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About this quote

What does it mean?
Humans are chained by will and could be happier if not weak.
In plain terms
We could be great if we were stronger in mind.
What can you take from it?
Mental weakness holds us back from happiness.

Where it applies

  • self-improvement
  • philosophy
  • decision making

Putting it to work

  • strengthen will
  • challenge limits
  • seek truth

Questions to consider

  • What holds you back?
  • Are you stronger than your desires?

Another view

External oppression can also limit potential.

More from Percy Bysshe Shelley

  1. I love all waste And solitary places; where we taste The pleasure of believing what we see Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be.

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  2. Me - who am as a nerve o'er which do creep The else unfelt oppressions of this earth, And was to thee the flame upon thy hearth, When all beside was cold: - th…

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  3. To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than Death or Night; To defy Power, which seems Omnipotent; To love, and bear; to hope, til…

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