Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley, (1792-1822) British poet

Percy Bysshe Shelley Quote

“Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame,
A mechanized automaton.”

Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Queen Mab [1813], pt. III

Ratings and Comments


Mike, Norwalk

Of course there are exceptions  BUT  very well said as a general overview.

Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown

Aren't we, with this quote, just referring to the boys and girls "power" playing? Don't adults direct away from the playing and cultivate knowledge and understanding? And isn't Socialism the vision of social abilities to create?

Mike, Norwalk

Sillik, the answer to your questions is NO ! ! ! Your perception of children, adults and the mentally ill is very / VERY  skewed. Knowledge and understanding definitively explains that Socialism is a vision of social abilities to create chaos, poverty, pain, violence, death; AND a loss of personal sovereignty, inalienable rights and liberty at nature's law.

E Archer, NYC

The quote is right on.
Sillik is right off (again).
Socialism is not a 'vision,' it is authoritarian social engineering that does not respect individual ideas or self-determination.  It is arrogance at its core.  Socialism's first task is to kill off everyone that doesn't agree to its 'vision.'  See China, USSR, Cuba, Nazi Germany  all 'socialists' until they have the power, then totalitarian.

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