I consider my selfbeing ... that taste of myself, of I and me above and in all things, which is more distinctive than the taste of ale or alum, more distinctive than the smell of walnutleaf or camphor, and is incommunicable by any means to another man.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. Comments on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. The Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. W.H. Gardner (1953).)

Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring??
Growth in everything.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. "The May Magnificat," st. 4.)

Repeat that, repeat,
Cuckoo, bird,

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet. The Cuckoo (l. 1-2). . . Gerard Manley Hopkins. Catherine Phillips, ed. (1986) Oxford University Press.)

And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet. Heaven-Haven (l. 5-8). . . Gerard Manley Hopkins. Catherine Phillips, ed. (1986) Oxford University Press.)

I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet. Heaven-Haven (l. 1-4). . . Gerard Manley Hopkins. Catherine Phillips, ed. (1986) Oxford University Press.)

It seems then that it is not the excellence of any two things (or more) in themselves, but those two things as viewed by the light of each other, that makes beauty.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. On the Origin of Beauty: A Platonic Dialogue. Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. W.H. Gardner (1953).)

I find myself both as man and as myself something more determined and distinctive, at pitch, more distinctive and higher pitched than anything else I see.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. Comments on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. W.H. Gardner (1953). Written in 1880, during a spiritual retreat at Liverpool.)

I am surprised you shd. say fancy and aesthetic tastes have led me to my present state of mind: these wd. be better satisfied in the Church of England, for bad taste is always meeting one in the accessories of Catholicism.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. letter, Oct. 16, 1866, to his father, Manley Hopkins. Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. W.H. Gardner (1953).)

For myself I make no secret, I look forward with eager desire to seeing the matchless beauty of Christ's body in the heavenly light.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. sermon, Nov. 23, 1879. Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. W.H. Gardner (1953).)

Any day, any minute we bless God for our being or for anything, for food, for sunlight, we do and are what we were meant for, made for?things that give and mean to give God glory.

(Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), British poet, Jesuit priest. Conclusion of "The Principle or Foundation." Poems and Prose of Gerard Manley Hopkins, ed. W.H. Gardner (1953). an address based on The Spiritual Exercises, written by St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), the Spanish founder of the Society of Jesus. The Exercises, a series of guided meditations which serves as a key text in Jesuit spirituality, were an important influence on the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.)