God is a hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of proof; the onus probandi rests on the theist. Percy Bysshe Shelley More Quotes by Percy Bysshe Shelley More Quotes From 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 poetrybeautyworld My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Percy Bysshe Shelley kingsnamescivilization The odious and disgusting aristocracy of wealth is built upon the ruins of all that is good in chivalry or republicanism; and luxury is the forerunner of a barbarism scarcely capable of cure. Percy Bysshe Shelley aristocracyruinsluxury Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds. Percy Bysshe Shelley poetrymindwriting There is no real wealth but the labour of man. Were the mountains of gold and the valleys of silver, the world would not be one grain of corn the richer; no one comfort would be added to the human race. Percy Bysshe Shelley realracework This lake exceeds anything I ever beheld in beauty. Percy Bysshe Shelley exceedlakeswater Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it. Percy Bysshe Shelley lightningpoetry-is The great secret of morals is love; or a going out of our nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. 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 pleasure of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination. Percy Bysshe Shelley painbeautifulmen The young moon has fed Her exhausted horn With the sunset's fire. Percy Bysshe Shelley sunsetmoonnight It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust. Percy Bysshe Shelley vegetarian-dietvegetarianismsight Poets, not otherwise than philosophers, painters, sculptors, and musicians, are, in one sense, the creators, and, in another, the creations, of their age. Percy Bysshe Shelley philosophermusicianage 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. Percy Bysshe Shelley truthstupidmay 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. Percy Bysshe Shelley imaginepainmen I never was attached to that great sect, Whose doctrine is, that each one should select Out of the crowd a mistress or a friend, And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend To cold oblivion, though it is in the code Of modern morals, and the beaten road Which those poor slaves with weary footsteps tread, Who travel to their home among the dead By the broad highway of the world, and so With one chained friend perhaps a jealous foe, The dreariest and the longest journey go. Percy Bysshe Shelley marriagewisehome All love is sweet Percy Bysshe Shelley sweetlovelife 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 its own wreck the thing it contemplates; Neither to change, nor 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 forgivenessnightthinking A sensitive plant in a garden grew, Percy Bysshe Shelley sunsetkissingnature 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 goodnightgood-nightromantic I think that the leaf of a tree, the meanest insect on which we trample, are in themselves arguments more conclusive than any which can be adduced that some vast intellect animates Infinity. Percy Bysshe Shelley infinitytreethinking It is only by hearsay (by word of mouth passed down from generation to generation) that whole peoples adore the God of their fathers and of their priests: authority, confidence, submission and custom with them take the place of conviction or of proofs: they prostrate themselves and pray, because their fathers taught them to prostrate themselves and pray: but why did their fathers fall on their knees? Percy Bysshe Shelley atheismfatherfall
