Percy Bysshe Shelley quotes - page 10

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)
Twin-sister of Religion, Selfishness. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
In a drama of the highest order there is little food for censure or hatred; it teaches rather self-knowledge and self-respect. View quote
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. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Man's yesterday may never be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Music, when soft voices die Vibrates in the memory. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Concerning God, freewill and destiny: Of all that earth has been or yet may be, all that vain men imagine or believe, or hope can paint or suffering may achieve, we descanted. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
When a thing is said to be not worth refuting you may be sure that either it is flagrantly stupid - in which case all comment is superfluous - or it is something formidable, the very crux of the problem. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Is it not odd that the only generous person I ever knew, who had money to be generous with, should be a stockbroker. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Cease, cease, wayward Mortal! I dare not unveil The shadows that float o'er Eternity's vale; Nought waits for the good but a spirit of Love, That will hail their blest advent to regions above. For Love, Mortal, gleams through the gloom of my sway, And the shades which surround me fly fast at its ray. (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Sweet the rose which lives in Heaven, Although on earth 'tis planted, Where its honours blow, While by earth's slaves the leaves are riven Which die the while they glow. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sun-girt City, thou hast been Ocean's child, and then his queen; Now is come a darker day, And thou soon must be his prey. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, Daisies, those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth, The constellated flower that never sets; Faint oxlips; tender bluebells at whose birth The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears, When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, Two scorpions under one wet stone, Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, Two crows perched on the murrained cattle, Two vipers tangled into one. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
And man ... no longer now He slays the lamb that looks him in the face, And horribly devours his mangled flesh. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Some philosophers-and those to whom we are indebted for the most stupendous discoveries in physical science, suppose... that intelligence is the mere result of certain combinations among the particles of its objects; and those among them who believe that we live after death, recur to the interposition of a supernatural power, which shall overcome the tendency inherent in all material combinations, to dissipate and be absorbed into other forms. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
On a poet's lips I slept Dreaming like a love-adept In the sound his breathing kept. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
He will watch from dawn to gloom The lake-reflected sun illume The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom, Nor heed nor see, what things they be; But from these create he can Forms more real than living man, Nurslings of immortality! View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Thou dirge Of the dying year, to which this closing night Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre, Vaulted with all thy congregated might. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
My Song, I fear that thou wilt find but few Who fitly shalt conceive thy reasoning, Of such hard matter dost thou entertain; Whence, if by misadventure, chance should bring Thee to base company (as chance may do), Quite unaware of what thou dost contain, I prithee, comfort thy sweet self again, My last delight! tell them that they are dull, And bid them own that thou art beautiful. (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
Poor captive bird! Who, from thy narrow cage, Pourest such music, that it might assuage The rugged hearts of those who prisoned thee, Were they not deaf to all sweet melody. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
There is no real wealth but the labor of man. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Of George III An old, mad, blind, despised and dying king. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley
From the contagion of the world's slow stain He is secure, and now can never mourn A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain. View quote
Percy Bysshe Shelley