254 quotes
Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame
A mechanized automaton.
Queen Mab (1813)
Far clouds of feathery gold,
Shaded with deepest purple, gleam
Like islands on a dark blue sea.
Queen Mab (1813)
But hope will make thee young, for Hope and Youth
Are children of one mother, even Love.
One word is too often profaned
For me to profane it;
One feeling too falsely disdained
For thee to disdain it.
One Word is Too Often Profaned (1821)
Thou comest as the memory of a dream,
Which now is sad because it hath been sweet.
Prometheus Unbound (1820)
How vainly seek
The selfish for that happiness denied
To aught but virtue!
Queen Mab (1813)
There is a snake in thy smile, my dear,
And bitter poison within thy tear.
Thou hast a voice, great Mountain, to repeal
Large codes of fraud and woe.
Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni (1817)
For there are deeds
Which have no form, sufferings which have no tongue.
The Cenci (1819)
Dar'st thou amid the varied multitude
To live alone, an isolated thing?
The Solitary (1810)
Of such affection and unbroken faith
As temper life's worst bitterness.
The Cenci (1819)
Think ye by gazing on each other's eyes
To multiply your lovely selves?
Prometheus Unbound (1820)
Many faint with toil,
That few may know the cares and woe of sloth.
Queen Mab (1813)
There is no sport in hate where all the rage
Is on one side.
Lines to a Reviewer (1821)
How wonderful is Death,
Death and his brother Sleep!
Queen Mab (1813)
Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight.
To a Skylark (1821)
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.
To a Skylark (1821)
Teas,
Where small talk dies in agonies.
Peter Bell the Third (1819)
Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.
Belief is involuntary; nothing involuntary is meritorious or reprehensible. A man ought not to be considered worse or better for his belief.
Declaration of Rights (1812)