You have loved—you have adored—what? [What] are these fine feelings, these exquisite susceptibilities? [...] [They] are direct estimations of self—they are the offspring of vanity, vanity perhaps unconfessed, yet self-centred, self-possessing. Letter to T. J. Hogg, 10 Nov 1811

But Love, the Love which we worship — [...] seeks the good of all; the good of it's object first, not because that object is a minister to it's pleasures, not merely because it even contributes to its happiness; but because it is really worthy Letter to E. Hitchener, 11 Nov 1811

My temporal concerns are slowly rectifying themselves; I am astonished at my own indifference to their event. I live here like the insect that sports in a transient sunbeam, which the next cloud shall obscure for ever. Letter to T. J. Hogg, 16 March 1814

We are surrounded here in Pisa by revolutionary volcanoes, which as yet give more light than heat: the lava has not yet reached Tuscany. But the news in the papers will tell you far more than it is prudent for me to say... Letter to T. L. Peacock, 21 March 1821

There is nothing I so earnestly desired as to visit Greece; but the fates do not seem propitious to my desires. Letter to T. Medwin, 4th April 1821

I have sunk into a premature old age of exhaustion, which renders me dead to everything, but the unenviable capacity of indulging the vanity of hope, and a terrible susceptibility to objects of disgust and hatred. Letter to T. J. Hogg, 16 March 1814

You, like all other men, are to a certain degree defective and inconsistent. Letter to J. Williams, 21 March 1813

[Every] bud is ready to burst into leaf. It is a nice distinction you make between the development & the...expansion of the leaves—the oak & the chesnut, the latest & the earliest parents of foliage would afford you a still subtler subdivision. Letter to W. Godwin, 22 March 1817

Mr Shoubridge...has applied to me for permission to have three or four days shooting...[on] your estate. Aware of your disposition to grant me any favor not inconsistent with your principles I felt myself at liberty to solicit this permission. Letter to T. Shelley, 23 March 1814

You know my [...] inability to deal with monied men. I have no friend who will supply this deficiency: none who interest themselves in my own much less in your concerns which I [...] made my own. Can you not yourself see these moneylenders? Letter to W. Godwin, 29 March 1816

We will not be cheated again — let us come over Jock, for if he will not give me a devil of a price for my Poem & at least 60£ for my new Romance in three volumes the dog shall not have them. Letter to E. F. Graham, 1 April 1810

Much stress is laid upon a still more southern climate for my health, which has suffered dreadfully this winter, and [...] I could believe that Spain would be effectual[.] [...] You know my passion for a republic, or anything which approaches it. Letter to L. Hunt, 5 April 1820

‘Had I like you been witness to the French revolution it is probable that my caution would have been greater.—I have seen and heard enough to make me doubt the Omnipotence of Truth in a society so constituted as that wherein we live.’ P. B. Shelley to W. Godwin, 18th March 1812

‘Horrible work, this in England!—Good & bad seem to have become inextricably entangled in our unhappy country.’ P. B. Shelley to T. Medwin, 19th March 1820

I have taken a more general view of what is Poetry than you have, and will perhaps agree with several of my positions [.] [...] But read & judge, & do not let us imitate the great founders of the picturesque Mr. Price & Payne Knight P. B. Shelley to T. L. Peacock to 21 March 1821

‘We have journeyed towards the spring that has been hastening to meet us from the south; and though our weather was at first abominable, we have now warm sunny days, and soft winds, and a sky of deep azure, the most serene I ever saw.’ P. B. Shelley to L. Hunt, 22nd March 1818

The next most considerable relic of antiquity...is the Thermae of Caracalla. These consist of six enormous chambers...& labyrinthine recesses hidden & woven over by the wild growth of weeds & ivy. Never was any desolation more sublime P. B. Shelley to T. L. Peacock, 23 March 1819

[A] train of reasoning & not any great profligacy has induced me to disbelieve the scriptures—this train myself & my friend pursued. We found to our surprise that (strange as it may appear) the proofs of an existing Deity were...defective P. B. Shelley to his Father, 29 Mar 1811

‘I hear Keats is in Rome, & dangerously ill.—Should you happen to see him, or if you could...call upon him, I should be very glad to know how he is, & where he directs his motions.—& that you would say every thing that is kind from me...’ P. B. Shelley to T. Medwin, 4 April 1821

‘There is one subject connected with the actual state of my financial imbecility about which I wish your assistance. I believe the bills for my piano and yours came due this year. [...] But I have not the money to pay it instantly...’ P. B. Shelley to L. Hunt, 5th April 1820