Percy Bysshe Shelley

sweet song saddest thought

“Our sweetest songs are those of saddest thought.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

poet nightingale cheer soltude

“A poet is a nightingale who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

winter sping behind

“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

music voices vibrate memory

“Music, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

lion slumber shake chain many few

“Rise like Lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number-

Shake your chains to earth like

dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you

Ye are many-they are few.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

study discover ignorance

“The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

poet philosopher legislator world

“Poets and philosophers are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

fear future weep past

“Fear not for the future, weep not for the past”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

man right kill brother uniform servitude crime murder

“Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

war statesman priest lawyer assassin game delight jest trade

“War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

god hypothesis proof onus probandi theist

“God is an hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of proof: the onus probandi rests on the theist.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

The Masque of Anarchy lions slumber many few

"Rise, like lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number!

Shake your chains to earth like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you:

Ye are many—they are few!"

― Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)