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About this quote

What does it mean?
Beauty exists through relationships between things, recognized by comparing them.
In plain terms
Beauty comes from how things relate and compare to each other.
What can you take from it?
Perceive beauty through connections and contrasts.

Where it applies

  • art criticism
  • design review
  • philosophical discussion

Putting it to work

  • analyze relationships in design
  • compare elements for harmony

Questions to consider

  • What makes something beautiful to you?
  • How does context change perception?

Another view

Some beauty may be intrinsic rather than relational.

More from Gerard Manley Hopkins

  1. 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 be…

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

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  3. A great work by an Englishman is like a great battle won by England. It is an unfading bay tree.

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