“Nature rejects the monarch, not the man;
The subject, not the citizen; for kings
And subjects, mutual foes, forever play
A losing game into each other's hands,
Whose stakes are vice and misery. The man
Of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys.
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 Shelley , Queen Mab

Canto III
Queen Mab (1813)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Percy Bysshe Shelley 246

English Romantic poet 1792–1822

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Percy Bysshe Shelley 246

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