Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and playwrights, who is regarded by some as among the finest lyric and philosophical poets in the English language, as well as one of the most influential. A radical in his poetry as well as in his social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death. His best-known works include the poems Ode to the West Wind and Adonais, and the plays Prometheus Unbound and Proserpine.
Quotations by Percy Bysshe Shelley…
The harmony and happiness of man
Yields to the wealth of nations; that which lifts
His nature to the heaven of its pride,
Is bartered for the poison of his soul;
The weight that drags to earth his towering hopes,
Blighting all prospect but of selfish gain,
Withering all passion but of slavish fear,
Extinguishing all free and generous love
Of enterprise and daring, even the pulse
That fancy kindles in the beating heart
To mingle with sensation, it destroys,
Leaves nothing but the sordid lust of self,
The groveling hope of interest and gold,
Unqualified, unmingled, unredeemed
Even by hypocrisy.
How vainly seek
The selfish for that happiness denied
To aught but virtue! Blind and hardened, they,
Who hope for peace amid the storms of care,
Who covet power they know not how to use,
And sigh for pleasure they refuse to give,
Madly they frustrate still their own designs;
And, where they hope that quiet to enjoy
Which virtue pictures, bitterness of soul,
Pining regrets, and vain repentances,
Disease, disgust and lassitude pervade
Their valueless and miserable lives.
