Portrait of Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Romantic poet

Modern influential 35 sayings

Sayings by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The soul's joy lies in doing.

1821 — Epipsychidion
Biblical Unverifiable

I have drunken deep of joy, and I will taste no other wine tonight.

1820 — Prometheus Unbound
Wisdom Unverifiable

Death is the veil which those who live call life; they sleep, and it is lifted.

1820 — Prometheus Unbound
Life & Death Unverifiable

The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.

1818 — On Love
Wisdom Unverifiable

The man who has a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound.

1811 — Letter to Thomas Jefferson Hogg
Wisdom Unverifiable

The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.

1815 — Essay on Christianity
Wisdom Unverifiable

We look before and after, and pine for what is not.

1820 — To a Skylark
Wisdom Unverifiable

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively.

1821 — A Defence of Poetry
Art & Creativity Unverifiable

Love is free: to promise for ever to love the same woman, is not less absurd than to promise to believe the same creed: such a vow in both cases, excludes us from all enquiry.

1813 — From 'Notes on Queen Mab', Note VII
Relationships Unverifiable

When a man marries, dies, or turns Hindu, his best friends hear no more of him.

1818 — Letter to Thomas Love Peacock
General Unverifiable

Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race.

1819 (published posthumously in 1840) — From 'On The Devil, and Devils' (part of 'Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments')
Life & Aging Unverifiable

Teas, Where small talk dies in agonies.

1819 (published posthumously in 1839) — From 'Peter Bell the Third', Part 3, Stanza 12
General Unverifiable

Dull,—oh so dull, so very dull! Whether he talked, wrote, or rehearsed, Still with this dulness was he cursed!

1819 (published posthumously in 1839) — From 'Peter Bell the Third', Part 3, Stanza 10 (describing Wordsworth, satirically)
General Unverifiable

When my cats aren't happy, I'm not happy.

Unknown (early 19th century) — Attributed, but specific source needs further verification.
General Unverifiable

I never met a man who wasn't a beast in comparison to him.

1822 — Lord Byron's comment about Shelley after his death. (Note: This is a quote *about* Shelley, not *by*…
General Unverifiable
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