Quotes about prayer

"The Lord's prayer contains the sum total of religion and morals."

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington on prayer   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"O Lord! thou knowest how busy I must be this day: if I forget thee, do not thou forget me."

Astley, Sir Jacob on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

"To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention -- on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol, or the True God -- that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying. The primary task of the schoolteacher is to teach children, in a secular context, the technique of prayer."

Auden, W. H. on prayer   

"Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."

Augustine, St. on prayer
10 fans of this quote   

"Spiritual favors are not always to be looked for, and not always to be relied on."

Barr, Amelia E. on prayer   

"The man who says his evening prayer is a captain posting his sentinels. He can sleep."

Baudelaire, Charles on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

"It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk."

Beecher, Henry Ward on prayer   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"The wish to pray is a prayer in itself. God can ask no more than that of us."

Bernanos, Georges on prayer   

"So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Bible on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

"But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before Him. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. [Job 5:8-9]"

Bible on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

"Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. [I Thessalonians]"

Bible on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

"Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, but I will instruct you in the good and right way. [I Samuel 12:23]"

Bible on prayer   

"If I regard wickedness in my heart the Lord will not hear. [Psalms 66:18]"

Bible on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

"Pray. To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy."

Bierce, Ambrose on prayer
4 fans of this quote   

"The object of most prayers is to wangle an advance on good intentions."

Brault, Robert on prayer   

"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks."

Brooks, Phillips on prayer
5 fans of this quote   

"God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers and thrust the thing we have prayed for in our face, like a gauntlet with a gift in it."

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett on prayer
5 fans of this quote   

"In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart."

Bunyan, John on prayer
9 fans of this quote   

"Prayer is not a substitute for work, thinking, watching, suffering, or giving; prayer is a support for all other efforts."

Buttrick, George on prayer
7 fans of this quote   

"The influence of prayer on the human mind and body is as demonstrable as that of secreting glands. Its results can be measured in terms of increased physical buoyancy, greater intellectual vigor, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of the realities underlying human relationships."

Carrel, Dr. Alex on prayer   

"We know little of the things for which we pray."

Chaucer, Geoffrey on prayer   

"A childish soul not inoculated with compulsory prayer is a soul open to any religious infection."

Cockburn, Alexander on prayer   

"Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered."

Cohen, Leonard on prayer   

"When a man has done all he can do, still there is a mighty, mysterious agency over which he needs influence to secure success. The one way he can reach it is by prayer."

Conwell, Russel H. on prayer   

"I throw myself down in my chamber, and I call in, and invite God, and his Angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his Angels, for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door."

Donne, John on prayer   

"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."

Eckhart, Meister on prayer
7 fans of this quote   

"To be sure, this requires effort and love, a careful cultivation of the spiritual life, and a watchful, honest, active oversight of all one's mental attitudes towards things and people. It is not to be learned by world-flight, running away from things, turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, one must learn an inner solitude, where or with whomsoever he may be. He must learn to penetrate things and find God there, to get a strong impression of God firmly fixed on his mind."

Eckhart, Meister on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

"Audible prayer can never do the works of spiritual understanding, which regenerates; but silent prayer, watchfulness, and devout obedience enable us to follow Jesus example. Long prayers, superstition, and creeds clip the strong pinions of love, and clothe religion in human forms. Whatever materializes worship hinders man's spiritual growth and keeps him from demonstrating his power over error."

Eddy, Mary Baker on prayer   

"Heaven grant that the burden you carry may have as easy an exit as it had an entrance. [Prayer To A Pregnant Woman]"

Erasmus, Desiderius on prayer   

"Most men pray for power, the strength to do things. Few people pray for love, the quality to be someone."

Foster, Robert D. on prayer
9 fans of this quote   

"Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow."

Franklin, Benjamin on prayer
11 fans of this quote   

"Prayer is a confession of one's own unworthiness and weakness."

Gandhi, Mahatma on prayer
18 fans of this quote   

"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action."

Gandhi, Mahatma on prayer
10 fans of this quote   

"Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart."

Gandhi, Mahatma on prayer
27 fans of this quote   

"Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening."

Gandhi, Mahatma on prayer
15 fans of this quote   

"Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared."

Gandhi, Mahatma on prayer
6 fans of this quote   

"Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon."

Gide, Andre on prayer   

"Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart."

Graham, Ruth on prayer
3 fans of this quote   

"I have not placed reading before praying because I regard it more important, but because, in order to pray aright, we must understand what we are praying for."

Grimke, Angelina on prayer
6 fans of this quote   

"Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them."

Hammarskjold, Dag on prayer