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Percy Bysshe Shelley Quotes - Page 3

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Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.

Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Wise, Wisdom, Men
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Richard Herne Shepherd (1810). “The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley ... Ed. ... by Richard Herne Shepherd”, p.244

It is found easier, by the short-sighted victims of disease, to palliate their torments by medicine, than to prevent them by regimen

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Medicine, Disease, Vegan
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1857). “Queen Mab, a philosophical poem, with notes. To which is added, A brief memoir of the author”, p.107

Sometimes The Devil is a gentleman.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Gentleman, Devil, Sometimes
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1840). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.239

Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Lightning, Poetry Is
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1840). “A defence of poetry. Essay on the literature, arts, and manners of the Athenians. Preface to the Banquet of Plato. The banquet”, p.40

Where is perfection? Where I cannot reach.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Perfection
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Thomas Love Peacock (1944). “Shelley at Oxford”

Familiar acts are beautiful through love.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Love, Life, Beautiful
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1820). “Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts with Other Poems”, p.143

The young moon has fed Her exhausted horn With the sunset's fire.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sunset, Moon, Night
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1840). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.177

There is no disease, bodily or mental, which adoption of vegetable diet, and pure water has not infallibly mitigated, wherever the experiment has been fairly tried.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Vegetables, Water, Adoption
Queen Mab Notes

Joy, once lost, is pain

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Pain, Joy, Chaos
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Geoffrey Matthews, Kelvin Everest (1989). “The Poems of Shelley: 1817-1819”, p.711, Pearson Education

A God made by man undoubtedly has need of man to make himself known to man.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Atheist, Men, Religion
Percy Bysshe Shelley (2015). “The Necessity of Atheism”, p.8, Booklassic

A dream has power to poison sleep.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Dream, Sleep, Poison
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1840). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.192

The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Love, Wise, Wisdom
'Prometheus Unbound' (1820) act 1, l. 625

Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number- Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you Ye are many-they are few.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sleep, Numbers, Dew
1819 'The Mask of Anarchy'.

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Kings, Civilization, Names
"Ozymandias" l. 9 (1819)

This lake exceeds anything I ever beheld in beauty.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Lakes, Water, Exceed
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1840). “Journal of a six weeks' tour. Letters from Geneva. Journal at Geneva: ghost stories, Journal: return to England. Letters from Italy”, p.83

There Is No God. This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Creative, Deities, Spirit
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Donald H. Reiman, Neil Fraistat (2004). “The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.263, JHU Press

Love's very pain is sweet, But its reward is in the world divine Which, if not here, it builds beyond the grave.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Life, Sweet, Pain
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1840). “The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.285

Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Love, Life, Romantic
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1820). “Prometheus Unbound: A Lyrical Drama in Four Acts with Other Poems”, p.146

Oh lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Life, Fall, Clouds
"Ode to the West Wind" l. 53 (1819)

Are we not formed, as notes of music are, For one another, though dissimilar?

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Music, Piano, Notes Music
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1994). “The Selected Poetry and Prose of Shelley”, p.493, Wordsworth Editions

Christianity indeed has equaled Judaism in the atrocities, and exceeded it in the extent of its desolation. Eleven millions of men, women, and children have been killed in battle, butchered in their sleep, burned to death at public festivals of sacrifice, poisoned, tortured, assassinated, and pillaged in the spirit of the Religion of Peace, and for the glory of the most merciful God.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Religious, Children, Sleep
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Homer, Euripides, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1929). “The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley”

To hearts which near each other move From evening close to morning light,The night is good; because, my love,They never say good-night.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Romantic, Good Night, Goodnight
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1829). “The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. Complete in One Volume”, p.229

A system could not well have been devised more studiously hostile to human happiness than marriage.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Marriage, Wells, Humans
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1821). “Queen Mab, a philosophical poem, with notes. [reputed to have been given by the author to W. Francis. Wanting the title-leaf, dedication and part of the last leaf].”, p.110

Honour sits smiling at the sale of truth.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Honor, Honour
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Donald H. Reiman, Neil Fraistat (2004). “The Complete Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley”, p.195, JHU Press

Music, when soft voices die Vibrates in the memory.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
Music, Memories, Voice
'To - : One word is too often profaned'

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