover the most simple events, of which the causes are the most simple

It is thus that the generality of mankind, whose lot is ignorance, attributes to the Divinity, not only the unusual effects which strike them, but moreover the most simple events, of which the causes are the most simple to understand by whomever is able to study them. In a word, man has always respected unknown causes, surprising effects that his ignorance kept him from unraveling. It was on this debris of nature that man raised the imaginary colossus of the Divinity.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Ignorance, Simple, Men
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2015). “The Necessity of Atheism”, p.7, Booklassic

Peter was dull; he was at first Dull; - Oh, so dull - so very dull! Whether he talked, wrote, or rehearsed - Still with his dulness was he cursed - Dull -beyond all conception - dull.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Stupid, People, Dull
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Peter Bell The Third”

Man's yesterday may never be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Change, Men, Yesterday
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Mutability”

Whatever strengthens and purifies the affections, enlarges the imagination, and adds spirit to sense, is useful.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Strength, Imagination, Add
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1852). “Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments”, p.36

Design must be proved before a designer can be inferred.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Design, Religion, Designer
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Richard Herne Shepherd (1810). “The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley ... Ed. ... by Richard Herne Shepherd”, p.315

Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow claspest the limits of mortality.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Time, Ebb And Flow, Limits
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1874). “The Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.292

Where art thou, beloved To-morrow? When young and old, and strong and weak, Rich and poor, through joy and sorrow, Thy sweet smiles we ever seek,-- In thy place--ah! well-a-day! We find the thing we fled--To-day!

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sweet, Art, Strong
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats (1831). “The poetical works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats”, p.477

Of Planets, struggling fierce towards heaven's free wilderness.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Struggle, Heaven, Fierce
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Geoffrey Matthews, Kelvin Everest (1989). “The Poems of Shelley: 1817-1819”, p.639, Pearson Education

Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years, Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe Are brackish with the salt of human tears! Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow Claspest the limits of mortality! And sick of prey, yet howling on for more, Vomitest thy wrecks on its inhospitable shore, Treacherous in calm, and terrible in storm, Who shall put forth on thee, Unfathomable sea?

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Ocean, Years, Sea
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1840). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.292

I see the waves upon the shore, Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Stars, Light, Wave
'Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples' (1818)

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep - he hath awakened from the dream of life - 'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep with phantoms an unprofitable strife.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Dream, Peace, Sleep
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1994). “The Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley”, p.518, Wordsworth Editions

Religion! but for thee, prolific fiend, Who peoplest earth with demons, hell with men, And heaven with slaves!

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Men, Heaven, Religion
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1847). “The Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.12

And the rose like a nymph to the bath addrest, Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast, Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air, The soul of her beauty and love lay bare.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Flower, Air, Glowing
'The Sensitive Plant' (1820) pt. 1, l. 29

Ah! what a divine religion might be found out if charity were really made the principle of it instead of faith.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Love, Atheism, Principles

All things are sold: the very light of heaven is venal; earth's unsparing gifts of love, the smallest and most despicable things that lurk in the abysses of the deep, all objects of our life, even life itself, and the poor pittance which the laws allow of liberty, the fellowship of man, those duties which his heart of human love should urge him to perform instinctively, are bought and sold as in a public mart of not disguising selfishness, that sets on each its price, the stamp-mark of her reign.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Love, Money, Heart
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1853). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: Complete in One Volume”, p.27

Here I swear, and as I break my oath may ... eternity blast me, here I swear that never will I forgive Christianity! It is the only point on which I allow myself to encourage revenge... Oh, how I wish I were the Antichrist, that it were mine to crush the Demon; to hurl him to his native Hell never to rise again - I expect to gratify some of this insatiable feeling in Poetry.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Crush, Revenge, Feelings
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1964). “Shelley in England”

Nothing of him that doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Change, Tombstone, Sea
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1859). “Shelley Memorials: From Authentic Sources : Now First Printed”, p.219

Jealousy's eyes are green.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Jealousy, Eye, Green
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley (1855). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: In Three Volumes”, p.236

... a wild dissolving bliss Over my frame he breathed, approaching near, And bent his eyes of kindling tenderness Near mine, and on my lips impressed a lingering kiss

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Eye, Kissing, Romantic Love
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1836). “The Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: Comprising Queen Mab, The Revolt of Islam, The Cenci...”, p.85

Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
War, Solitude, Thee
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1816). “Alastor, or The spirit of solitude, &c., ed. by H.B. Forman”, p.43

Thou hast a voice, great Mountain, to repeal. Large codes of fraud and woe; not understood by all, but which the wise, and great, and good interpret, or make felt, or deeply feel.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Wise, Voice, Mountain
Percy Bysshe Shelley, G. Cuningham (1857). “The poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.463

Love's Pestilence, and her slow dogs of war.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Life, Dog, War
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts, with Other Poems”, Cambridge University Press

A Christian, a Deist, a Turk, and a Jew, have equal rights: they are men and brethren.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Christian, Men, Rights
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1994). “The Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley”, p.559, Wordsworth Editions

Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory; Odors, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Music, Sweet, Memories
'To-: Music when soft voices die' (published 1824).

The everlasting universe of things Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves, Now dark--now glittering--now reflecting gloom-- Now lending splendour, where from secret springs The source of human thought its tribute brings.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Spring, Dark, Secret
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.278, Delphi Classics

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