Quote #214

An established religion turns to deathlike apathy the sublimest ebullitions of most exalted genius, and the spirit-stirring truths of a mind inflamed with the desire of benefiting mankind. It is the characteristic of a cold and tame spirit to imagine that such doctrines as Jesus Christ promulgated are destined to follow the fortunes and share the extinction of a popular religion.

More from Percy Bysshe Shelley

  1. No mistake is more to be deplored than the conception that a system of morals and religion should derive any portion of its authority eithe…
  2. Nothing wilts faster than laurels that have been rested upon.
  3. Some benefit has not failed to flow from the imperfect attempts which have been made to erect a system of equal rights to property and powe…
  4. When my cats aren't happy, I'm not happy. Not because I care about their mood but because I know they're just sitting there thinking up way…
  5. Every man, in proportion to his virtue, considers himself, with respect to the great community of mankind, as the steward and guardian of t…
  6. Change is certain. Peace is followed by disturbances; departure of evil men by their return. Such recurrences should not constitute occasio…
  7. The demagogues of the infant republic of the Christian sect, attaining through eloquence or artifice, to influence amongst its members, fir…
  8. I regard Shelley's early 'atheism' and later Pantheism, as simply the negative and the affirmative side of the same progressive but harmoni…

All Percy Bysshe Shelley quotes