إنّ إرادتنا هي التي تُكبّلنا بالشرّ المسموح به. كان يمكن أن نكون غير ذلك، أن نكون كلّ ما نحلم به من سعادةٍ وسموٍّ وجلال. فأين الحبّ والجمال والحقّ الذي نبتغيه، إن لم يكن في عقولنا؟ ولو لم نكن ضعفاء، أفلسنا أقلّ في الفعل مما نحن في الرغبة؟

“It is our will That thus enchains us to permitted ill. We might be otherwise, we might be all We dream of happy, high, majestical. Where is the love, beauty and truth we seek, But in our mind? and if we were not weak, Should we be less in deed than in desire?”Percy Bysshe Shelley — Fair-copy Manuscripts of Shelley's Poems in European and American Libraries: Including Percy Bysshe Shelley's Holographs and Copies in the Hand of Mary W. Shelley, Located in the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Switzerland, as Well as the Holograph Draft of Keats's Robin Hood (1985)