The more we study the more we discover our ignorance.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shortly after arriving at Oxford Percy made the acquaintance of Thomas Jefferson Hogg who was to become his lifelong friend . The pair cut quite a dash but they also managed to cause a stir in the hallowed hallways of University College, Oxford. Percy had courted controversy just months prior with the publication of some poetry written by himself and his sister Elizabeth. The poems were published and withdrawn shortly thereafter due to their apparent burlesque content, which actually disguised their subversiveness. So, when both Percy and Thomas decided to publish the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism it bought them both a ticket right out the door.

Every reflecting mind must allow that there is no proof of the existence of a Deity. Q.E.D.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy could have had his expulsion overturned thanks to the influence of his father, but to give him his dues, he stood by his beliefs and alienated himself from Oxford and his father.