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Percy Bysshe Shelley Quotes - Page 15

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But I am chained to Time, and cannot thence depart!

But I am chained to Time, and cannot thence depart!

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Time, Chained, Imprisonment
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1840). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.289

Human vanity is so constituted that it stiffens before difficulties. The more an object conceals itself from our eyes, the greater the effort we make to seize it, because it pricks our pride, it excites our curiosity and it appears interesting. In fighting for his God everyone, in fact, fights only for the interest of his own vanity, which, of all the passions produced bye the mal-organization of society, is the quickest to take offense, and the most capable of committing the greatest follies.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Atheist, Passion, Eye
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.1810, Delphi Classics

In a drama of the highest order there is little food for censure or hatred; it teaches rather self-knowledge and self-respect.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Respect, Drama, Self
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.1912, Delphi Classics

The awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats though unseen among us; visiting This various world with as inconstant wing As summer winds that creep from flower to flower; Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, It visits with inconstant glance Each human heart and countenance; Like hues and harmonies of evening, Like clouds in starlight widely spread, Like memory of music fled, Like aught that for its grace may be Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Summer, Memories, Flower
'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty' (1816)

The intense atom glows A moment, then is quenched in a most cold repose.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Atoms, Cold, Moments
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1821). “Adonais [ed. by H.B. Forman. Titlepage reprod. from the 1821 ed.].”, p.17

I know The past and thence I will essay to glean A warning for the future, so that man May profit by his errors, and derive Experience from his folly; For, when the power of imparting joy Is equal to the will, the human soul Requires no other heaven.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Past, Men, Errors
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.98, Delphi Classics

Woe is me! The winged words on which my soul would pierce Into the heights of love's rare universe, Are chains of lead around its flight of fire-- I pant, I sink, I tremble, I expire.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Love, Fire, Woe Is Me
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1980). “Shelley on Love: An Anthology”, p.230, Univ of California Press

...What are numbers knit By force or custom? Man who man would be, Must rule the empire of himself; in it Must be supreme, establishing his throne On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Men, Numbers, Would Be
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1830). “The Beauties of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Consisting of Miscellaneous Selections from His Poetical Works, the Entire Poems of Adonais and Alastor, and a Revised Edition of Queen Mab ... With a Biographical Preface. Second Edition”, p.32

Mild is the slow necessity of death; The tranquil spirit fails beneath its grasp, Without a groan, almost without a fear, Resigned in peace to the necessity; Calm as a voyager to some distant land, And full of wonder, full of hope as he.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Death, Land, Spirit
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “The Complete Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.67, Modern Library

And many an ante-natal tomb Where butterflies dream of the life to come.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Dream, Butterfly, Natal
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1847). “The Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.255

Mont Blanc yet gleams on high: the power is there, The still and solemn power of many sights And many sounds, and much of life and death. In the long glare of day, the snows descend Upon that Mountain; none beholds them there, Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun, Or the sunbeams dart through them.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sight, Long, Life And Death
1816 'Mont Blanc'.

Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon Of human thought or form, where art thou gone? Why dost thou pass away and leave our state, This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate? Ask why the sunlight not for ever Weaves rainbows o'er yon mountain-river, Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown, Why fear and dream and death and birth Cast on the daylight of this earth Such gloom, why man has such a scope For love and hate, despondency and hope?

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Beauty, Dream, Art
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1871). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: Complete in One Volume”, p.366

That sweet sleep which medicines all pain.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sweet, Pain, Sleep
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.831, Delphi Classics

The encomium of one incapable of flattery is indeed flattering.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Flattery, Flattering, Incapable
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1926). “The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: Notes on Shelley's correspondents. Letters, 1803 to 1812”

I never was attached to that great sect, Whose doctrine is that each one should select Out of the crowd a mistress or a friend, And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend, To cold oblivion.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Wise, Mistress, Doctrine
'Epipsychidion' (1821) l. 149

True love in this differs from gold and clay, that to divide is not to take away. Love is like understanding, that grows bright, gazing on many truths.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Love, Understanding, Gold
1821 'Epipsychidion', l.160-1.

What! alive, and so bold, O earth?

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Alive, Earth
Percy Bysshe Shelley, G. Cuningham (1857). “The poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.445

Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance, These are the seals of that most firm assurance Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength; And if, with infirm hand, Eternity, Mother of many acts and hours, should free The serpent that would clasp her with his length; These are the spells by which to reassume An empire o'er the disentangled doom.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Mother, Hands, Endurance
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1820). “Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts with Other Poems”, p.152

Age cannot Love destroy, But perfidy can blast the flower, Even when in most unwary hour It blooms in Fancy's bower. Age cannot Love destroy, But perfidy can rend the shrine In which its vermeil splendours shine.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Flower, Shining, Age
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2004). “The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.221, JHU Press

Twin-sister of Religion, Selfishness.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sister, Selfishness, Twins
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Donald H. Reiman, Neil Fraistat (2004). “The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.198, JHU Press

Better than all measures Of delightful sound, Better than all treasures That in books are found, Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Book, Skills, Larks
1820 'To a Skylark', stanza 21.

I love tranquil solitude, And such society As is quiet, wise, and good; Between thee and me What difference? but thou dost possess The things I seek, not love them less.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Wise, Differences, Solitude
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1874). “The Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.294

Man, who wert once a despot and a slave, A dupe and a deceiver! a decay, A traveller from the cradle to the grave Through the dim night of this immortal day.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Night, Men, Decay
'Prometheus Unbound' (1820) act 4, l. 551

Rough wind, the moanest loud Grief too sad for song; Wild wind, when sullen cloud Knells all the night long; Sad storm, whose tears are vain, Bare woods, whose branches strain, Deep caves and dreary main, Wail, for the world's wrong!

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Song, Grief, Night
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats (1832). “The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley and Keats: Complete in One Volume”, p.481

Let me set my mournful ditty To a merry measure; Thou wilt never come for pity, Thou wilt come for pleasure; Pity then will cut away Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Cutting, Wings, Pity
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1847). “The Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.294

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