254 quotes
The sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?
Love's Philosophy (1819)
The king ...
like the vulgar, thinks, feels, acts, and lives
Just as his father did; the unconquered powers
Of precedent and custom interpose
Between a king and virtue.
Queen Mab (1813)
Honour sits smiling at the sale of truth.
Queen Mab (1813)
Familiar acts are beautiful through love.
The lone couch of his everlasting sleep.
With hue like that when some great painter dips
His pencil in the gloom of earthquake and eclipse.
The Revolt of Islam (1817)
Love's very pain is sweet,
But its reward is in the world divine
Which, if not here, it builds beyond the grave.
Epipsychidion (1821)
The breath
Of accusation kills an innocent name,
And leaves for lame acquittal the poor life,
Which is a mask without it.
The Cenci (1819)
Fear not the future, weep not for the past.
The Revolt of Islam (1817)
Gold is a living god and rules in scorn,
All earthly things but virtue.
Queen Mab (1813)
That orbed maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the moon.
A lovely lady, garmented in light
From her own beauty.
The Witch of Atlas (1820)
Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
A Defence of Poetry (1821)
Worse than a bloody hand is a hard heart.
The Cenci (1819)
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Ozymandias (1818)
Most wretched men
Are cradled into poetry by wrong;
They learn in suffering what they teach in song.
Julian and Maddalo (1819)
Kings are like stars — they rise and set, they have
The worship of the world, but no repose.
Hellas (1821)
Man is of soul and body, formed for deeds
Of high resolve; on fancy's boldest wing.
Queen Mab (1813)
The world is weary of the past,
Oh, might it die or rest at last!
Hellas (1821)
Worse than despair,
Worse than the bitterness of death, is hope.
The Cenci (1819)