Gerard Manley Hopkins Quotes

I always knew in my heart Walt Whitman’s mind to be more like my own than any other man’s living.

The male quality is the creative gift.

Birds build—but not I build; no, but strain, Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes. Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just. Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must Disappointment all I endeavour end?

I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond, Is immortal diamond.

The fine pleasure is not to do a thing but to feel that you could… If I could but get on, if I could but produce a work I should not mind its being buried, silenced, and going no further; but it kills me to be time’s eunuch and never to beget.