Quote by Gerard Manley Hopkins

O if we but knew what we do when we delve or hew -- hack and rack the growing green! Since country is so tender to touch, her being so slender, that like this sleek and seeing ball but a prick will make no eye at all, where we, even where we mean to mend her we end her, when we hew or delve: after-comers cannot guess the beauty been.

O if we but knew what we do when we delve or hew -- hack and

Summary

In this quote, the speaker reflects on the obliviousness and harm caused by society's actions towards the environment. The speaker laments that people fail to understand the significance of their relentless destruction of nature's beauty. The delicacy of the Earth is compared to a sensitive touch, easily damaged by their heedless hacking and destruction. The consequences of their actions go unnoticed, as future generations will never truly comprehend the magnificence that has been irreversibly lost due to their relentless digging and mining.

Topics

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

An educational method that shall have liberty as its basis m

An educational method that shall have liberty as its basis must intervene to help the child to a conquest of liberty. That is to say, his training must be such as shall help him to diminish as much as possible the social bonds which limit his activity.

Maria Montessori

Most women are wise to the fact that lots of men love a cat-

Most women are wise to the fact that lots of men love a cat-fight, and thus go out of their way not to give them one.

True solitude is a din of birdsong, seething leaves, whirlin

True solitude is a din of birdsong, seething leaves, whirling colors, or a clamor of tracks in the snow.

Edward Hoagland

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel th

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind an

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.

The great critic...must be a philosopher, for from philosoph

The great critic...must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.

W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing

Really, he thought, if you couldn't trust a poet to offer se

Really, he thought, if you couldn't trust a poet to offer sensible advice, who could you trust?

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves si

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

the social sciences were for all those who had not yet decid

the social sciences were for all those who had not yet decided what to do with their lives, and for all those whose premature frustrations led them into the sterile alleys of confrontation.

Science Socialservice

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

Not to say people shouldn't get rich from art. I adore the a

Not to say people shouldn't get rich from art. I adore the alchemy wherein artists who cast a complex spell make rich people give them their money. (Just writing it makes me cackle.) But too many artists have been making money without magic.

No one does anything right in life, until they realize that

No one does anything right in life, until they realize that they are making a mistake

Albert Einstein

Life And Living