Percy Bysshe Shelley Quotes

Love, hope, and self-esteem, like clouds depart
And come, for some uncertain moments lent.
Man were immortal and omnipotent,
Didst thou, unknown and awful as thou art,
Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

As I lay asleep in Italy There came a voice from over the Sea, And with great power it forth led me To walk in the visions of Poesy. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

At the very time that philosophers of the most enterprising benevolence were founding in Greece those institutions which have rendered it the wonder and luminary of the world, am I required to believe that the weak and wicked king of an obscure and barbarous nation, a murderer, a traitor and a tyrant, was the man after God's own heart? ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Soon, sweet madness
was poured upon my heart, a soft and thrilling sadness ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

In each human heart terror survives The ravin it has gorged: the loftiest fear All that they would disdain to think were true: Hypocrisy and custom make their minds The fanes of many a worship, now outworn. They dare not devise good for man's estate, And yet they know not that they do not dare. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

The howl of self-interest is loud ... but the heart is black which throbs solely to its note. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

In English, we were still on the Introduction to Poetry Unit, and I'm not lying, if I ever meet Percy Bysshe Shelley walking down the streets of Marysville, I'm going to punch him right in the face. ~ Gary D. Schmidt

While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped
Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,
And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing
Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Confound the subtlety of lawyers with the subtlety of the law. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

Let there be light! Said Liberty , And like sunrise from the sea, Athens arose! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

But I am chained to Time, and cannot thence depart! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Death is the veil which those who live call life;
They sleep, and it is lifted. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone, And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl; The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim, When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

The psychological and moral comfort of a presence at once humble and understanding-this is the greatest benefit that the dog has bestowed upon man. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

The nature of a narrow and malevolent spirit is so essentially incompatible with happiness as to render it inaccessible to the influences of the benignant God. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Perhaps the only comfort which remains
Is the unheeded clanking of my chains,
The which I make, and call it melody. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

The quick Dreams, The passion-winged Ministers of thought. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun O'er which clouds are brightening, Thou dost float and run Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Every man, in proportion to his virtue, considers himself, with respect to the great community of mankind, as the steward and guardian of their interests in the property which he chances to possess. Every man, in proportion to his wisdom, sees the manner in which it is his duty to employ the resources which the consent of mankind has intrusted to his discretion. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Where is perfection? Where I cannot reach. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

As long as skies are blue, and fields are green
Evening must usher night, night urge the morrow,
Month follow month with woe, and year wake year to sorrow ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Fame, power, and gold, are loved for their own sakes - are worshipped with a blind, habitual idolatry. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

The flood of time is rolling on;
We stand upon its brink, whilst they are gone
To glide in peace down death's mysterious stream.
Have ye done well? ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

Chameleons feed on light and air: Poets food is love and fame. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Ah, woe is me! Winter is come and gone. But grief returns with the revolving year. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Whether that lady's gentle mind,
No longer with the form combined
Which scattered love, as stars do light,
Found sadness where it left delight,

I dare not guess; but in this life
Of error, ignorance, and strife,
Where nothing is, but all things seem,
And we the shadows of the dream,

It is a modest creed, and yet
Pleasant if one considers it,
To own that death itself must be,
Like all the rest, a mockery.

That garden sweet, that lady fair,
And all sweet shapes and odors there,
In truth have never passed away:
'Tis we, 'tis ours, are changed; not they.

For love, and beauty, and delight,
There is no death or change: their might
Exceeds our organs, which endure
No light, being themselves obscure.

(--Conclusion, Autumn - A Dirge) ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Spirit, Patience, Gentleness, All that can adorn and bless Art thou let deeds, not words, express Thine exceeding loveliness. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

When the power of imparting joy is equal to the will, the human soul requires no other heaven. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

If all the thought which had been expended on the construction of engines of agony and death - the modes of aggression and defence, the raising of armies, and the acquirement of those arts of tyranny and falsehood without which mixed multitudes could neither be led nor governed - had been employed to promote the true welfare and extend the real empire of man, how different would have been the present situation of human society! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

I have drunken deep of joy ... ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

The leprous corpse, touch'd by this spirit tender,
Exhales itself in flowers of gentle breath;
Like incarnations of the stars, when splendour
Is chang'd to fragrance, they illumine death
And mock the merry worm that wakes beneath;
Nought we know, dies. Shall that alone which knows
Be as a sword consum'd before the sheath
By sightless lightning? - the intense atom glows
A moment, then is quench'd in a most cold repose. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Within my heart is the lamp of love,
And that is day! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Men must reap the things they sow, Force from force must ever flow. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

And the sunlight claps the earth,
And the moonbeam kiss the sea,
What is all these sweet work worth,
If thou kiss not me. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

Alas! this is not what I thought life was.
I knew that there were crimes and evil men,
Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass
Untouched by suffering, through the rugged glen.
In mine own heart I saw as in a glass
The hearts of others ... And when
I went among my kind, with triple brass
Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed,
To bear scorn, fear, and hate, a woeful mass! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Many a green isle needs must be In the deep wide sea of Misery, Or the mariner, worn and wan, Never thus could voyage on. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

The encomium of one incapable of flattery is indeed flattering. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

A husband and wife ought to continue united so long as they love each other. Any law which should bind them to cohabitation for one moment after the decay of their affection would be a most intolerable tyranny, and the most unworthy of toleration. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Rarely, rarely comest thou,
Spirit of Delight!
Wherefore hast thou left me now
Many a day and night?
Many a weary night and day
'Tis since thou art fled away.

How shall ever one like me
Win thee back again?
With the joyous and the free
Thou wilt scoff at pain.
Spirit false! thou hast forgot
All but those who need thee not.

As a lizard with the shade
Of a trembling leaf,
Thou with sorrow art dismayed;
Even the sighs of grief
Reproach thee, that thou art not near,
And reproach thou wilt not hear.

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.

I love all that thou lovest,
Spirit of Delight!
The fresh Earth in new leaves dressed,
And the starry night;
Autumn evening, and the morn
When the golden mists are born.

I love snow and all the forms
Of the radiant frost;
I love waves, and winds, and storms,
Everything almost
Which is Nature's, and may be
Untainted by man's misery.

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.

I love Love--though he has wings,
And like light can flee,
B ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

When my cats aren't happy, I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they're just sitting there thinking up ways to get even. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Wealth and dominion fade into the mass
Of the great sea of human right and wrong,
When once from our possession they must pass;
But love, though misdirected, is among
The things which are immortal, and surpass
All that frail stuff which will be - or which was. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Life and the world, or whatever we call that which we are and feel, is an astonishing thing. The mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being. We are struck with admiration at some of its transient modifications, but it is itself the great miracle. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Obedience indeed is only the pitiful and cowardly egotism of him who thinks that he can do something better than reason. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Of Planets, struggling fierce towards heaven's free wilderness. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

What then is this harmony, this order that you maintain to have required for its establishment, what it needs not for its maintenance, the agency of a supernatural intelligence? Inasmuch as the order visible in the Universe requires one cause, so does the disorder whose operation is not less clearly apparent demand another. Order and disorder are no more than modifications of our own perceptions of the relations which subsist between ourselves and external objects, and if we are justified in inferring the operation of a benevolent power from the advantages attendant on the former, the evils of the latter bear equal testimony to the activity of a malignant principle, no less pertinacious in inducing evil out of good, than the other is unremitting in procuring good from evil. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Far clouds of feathery gold, Shaded with deepest purple, gleam Like islands on a dark blue sea. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

But hope will make thee young, for Hope and Youth
Are children of one mother, even Love. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

I have neither curiosity, interest, pain nor pleasure, in anything, good or evil, they can say of me. I feel only a slight disgust, and a sort of wonder that they presume to write my name. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

There is no sport in hate where all the rage Is on one side. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Every fanatic or enemy of virtue is not at liberty to misrepresent the greatest geniuses and most heroic defenders of all that is valuable in this mortal world. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Twin-sister of Religion, Selfishness. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Might not too much investment in teaching Shelley mean falling behind our economic competitors? But there is no university without humane inquiry, which means that universities and advanced capitalism are fundamentally incompatible. And the political implications of that run far deeper than the question of student fees. ~ Terry Eagleton

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'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

Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know
That things depart which never may return:
Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow,
Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn.
These common woes I feel. One loss is mine
Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore.
Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did shine
On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar:
Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood
Above the blind and battling multitude:
In honored poverty thy voice did weave
Songs consecrate to truth and liberty,
Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve,
Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Truth has always been found to promote the best interests of mankind. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Hence all original religions are allegorical, or susceptible of allegory, and, like Janus, have a double face of false and true ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Fragment of the Elegy on the Death of Bion
From the Greek of Moschus
Published from the Hunt manuscripts by Forman, "Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1876.
Ye Dorian woods and waves, lament aloud,
Augment your tide, O streams, with fruitless tears,
For the beloved Bion is no more.
Let every tender herb and plant and flower,
From each dejected bud and drooping bloom,
Shed dews of liquid sorrow, and with breath
Of melancholy sweetness on the wind
Diffuse its languid love; let roses blush,
Anemones grow paler for the loss
Their dells have known; and thou, O hyacinth,
Utter thy legend now - yet more, dumb flower,
Than 'Ah! alas!' - thine is no common grief
Bion the [sweetest singer] is no more.
NOTE:
_2 tears]sorrow (as alternative) Hunt manuscript ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

And others came ... Desires and Adorations,
Winged Persuasions and veil'd Destinies,
Splendours, and Glooms, and glimmering Incarnations
Of hopes and fears, and twilight Phantasies;
And Sorrow, with her family of Sighs,
And Pleasure, blind with tears, led by the gleam
Of her own dying smile instead of eyes,
Came in slow pomp; the moving pomp might seem
Like pageantry of mist on an autumnal stream. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances; departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences should not constitute occasions for sadness but realities for awareness, so that one may be happy in the interim ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Peace is in the grave. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

IF [GOD] HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED? ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Obscenity, which is ever blasphemy against the divine beauty in life, is a monster for which the corruption of society forever brings forth new food, which it devours in secret. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Tragedy delights by affording a shadow of the pleasure which exists in pain. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Reason respects the differences, and imagination the similitudes of things. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Let the blue sky overhead, The green earth on which ye tread, All that must eternal be Witness the solemnity. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Dar'st thou amid the varied multitude To live alone, an isolated thing? ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Worse than despair,
Worse than the bitterness of death, is hope. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

It were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its color and odor, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

I could lie down like a tired child, And weep away the life of care Which I have borne, and yet must bear. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

We have more moral, political and historical wisdom, than we know how to reduce into practice; we ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

If God has spoken, why is the world not convinced. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Lightning my pilot sits; In a cavern under is fettered the thunder, It struggles and howls at fits; Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion, This pilot is guiding me, Lured by the love of the genii that move In the depths of the purple sea; Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills, Over the lakes and the plains, Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream The Spirit he loves remains; And I all the while bask in heaven's blue smile, Whilst he is dissolving in rains. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

You ought not to love the individuals of your domestic circle less, but to love those who exist beyond it more. Once make the feelings of confidence and of affection universal, and the distinctions of property and power will vanish; nor are they to be abolished without substituting something equivalent in mischief to them, until all mankind shall acknowledge an entire community of rights. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

What is life? Thoughts and feelings arise, with or without our will, and we employ words to express them. We are born, and our birth is unremembered and our infancy remembered but in fragments. We live on, and in living we lose the apprehension of life. How vain is it to think that words can penetrate the mystery of our being. Rightly used they may make evident our ignorance of ourselves, and this is much. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, From the seas and the streams; I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noonday dreams ... ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Oh that simplicity and innocence its own unvalued work so seldom knows! ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

A God made by man undoubtedly has need of man to make himself known to man. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

I wish no living thing to suffer pain. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

A lovely lady, garmented in light From her own beauty. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Dust to the dust! but the pure spirit shall flow Back to the burning fountain whence it came, A portion of the Eternal. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poetry, in a general sense, may be defined to be 'the expression of the imagination': and poetry is connate with the origin of man. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Implacable hate, patient cunning, and a sleepless refinement of device to inflict the extremest anguish on an enemy, these things are evil; and, although venial in a slave are not to be forgiven in a tyrant; although ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

Can man be free if woman be a slave? ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

We want the creative faculty to imagine that which we know; we want the generous impulse to act that which we imagine; we want the poetry of life: our calculations have outrun conception; we have eaten more than we can digest. The ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

I was an infant when my mother went To see an atheist burned. She took me there. The dark-robed priests were met around the pile; The multitude was gazing silently; And as the culprit passed with dauntless mien, Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye, Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth; The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs; His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon; His death-pang rent my heart! the insensate mob Uttered a cry of triumph, and I wept. Weep not, child! cried my mother, for that man Has said, 'There is no God.' ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

When a man marries, dies, or turns Hindu, his best friends hear no more of him. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Worse than a bloody hand is a hard heart. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley