Know ye what it is to be a child? It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of baptism; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief. Percy Bysshe Shelley More Quotes by Percy Bysshe Shelley More Quotes From Percy Bysshe Shelley 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. Percy Bysshe Shelley modest creeds death It is vain philosophy that supposes more causes than are exactly adequate to explain the phenomena of things. Percy Bysshe Shelley adequate causes philosophy Religion pervades intensely the whole frame of society, and is according to the temper of the mind which it inhabits, a passion, a persuasion, an excuse, a refuge; never a check. Percy Bysshe Shelley passion mind religion 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. Percy Bysshe Shelley mistress doctrine wise That sweet sleep which medicines all pain. Percy Bysshe Shelley pain sleep sweet Worlds on worlds are rolling ever From creation to decay, Like the bubbles on a river Sparkling, bursting, borne away. Percy Bysshe Shelley rolling decay rivers Deep truth is imageless. Percy Bysshe Shelley truth-is truth Mild is the slow necessity of death; Percy Bysshe Shelley land spirit death Be your strong and simple words Keen to wound as sharpened swords, And wide as targes let them be, With their shade to cover ye. Percy Bysshe Shelley shade strong simple Thou art Justice ne'er for gold May thy righteous laws be sold As laws are in England thou Shield'st alike the high and low. Percy Bysshe Shelley law justice art Woe is me! Percy Bysshe Shelley woe-is-me fire love For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower; Radiance and odour are not its dower; It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full, It desires what it has not, the beautiful. Percy Bysshe Shelley flower heart beautiful Power, like a desolating pestilence, pollutes whatever it touches. Percy Bysshe Shelley pestilence power The soul's joy lies in doing. Percy Bysshe Shelley laughter happiness lying One word is too often profaned For me to profane it, One feeling too falsely disdain'd For thee to disdain it. One hope too like dispair For prudence to smother, I can give not what men call love: But wilt thou accept not The worship the heart lifts above And heaven rejects not: The desire of the moth for the star, The devotion of something afar From the sphere of our sorrow? Percy Bysshe Shelley stars heart men Love's Pestilence, and her slow dogs of war. Percy Bysshe Shelley dog war life Sounds of vernal showers On the twinkling grass, Rain awaken'd flowers, All that ever was Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass Percy Bysshe Shelley flower sound rain In proportion to the love existing among men, so will be the community of property and power. Among true and real friends, all is common; and, were ignorance and envy and superstition banished from the world, all mankind would be friends. The only perfect and genuine republic is that which comprehends every living being. Those distinctions which have been artificially set up, of nations, societies, families, and religions, are only general names, expressing the abhorrence and contempt with which men blindly consider their fellowmen. Percy Bysshe Shelley ignorance real life But hope will make thee young, for Hope and Youth Percy Bysshe Shelley hope mother children Kiss me, so long but as a kiss may last! Percy Bysshe Shelley kissing lasts long
