Life and the world, or whatever we call that which we are and feel, is an astonishing thing. The mist of familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being. We are struck with admiration at some of its transient modifications, but it is itself the great miracle.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEYGovernment 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.
More Percy Bysshe Shelley Quotes
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Are we not formed, as notes of music are, For one another, though dissimilar?
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I have made my bed In charnels and on coffins, where black death Keeps record of the trophies won.
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And Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
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Love’s very pain is sweet.
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I wish no living thing to suffer pain.
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Only nature knows how to justly proportion to the fault the punishment it deserves.
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Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.
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The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.
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All of us who are worth anything, spend our manhood in unlearning the follies, or expiating the mistakes of our youth.
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Away, away, from men and towns, To the wild wood and the downs, – To the silent wilderness, Where the soul need not repress Its music.
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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.
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Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it.
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Words are but holy as the deeds they cover.
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Joy, once lost, is pain.
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Fate, Time, Occasion, Chance, and Change? To these All things are subject but eternal love.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY