“Shall we not put aside the things of childhood, and look
to the day when fabled stories of nobles and kings will
lie forgotten like broken toys, and the sceptered crown
and moldy throne gather dust and wither, as true
nobility is discovered in the breast of every man?”

………….

“Ye cold advisers of yet colder kings,
To whose fell breast no passion virtue brings
Who scheme, regardless of the poor man’s pang,
Who coolly sharpen misery’s sharpest fang,
Yourselves secure. Your’s is the power to breathe
O’er all the world the infectious blast of death,
To snatch at fame, to reap red murder’s spoil,
Receive the injured with a courtier’s smile
Make a tired nation bless the oppressor’s name
And for injustice snatch the meed of fame.”

………….

“Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness
and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all
men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.”

From poems and quotes by Percy Bysshe Shelley
1792 – 1822

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