Quotes about prayer

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

— Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley

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

— Sir Jacob Astley

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.

— W. H. Auden

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

— St. Augustine

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

— Amelia E. Barr

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

— Charles Baudelaire

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

— Henry Ward Beecher

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

— Georges Bernanos

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

— Bible

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

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

— Bible

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

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

— Bible

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

— Ambrose Bierce

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

— Robert Brault

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.

— Phillips Brooks

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.

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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

— John Bunyan

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

— George Buttrick

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.

— Dr. Alex Carrel

We know little of the things for which we pray.

— Geoffrey Chaucer

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

— Alexander Cockburn

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.

— Russel H. Conwell

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.

— John Donne

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

— Meister Eckhart

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.

— Meister Eckhart

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.

— Mary Baker Eddy

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

— Desiderius Erasmus

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

— Robert D. Foster

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

— Mahatma Gandhi

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

— Mahatma Gandhi

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.

— Mahatma Gandhi

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

— Mahatma Gandhi

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.

— Mahatma Gandhi

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.

— Andre Gide

Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart.

— Ruth Graham

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.

— Angelina Grimke

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

— Dag Hammarskjold

Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.

— Ernest Hemingway

Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.

— George Herbert

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.

— Etty Hillesum

Prayer is the voice of faith.

— William Van Horne

There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.

— Victor Hugo

There is no greater distance than that between a man in prayer and God.

— Ivan Illich

Prayer is a groan.

— St. Jerome

Religion is in the heart, not in the knees.

— Douglas William Jerrold

Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with him continually, and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you.

— St. John of the Cross

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

— Lyndon B. Johnson

Your prayer must be for a sound mind in a sound body.

— (Decimus Junius Juvenalis) Juvenal

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

— Søren Kierkegaard

Father in Heaven! When the thought of thee wakes in our hearts let it not awaken like a frightened bird that flies about in dismay, but like a child waking from its sleep with a heavenly smile.

— Søren Kierkegaard

Prayer does not change God, but changes him who prays.

— Søren Kierkegaard

If this obstacle is from Thee, Lord, I accept it; but if it is from Satan, I refuse him and all his works in the name of Calvary.

— Isobel Kuhn

The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.

— Brother Lawrence

A simple grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer.

— Doris Lessing

A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most perfect prayer.

— Gotthold Lessing

All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother. I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.

— Abraham Lincoln

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.

— Martin Luther

It is good to pray for the repair of mistakes, but praying earlier would keep us from making so many. When puzzled, go to prayer and listen.

— J. C. Macaulay

That prayer has great power which a person makes with all his might. It makes a sour heart sweet, a sad heart merry, a poor heart rich, a foolish heart wise, a timid heart brave, a sick heart well, a blind heart full of sight, a cold heart ardent. It draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up into the fullness of God; it brings together two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love.

— Mechthild of Magheburg

Don't put people down, unless it's on your prayer list.

— Stan Michalski

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.

— John Milton

There are few men who dare to publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.

— Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

The fates are not quite obdurate; they have a grim, sardonic way of granting them who supplicate the thing they wanted yesterday.

— Roselle Mercier Montgomery

Answered prayers cause more tears than those that remain unanswered.

— St. Teresa of Avila

Practical prayer is harder on the soles of your shoes than on the knees of your trousers.

— Austin O'Malley

When you pray for anyone you tend to modify your personal attitude toward him.

— Norman Vincent Peale

We are all weak, finite, simple human beings, standing in the need of prayer. None need it so much as those who think they are strong, those who know it not, but are deluded by self-sufficiency.

— Harold C. Phillips

Praying without ceasing is not ritualized, nor are there even words. It is a constant state of awareness of oneness with God.

— Peace Pilgrim

One hour in the execution of justice is worth seventy years of prayer.

— Proverb

No one can pray well, but those who live well.

— Proverb

Short prayers reach heaven.

— Proverb

Ask God for what man can give, and you may get it.

— English Proverb

When we take one step toward to God, he takes seven steps toward us.

— Indian Proverb

Pray that you will never have to bear all that you are able to endure.

— Jewish Proverb

Pray to God but continue to row to the shore.

— Russian Proverb

Prayer and practice is good rhyme.

— Scottish Proverb

Practice in life whatever you pray for and God will give it to you more abundantly.

— Edward Bouverie Pusey

If you can't pray a door open, don't pry it open.

— Lyell Rader

Indeed many things which we shall not be able to discover either by the experiment of works or by the investigations of reason we shall deserve to be taught by importunate prayer, by the revelation of divine inspiration.

— Richard of Saint Victor

Ask God's blessing on your work, but don't ask him to do it for you.

— Dame Flora Robson

It is from prayer that the spirit's victory springs.

— Schillerbuch

Prayer should be short, without giving God Almighty reasons why he should grant this, or that; he knows best what is good for us.

— John Selden

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

— Seneca

We often want one thing and pray for another, not telling the truth even to the gods.

— Seneca

Bow, stubborn knees!

— William Shakespeare

Common people do not pray; they only beg.

— George Bernard Shaw

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

— Socrates

Prayer is talking with God and telling Him you love Him, conversing with God about all the things that are important in life, both large and small, and being assured that He is listening.

— C. Neil Strait

When you lie down with a short prayer, commit yourself into the hands of your Creator; and when you have done so, trust Him with yourself, as you must do when you are dying.

— Jeremy Taylor

Whatsoever we beg of God, let us also work for it.

— Jeremy Taylor

When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't.

— Sir William Temple

Battering the gates of heaven with the storms of prayer.

— Lord Alfred Tennyson

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.

— St. Teresa of Avila

Why is it when we talk to God, we're praying, but when God talks to us, we're schizophrenic?

— Lily Tomlin

If I told you what it takes to reach the highest high you'd laugh and say nothing that simple, but you've been told many times before messiah's point you to the door though no one's got the guts to leave the temple.

— Peter Townsend

Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.

— Martin Tupper

Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.

— Mark Twain

More than once I had seen a noble who had gotten his enemy at a disadvantage stop to pray before cutting his throat.

— Mark Twain

You can't pray a lie.

— Mark Twain