History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

History is: Fables agreed upon - Voltaire The biography of a few stout and earnest persons - Ralph Waldo Emerson A vast Mississippi of falsehood - Matthew Arnold A confused heap of facts - Lord Chesterfield A cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man -

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

How many a rustic Milton has passed by Stifling the speechless longings of his heart In unremitting drudgery and care! How many a vulgar Cato has compelled His energies no longer tameless then To mold a pin or fabricate a nail!

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Human vanity is so constituted that it stiffens before difficulties. The more an object conceals itself from our eyes, the greater the effort we make to seize it, because it pricks our pride, it excites our curiosity and it appears interesting. In fighting for his God everyone, in fact, fights only for the interest of his own vanity, which, of all the passions produced bye the MAL-organization of society, is the quickest to take offense, and the most capable of committing the greatest follies.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

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

I can give not what men call love;But wilt thou accept not The worship the heart lifts above And the heavens reject not:The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow, The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow?

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

I consider poetry very subordinate to moral and political science.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

IF [GOD] HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED?

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them? If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? IF HE HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED?

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

If winter comes can spring be far behind?

— Percy Bysshe Shelley