Percy Bysshe Shelley

“The desire of the moth for the star”

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

That sweet sleep which medicines all pain.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

All love is sweet, given or returned.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Worse than a bloody hand is a hard heart.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Only nature knows how to justly proportion to the fault the punishment it deserves.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

To hope till hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Chameleons feed on light and air: Poets food is love and fame.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and unbuild it again.”

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

In fact, truth cannot be communicated until it is perceived.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Persevere even though Hell and destruction should yawn beneath your feet.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.

— 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

And bid them love each other and be blest: And leave the troop which errs, and which reproves, And come and be…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Better than all measures Of delightful sound, Better than all treasures That in books are found, Thy skill to poet were, thou…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

All high poetry is infinite; it is as the first acorn, which contained all oaks potentially.

— 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…

— 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

“Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heaped for the beloved's bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

What is Freedom? ye can tell That which slavery is, too well For its very name has grown To an echo of…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Thus suicidal selfishness, that blights The fairest feelings of the opening heart, Is destined to decay, whilst from the soil Shall spring…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Whatever may be his [man's] true and final destination, there is a spirit within him at enmity with nothingness and dissolution (change…

— 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…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

The world's great age begins anew, The golden years return, The earth doth like a snake renew Her winter weeds outworn; Heaven…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience, Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, Makes slaves of men,…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

When you can discover where the fresh colors of the faded flower abide, or the music of the broken lyre, seek life…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mild is the slow necessity of death; The tranquil spirit fails beneath its grasp, Without a groan, almost without a fear, Resigned…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

He has outsoared the shadow of our night; envy and calumny and hate and pain, and that unrest which men miscall delight,…

— 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…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Mankind, transmitting from generation to generation the legacy of accumulated vengeances, and pursuing with the feelings of duty the misery of their…

— 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…

— 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…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

In the firm expectation that when London shall be a habitation of bitterns, when St. Paul and Westminster Abbey shall stand shapeless…

— 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…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

You ought to love all mankind; nay, every individual of mankind. You ought not to love the individuals of your domestic circles…

— 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,…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Men must reap the things they sow, Force from force must ever flow.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

There is no real wealth but the labour of man.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

I know the cause of all human disappointment -- worldly prejudice.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley