Belief is involuntary; nothing involuntary is meritorious or reprehensible. A man ought not to be considered worse or better for his belief. Percy Bysshe Shelley More Quotes by Percy Bysshe Shelley More Quotes From Percy Bysshe Shelley How beautiful is sunset when the glow Of Heaven descends upon a land like thee, Thou Paradise of exiles, Italy! Percy Bysshe Shelley sunset land beautiful By all that is sacred in our hope for the human race, I conjure those who love happiness and truth to give a fair trial to the vegetable system! Percy Bysshe Shelley vegetables vegetarianism race Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes. Percy Bysshe Shelley unbound snakes clouds Narrow The heart that loves, the brain that contemplates, The life that wears, the spirit that creates One object, and one form, and builds thereby A sepulchre for its eternity. Percy Bysshe Shelley spirit brain heart Oh lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! Percy Bysshe Shelley clouds life fall The mind in creation is as a fading coal, which some invisible influence, like an inconstant wind, awakens to transitory brightness; this power arises from within...could this influence be durable in its original purity and force, it is impossible to predict the greatness of the result; but when composition begins, inspiration is already on the decline; and the most glorious poetry that has been communicated to the world is probably a feeble shadow of the original conceptions of the poet. Percy Bysshe Shelley greatness inspiration wind Contemporary criticism only represents the amount of ignorance genius has to contend with. . . . Time will reverse the judgement of the vulgar. Percy Bysshe Shelley judgement criticism ignorance The old laws of England they Whose reverend heads with age are gray, Children of a wiser day; And whose solemn voice must be Thine own echo Liberty! Percy Bysshe Shelley echoes law children I stood within the city disinterred; Percy Bysshe Shelley light cities blood Persevere even though Hell and destruction should yawn beneath your feet. Percy Bysshe Shelley persevere perseverance feet 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 burning dust death You ought to love all mankind; nay, every individual of mankind. You ought not to love the individuals of your domestic circles 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 circles rights life Within my heart is the lamp of love, Percy Bysshe Shelley lamps my-heart heart I arise from dreams of thee, And a spirit in my feet Has led me- who knows how? To thy chamber-window, Sweet! Percy Bysshe Shelley feet dream sweet God is a hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of proof; the onus probandi rests on the theist. Percy Bysshe Shelley hypothesis proof needs There is no sport in hate where all the rage Is on one side. Percy Bysshe Shelley hate sides sports 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 endurance mother hands 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 flower summer memories To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than death or night; To defy Power, which seems omnipotent; To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates From it's own wreck the thing it contemplates; Neither to change, not falter, nor repent; This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be Good, great and joyous,beautiful and free; This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory Percy Bysshe Shelley beautiful night thinking Forget the dead, the past? O yet there are ghosts that may take revenge for it, memories that make the heart a tomb, regrets which gild thro’ the spirit’s gloom, and with ghastly whispers tell that joy, once lost, is pain. Percy Bysshe Shelley regret pain revenge
