Prayer Quotes

We have collected and put the best Prayer Quotes. Enjoy reading these insights and feel free to share this page on your social media to inspire others.

May these Prayer Quotes inspire you to never give up and keep working towards your goals. Who knows—success could be just around the corner.

Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity (a god), The God or a deified ancestor. More generally, prayer can also have the purpose of thanksgiving or praise, and in comparative religion is closely associated with more abstract forms of meditation and with charms or spells.

See also: Prayer And Worship Page

• Prayer
• What is a Prayer?
• Efficacy of Prayer

Who saves you from the darkness of the land and the sea when you pray in destitute?! – The Holy Quran (6:63)

Who else, other than God, accepts the prayers of the poor and takes care of their problems?! – The Holy Quran (27:62)

‘Grace’ is basically a death prayer. Not something of sorrow, but of just casting away any fear of death. No relief will come – you really just have to stew in your life until it’s time to go. But sometimes, somebody else’s faith in you can do wonders. – Jeff Buckley

Prayer is …

Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness. – Mahatma Gandhi

Prayer is a conversation between you and God. Don’t be afraid to talk to him. Don’t worry about what you will say. Speak from your heart. – Nicky Gumbel

Prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue. To pray effectively, we must listen to God as well as speak. – David Yonggi Cho

Prayer is a form of meditation, isn’t it? It’s laws of attraction: whatever you put out into the universe is what it receives. It’s just kind of putting your thoughts out into the universe. – Anthony Joshua

Prayer is a method practised from ancient days, so it’s very important for us to maintain a spiritual connection, something that people, gladiators would do years ago, so we’re just maintaining that routine. – Anthony Joshua

Prayer is a mighty instrument, not for getting man’s will done in heaven, but for getting God’s will done in earth. – Robert Law

Prayer is a necessity; for it is the life of the soul. – Anonymous

Prayer is a positive force, worry is a negative force. – Joyce Meyers

Prayer is a privilege and the soul’s sincere desire. We can move beyond routine and ‘checklist’ prayers and engage in meaningful prayer as we appropriately ask in faith and act, as we patiently persevere through the trial of our faith, and as we humbly acknowledge and accept ‘not my will, but Thine, be done.’ – David A. Bednar

Prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God and a scourge for Satan. – John Bunyan

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon. – Martin Luther

Prayer is a thought, a belief, a feeling, arising within the mind of the one praying. – Ernest Holmes

Prayer is a way of asking for something. It is the medium of miracles. But the only meaningful prayer is for forgiveness, because those who have been forgiven have everything. – A Course in Miracles

Prayer is aligning ourselves with the purposes of God. – E. Stanley Jones

Prayer is also an act of obedience. We are exhorted to pray for others and to pray without ceasing. – Robin Jones Gunn

Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love. – Saint Teresa of Avila

Prayer is an august avowal of ignorance. – Victor Hugo

Prayer is an exchange. We leave our burdens, worries and sin in the hands of God. We come away with oil of joy and the garment of praise. – F.B. Meyer

Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life. – Jonathan Edwards

Prayer is asking God to align you with His will rather than asking Him to be aligned with yours. – Anonymous

Prayer is bringing your wishes and worries to god, faith is leaving them there. – Anonymous

Prayer is commission. Out of the quietness with God, power is generated that turns the spiritual machinery of the world. When you pray, you begin to feel the sense of being sent, that the divine compulsion is upon you. – E. Stanley Jones

Prayer is commitment. We don’t merely co-operate with God with certain things held back within. We, the total person, co-operate. This means that co-operation equals committment. – E. Stanley Jones

Prayer is essential to your relationship with Jesus. Talk to Him through prayer. – Britt Gillette

Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God. – Edwin Keith

Prayer is God’s backstage pass into a personal audience with Him. – Tony Evans

Prayer is good: but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is naught but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism. – Charles Studd

Prayer is grace. God gives it when there exists zeal and humility… Let Christ not be missing from your heart. – Elder Amphilochios of Patmos

Prayer is man’s greatest power. – W. Clement Stone

Prayer is more than meditation. In meditation, the source of strength is one’s self. When one prays, he goes to a source of strength greater than his own. – Madame de Stael

Prayer is not a preparation for the battle; it is the battle! – Leonard Ravenhill

Prayer is not a substitute for work. First we have to do all we can ourselves to understand a situation. Then when we ask for help, sometimes it is very evident, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes we may well be helped by not getting a decision. – George W. Romney

Prayer is not about letting God know your will; it’s about completely submitting to him. You die to yourself. – Mark Batterson

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 not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts. – Mother Teresa

Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul. – Hannah More

Prayer is not for the enhancement of our comforts but for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. – John Piper

Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble: prayer is a life attitude. – Anonymous

Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue; God’s voice is its most essential part. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that he will listen to mine. – Andrew Murray

Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. – Oswald Chambers

Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness. – Martin Luther

Prayer is not passive. It takes a big man to pray – and to admit that he prays. – Thundercat

Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude—an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God. – Arthur W. Pink

Prayer is not so much the means whereby God’s will is bent to man’s desires, as it is that whereby man’s will is bent to God’s desires. – Charles Bent

Prayer is not the least we can do; it is the most. – John Blanchard

Prayer is omnipotent: its breath can melt adamantine rocks – its touch can break the stoutest chains. – William Lloyd Garrison

Prayer is one of the greatest assets that a Christian could possess, but sometimes it seems to be a real challenge to make it a full part of our devotional life. – Brian Johnston

Prayer is one of the strongest tools we have for dealing with our problems and difficulties. By offering our prayers up to God, we allow Him to work in our lives and open ourselves up to far more blessings than we could ever ask for or imagine. – Asley Myer

Prayer is one way in which we can put others’ needs before our own. – Brian Johnston

Prayer is our invitation to God to intervene in the affairs of earth. It is our request for Him to work His ways in this world. – Myles Munroe

Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts. – Mother Teresa

Prayer is putting oneself under God’s influence. – Harry Emerson Fosdick

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God. – Billy Graham

Prayer is simply talking to God like a friend and should be the easiest thing we do each day. – Joyce Meyer

Prayer is so complicated. – Rachel Kushner

Prayer is something that you may engage in more than you think. It can give us courage and hope to face life’s challenges. – Byron Pulsifer

Prayer is such a basic foundation of a Christian’s relationship with God. It’s how we communicate and fellowship with Him. But a surprising number of people, young and old, new and even long-time Christians, say they’re not satisfied with their prayer life. – Joyce Meyer

Prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening to God. – C. Ingraham-Brown

Prayer is talking with God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. – Josh McDowell

Prayer is that mightiest of all weapons that created natures can wield. – Martin Luther

Prayer is the barometer of the church. – Thomas V. Moore

Prayer is the beginning and the end, the source and the fruit, the core and the content, the basis and the goal of all peacemaking. – Henri Nouwen

Prayer is the breath of faith. Prayer meetings are the lungs of the church. – C. H. Spurgeon

Prayer is the breath of the new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it. – Rowland Hill

Prayer is the cure for a confused mind, a weary soul, a sickness, and a broken heart. – Anonymous

Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. – Oswald Chambers

Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister. Pray, then my dear brother; pray, pray, pray. – Edward Payson

Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history, and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by supplication. – Charles Spurgeon

Prayer is the God-given communication link between Heaven and Earth, time and eternity, the finite and the infinite. – Tony Evans

Prayer is the greater work. – Oswald Chambers

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. – Mahatma Gandhi

Prayer is the key to Heaven, but faith unlocks the door. – Anonymous

Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. – Anonymous

Prayer is the link that connects us with God. – A.B. Simpson

Prayer is the means of sustaining a faith that at times can grow weak. The power of prayer is enriching, uplifting to hear our God speak. – Greta Zwaan

Prayer is the medium of miracles. It is a means of communication of the created with the Creator. Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed. – A Course in Miracles

Prayer is the medium of miracles; in whatever way works for you, pray right now. – Marianne Williamson

Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God. – Henri Nouwen

Prayer is the most important conversation of the day. Take it to God before you take it to anyone else. – Anonymous

Prayer is the most important thing that I do. – Wayne Huizenga

Prayer is the most important thing you can do as a father. – Derek Polen

Prayer is the nearest approach to God. – William Law

Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy. – John Piper

Prayer is the pillow of religion. – Proverb

Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness. – St John of Chrysostom

Prayer is the portal that brings the power of heaven down to earth. It is kryptonite to the enemy and to all his ploys against you. – Priscilla Shirer

Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence. – Martin Farquhar Tupper

Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth. – Philip James Bailey

Prayer is the voice of faith. – Anonymous

Prayer is thinking and thanking. It is thinking of our many blessings and accepting them with a thankful spirit. – Wilferd A. Peterson

Prayer is to be a time of separation from the world in order to be with God. It occurs when we surrender our schedules, our priorities, and ourselves to the joy of drawing near to our Father in heaven. – Charles Stanley

Prayer is to religion what thinking is to philosophy. – Novalis

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

Prayer is when you talk to God. Meditation is when god talks to you. – Anonymous

Prayer is when you talk to God. Meditation is when you’re listening. Playing the piano allows you to do both at the same time. – Kelsey Grammer

Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God. – Anonymous

Prayer is where the action is. – John Wesley

Prayer and dependence on God has been our history. How unfortunate it is now that an unaccountable and unelected and misguided judge from Wisconsin, Judge Barbara Crabb, has declared National Days of Prayer – established by the Congress – to be unconstitutional. – James Dobson

Prayer as it comes from the saint is weak and languid; but when the arrow of a saint’s prayer is put into the bow of Christ’s intercession it pierces the throne of grace. – Thomas Watson

Prayer at its highest is a two-way conversation and for me the most important part is listening to God’s replies. – Frank C. Laubach

Prayer becomes more meaningful as we counsel with the Lord in all of our doings, as we express heartfelt gratitude, and as we pray for others. – David A. Bednar

Prayer begins where human capacity ends. – Marian Anderson

Prayer can also give us the grace we need to endure trouble and be brought much closer to God. – Greg Laurie

Prayer changes everything. – Anonymous

Prayer creates a personal change in your life. Nothing you can do will benefit you more than prayer. – David Yonggi Cho

Prayer delights God’s ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul. – Thomas Watson

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. – Soren Kierkegaard

Prayer does not change God, it changes us. It deepens insight, increases intuitive perception, expands consciousness. It transforms personality. – Wilferd A. Peterson

Prayer does not enable us to do a greater work for God. Prayer is a greater work for God. – Thomas Chalmers

Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work. – Oswald Chambers

Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn’t burn up any fossil fuel, doesn’t pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance. – Margaret Mead

Prayer doesn’t just change things – it changes us. If we are diligent in seeking God, slowly and surely we become better people. – Joyce Meyer

Prayer doesn’t work because someone out there is listening, it works because someone in here is listening. I’ve paid attention. I’ve pictured what I want to happen in my life. I’ve meditated extensively on my family, my future, my past actions and what did and didn’t work for me about them. – Adam Savage

Prayer doesn’t just change things – it changes us. If we are diligent in seeking God, slowly and surely we become better people. – Joyce Meyer

Prayer exercises your willpower and gives God authority to work in your life. – Max Lucado

Prayer for many is like a foreign land. When we go there, we go as tourists. Like most tourists, we feel uncomfortable and out of place. Like most tourists, we therefore move on before too long and go somewhere else. – Robert McAfee Brown

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself. – William Inge

Prayer has comforted us in sorrow and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead. – Anonymous

Prayer holds together the shattered fragments of the creation. It makes history possible. – Jacques Ellul

Prayer in a combat zone serves exactly the same purpose as it does in peacetime. In war, the stakes are life and death, true; but if you believe in God and in the notion of a human soul, then we are always making decisions of tremendous significance. – Phil Klay

Prayer in any form is efficacious because it is an action. It will, therefore, have a result. That is the law of this universe in which we find ourselves. – Dayananda Saraswati

Prayer in its highest form is agonizing soul sweat. – Leonard Ravenhill

Prayer in private results in boldness in public. – Edwin Louis Cole

Prayer in the hour of need is a great boon. From simple trials to our Gethsemanes, prayer – persistent prayer – can put us in touch with God, our greatest source of comfort and counsel. – Ezra Taft Benson

Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand. – Hippocrates

Prayer lays hold of God’s plan and becomes the link between his will and its accomplishment on earth. Amazing things happen, and we are given the privilege of being the channels of the Holy Spirit’s prayer. – Elisabeth Elliot

Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things. – Anonymous

Prayer may not get us what we want, but it will teach us to want what we need. – Vance Havner

Prayer means that the total you is praying. Your whole being reaches out to God, and God reaches down to you. – E. Stanley Jones

Prayer meetings are the throbbing machinery of the church. – C. H. Spurgeon

Prayer might not change your circumstances, but it will always change you. – Anonymous

Prayer must carry on our work as much as preaching; he preacheth not heartily to his people that will not pray for them. – Richard Baxter

Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God. – John Buchan

Prayer preserves temperance, suppresses anger, restrains pride and envy, draws down the Holy Spirit into the soul and raises man to heaven. – St Ephraim the Syrian

Prayer provides an opportunity to remind oneself of how one should be living, our responsibilities to others, our own failings, and our relative good fortune, should we have it. This is, I think, a pretty worthwhile practice and it is not something you can only do if you believe you are talking to an unseen creator. – Julian Baggini

Prayer reminds me it’s not just about me. It’s about all the people with whom I share this planet, and all of whom God has created, and all of whom he cares just as much about as he cares about me. – Mike Huckabee

Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. – Adam Clarke

Prayer sensitizes us to subtle changes in the landscape of our circumstances. When he begins to move, we are apt to recognize it. Praying almost ensures we won’t miss opportunities God brings our way. – Andy Stanley

Prayer should always be our first response to every situation. – Joyce Meyers

Prayer should be fundamental, not supplemental. – William J. C. White

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

Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night. – George Herbert

Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer. – John Bunyan

Prayer – the key to all the treasures of this life and the hereafter. – Anonymous

Prayer – the world’s greatest wireless connection. – Anonymous

Prayer’s important, not just as some kind of a metaphysical exercise, but I think it’s a way to refresh one’s own mind and motive. If you’re praying, you’re really looking beyond your own personal thoughts and the pressures that are around you. – Mike Huckabee

Prayer, among sane people, has never superseded practical efforts to secure the desired end. – George Santayana

Prayer, at its most basic level, was surrender. Like Jesus in the garden, saying, Not My will, but Yours, be done. – The ironic thing was, when a person surrendered their will, they got God’s, and then they received what they were really looking for all along. This was what she believed. – Chris Fabry

Prayer, it is the very natural breath of faith. – William Gurnall

Prayer: the key of the day and the lock of the night. – Thomas Fuller

Prayer: The World’s Greatest Wireless Connection. – Anonymous

Prayers are personal. No third party can ever express what’s on your heart or write in your unique lingo or dialect, but when it seems the whole world is attempting to make this holy Advent and Christmastide one huge commercial, with very little spiritual content, don’t join in – talk to your heavenly Father about it. – Paul M Miller

Prayers don’t need to be long and eloquent. They need only come from a sincere and humble heart. – Anonymous

Prayers not felt by us are seldom heard by God. – Philip Henry

Prayer Quotes From The Bible

Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’ – Matthew 6:9-13

And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. – 1 John 5:15

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. – Ephesians 6:18

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. – 1 John 5:14-15

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. – Romans 12:12

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. – Isaiah 65:24

But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. – Luke 6:27-28

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. – Matthew 5:44

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. – Romans 12:2

He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. – Psalm 102:17

Hear the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive. – 2 Chronicles 6:21

I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer. – Psalm 17:6

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. – Ephesians 1:18

I wanted to be a guitar player and musician so badly, and I prayed to get this the very few times I went to church, and I feel like I got my prayer answered. – John 5

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. – John 15:7

In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. – Psalm 18:6

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. – James 5:13

Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. – 1 Chronicles 16:11

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. – John 17:15

Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him. – Proverbs 15:8

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. – Jeremiah 29:12

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. – James 5:16

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. – Mark 11:24

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. – James 5:16

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. – 1 John 5:14

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. – Matthew 26:41

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. – Psalm 34:17

Prayer Quotes From The Holy Quran

Surah Baqarah:

2:3-4 Who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them, And who believe in what has been revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you, and of the Hereafter they are certain [in faith].

2:43 And establish prayer and give zakah and bow with those who bow [in worship and obedience].

2:45 And seek help through patience and prayer, and indeed, it is difficult except for the humbly submissive [to Allah]

2:83 And [recall] when We took the covenant from the Children of Israel, [enjoining upon them], “Do not worship except Allah ; and to parents do good and to relatives, orphans, and the needy. And speak to people good [words] and establish prayer and give zakah.” Then you turned away, except a few of you, and you were refusing.

2:110 And establish prayer and give zakah, and whatever good you put forward for yourselves – you will find it with Allah. Indeed, Allah of what you do, is Seeing.

2:153 O you who have believed, seek help through patience and prayer. Indeed, Allah is with the patient.

2:177 Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the traveler, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who] establishes prayer and gives zakah; [those who] fulfill their promise when they promise; and [those who] are patient in poverty and hardship and during battle. Those are the ones who have been true, and it is those who are the righteous.

2:238 Maintain with care the [obligatory] prayers and [in particular] the middle prayer and stand before Allah, devoutly obedient.

2:239 And if you fear [an enemy, then pray] on foot or riding. But when you are secure, then remember Allah [in prayer], as He has taught you that which you did not [previously] know.

2:277 Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds and establish prayer and give zakah will have their reward with their Lord, and there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.

Surah An-Nisa:

4:43 O you who have believed, do not approach prayer while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying or in a state of janabah, except those passing through [a place of prayer], until you have washed [your whole body]. And if you are ill or on a journey or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself or you have contacted women and find no water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and your hands [with it]. Indeed, Allah is ever Pardoning and Forgiving.

4:77 Have you not seen those who were told, “Restrain your hands [from fighting] and establish prayer and give zakah”? But then when fighting was ordained for them, at once a party of them feared men as they fear Allah or with [even] greater fear. They said, “Our Lord, why have You decreed upon us fighting? If only You had postponed [it for] us for a short time.” Say, The enjoyment of this world is little, and the Hereafter is better for he who fears Allah. And injustice will not be done to you, [even] as much as a thread [inside a date seed].”

4:101 And when you travel throughout the land, there is no blame upon you for shortening the prayer, [especially] if you fear that those who disbelieve may disrupt [or attack] you. Indeed, the disbelievers are ever to you a clear enemy.

4:102 And when you are among them and lead them in prayer, let a group of them stand [in prayer] with you and let them carry their arms. And when they have prostrated, let them be [in position] behind you and have the other group come forward which has not [yet] prayed and let them pray with you, taking precaution and carrying their arms. Those who disbelieve wish that you would neglect your weapons and your baggage so they could come down upon you in one [single] attack. But there is no blame upon you, if you are troubled by rain or are ill, for putting down your arms, but take precaution. Indeed, Allah has prepared for the disbelievers a humiliating punishment.

4:103 And when you have completed the prayer, remember Allah standing, sitting, or [lying] on your sides. But when you become secure, re-establish [regular] prayer. Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specified times.

4:142-143 Indeed, the hypocrites [think to] deceive Allah, but He is deceiving them. And when they stand for prayer, they stand lazily, showing [themselves to] the people and not remembering Allah except a little, Wavering between them, [belonging] neither to the believers nor to the disbelievers. And whoever Allah leaves astray – never will you find for him a way.

4:162 But those firm in knowledge among them and the believers believe in what has been revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what was revealed before you. And the establishers of prayer [especially] and the givers of zakah and the believers in Allah and the Last Day – those We will give a great reward.

Surah Maidah:

5:6 O you who have believed, when you rise to [perform] prayer, wash your faces and your forearms to the elbows and wipe over your heads and wash your feet to the ankles. And if you are in a state of janabah, then purify yourselves. But if you are ill or on a journey or one of you comes from the place of relieving himself or you have contacted women and do not find water, then seek clean earth and wipe over your faces and hands with it. Allah does not intend to make difficulty for you, but He intends to purify you and complete His favor upon you that you may be grateful.

5:12 And Allah had already taken a covenant from the Children of Israel, and We delegated from among them twelve leaders. And Allah said, “I am with you. If you establish prayer and give zakah and believe in My messengers and support them and loan Allah a goodly loan, I will surely remove from you your misdeeds and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow. But whoever of you disbelieves after that has certainly strayed from the soundness of the way.”

5:55 Your ally is none but Allah and [therefore] His Messenger and those who have believed – those who establish prayer and give zakah, and they bow [in worship].

5:58 And when you call to prayer, they take it in ridicule and amusement. That is because they are a people who do not use reason.

5:91 Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?

5:106 O you who have believed, testimony [should be taken] among you when death approaches one of you at the time of bequest – [that of] two just men from among you or two others from outside if you are traveling through the land and the disaster of death should strike you. Detain them after the prayer and let them both swear by Allah if you doubt [their testimony, saying], “We will not exchange our oath for a price, even if he should be a near relative, and we will not withhold the testimony of Allah . Indeed, we would then be of the sinful.”

Surah Al-Anam:

6:72 And to establish prayer and fear Him.” And it is He to whom you will be gathered.

6:92 And this is a Book which We have sent down, blessed and confirming what was before it, that you may warn the Mother of Cities and those around it. Those who believe in the Hereafter believe in it, and they are maintaining their prayers.

6:162 Say, “Indeed, my prayer, my rites of sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Surah Al-A’raf:

7:170 But those who hold fast to the Book and establish prayer – indeed, We will not allow to be lost the reward of the reformers.

Surah Al-Anfal:

8:3 The ones who establish prayer, and from what We have provided them, they spend.

Surah Taubah:

9:5 And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

9:11 But if they repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, then they are your brothers in religion; and We detail the verses for a people who know.

9:18 The mosques of Allah are only to be maintained by those who believe in Allah and the Last Day and establish prayer and give zakah and do not fear except Allah, for it is expected that those will be of the [rightly] guided.

9:54 And what prevents their expenditures from being accepted from them but that they have disbelieved in Allah and in His Messenger and that they come not to prayer except while they are lazy and that they do not spend except while they are unwilling.

9:71 The believing men and believing women are allies of one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those – Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise.

Surah Yunus:

10:87 And We inspired to Moses and his brother, “Settle your people in Egypt in houses and make your houses [facing the] qiblah and establish prayer and give good tidings to the believers.”

Surah Hud:

11:87 They said, “O Shu’ayb, does your prayer command you that we should leave what our fathers worship or not do with our wealth what we please? Indeed, you are the forbearing, the discerning!”

11:114 And establish prayer at the two ends of the day and at the approach of the night. Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds. That is a reminder for those who remember.

Surah Hud:

13: 22 And those who are patient, seeking the countenance of their Lord, and establish prayer and spend from what We have provided for them secretly and publicly and prevent evil with good – those will have the good consequence of [this] home –

Surah Ibrahim:

14:31 [O Muhammad], tell My servants who have believed to establish prayer and spend from what We have provided them, secretly and publicly, before a Day comes in which there will be no exchange, nor any friendships.

14:37 Our Lord, I have settled some of my descendants in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House, our Lord, that they may establish prayer. So make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful.

14:40 My Lord, make me an establisher of prayer, and [many] from my descendants. Our Lord, and accept my supplication.

Surah Al-Isra:

17:78 Establish prayer at the decline of the sun [from its meridian] until the darkness of the night and [also] the Qur’an of dawn. Indeed, the recitation of dawn is ever witnessed.

17:79 And from [part of] the night, pray with it as additional [worship] for you; it is expected that your Lord will resurrect you to a praised station.

17:110 Say, “Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful. Whichever [name] you call – to Him belong the best names.” And do not recite [too] loudly in your prayer or [too] quietly but seek between that an [intermediate] way.

Surah Maryam:

19:30-32 [Jesus] said, “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive And [made me] dutiful to my mother, and He has not made me a wretched tyrant.

19:55 And he used to enjoin on his people prayer and zakah and was to his Lord pleasing.

19:59-60 But there came after them successors who neglected prayer and pursued desires; so they are going to meet evil – Except those who repent, believe and do righteousness; for those will enter Paradise and will not be wronged at all.

Surah Ta-Ha:

20:14 Indeed, I am Allah. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me and establish prayer for My remembrance.

20:132 And enjoin prayer upon your family [and people] and be steadfast therein. We ask you not for provision; We provide for you, and the [best] outcome is for [those of] righteousness.

Surah Al-Muzzamil:

21:73 And We made them leaders guiding by Our command. And We inspired to them the doing of good deeds, establishment of prayer, and giving of zakah; and they were worshippers of Us.

Surah Al-Hajj:

22:25 Who, when Allah is mentioned, their hearts are fearful, and [to] the patient over what has afflicted them, and the establishers of prayer and those who spend from what We have provided them.

22:41 [And they are] those who, if We give them authority in the land, establish prayer and give zakah and enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. And to Allah belongs the outcome of [all] matters.

22:78 And strive for Allah with the striving due to Him. He has chosen you and has not placed upon you in the religion any difficulty. [It is] the religion of your father, Abraham. Allah named you “Muslims” before [in former scriptures] and in this [revelation] that the Messenger may be a witness over you and you may be witnesses over the people. So establish prayer and give zakah and hold fast to Allah . He is your protector; and excellent is the protector, and excellent is the helper.

Surah Al-Mu’minun:

23:1-5 Certainly will the believers have succeeded: They who are during their prayer humbly submissive And they who turn away from ill speech And they who are observant of zakah And they who guard their private parts

Surah An-Nur:

24:37 [Are] men whom neither commerce nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah and performance of prayer and giving of zakah. They fear a Day in which the hearts and eyes will [fearfully] turn about –

24:41 Do you not see that Allah is exalted by whomever is within the heavens and the earth and [by] the birds with wings spread [in flight]? Each [of them] has known his [means of] prayer and exalting [Him], and Allah is Knowing of what they do.

24:56 And establish prayer and give zakah and obey the Messenger – that you may receive mercy.

24:58 O you who have believed, let those whom your right hands possess and those who have not [yet] reached puberty among you ask permission of you [before entering] at three times: before the dawn prayer and when you put aside your clothing [for rest] at noon and after the night prayer. [These are] three times of privacy for you. There is no blame upon you nor upon them beyond these [periods], for they continually circulate among you – some of you, among others. Thus does Allah make clear to you the verses; and Allah is Knowing and Wise.

Surah An-Naml:

27:3 Who establish prayer and give zakah, and of the Hereafter they are certain [in faith].

Surah Ankabut:

29:45 Recite, [O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you of the Book and establish prayer. Indeed, prayer prohibits immorality and wrongdoing, and the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do.

Surah Ar-Rum:

30:31 [Adhere to it], turning in repentance to Him, and fear Him and establish prayer and do not be of those who associate others with Allah

Surah Luqman:

31:4 Who establish prayer and give zakah, and they, of the Hereafter, are certain [in faith].

31:17 O my son, establish prayer, enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong, and be patient over what befalls you. Indeed, [all] that is of the matters [requiring] determination.

Surah Ahzab:

33:33 And abide in your houses and do not display yourselves as [was] the display of the former times of ignorance. And establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah intends only to remove from you the impurity [of sin], O people of the [Prophet’s] household, and to purify you with [extensive] purification.

33:56 Allah sends His Salat (Graces, Honours, Blessings, Mercy, etc.) on the Prophet (Muhammad SAW) and also His angels too (ask Allah to bless and forgive him). O you who believe! Send your Salat on (ask Allah to bless) him (Muhammad SAW), and (you should) greet (salute) him with the Islamic way of greeting (salutation i.e. AsSalamu ‘Alaikum).

Surah Fatir:

35:18 And no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another. And if a heavily laden soul calls [another] to [carry some of] its load, nothing of it will be carried, even if he should be a close relative. You can only warn those who fear their Lord unseen and have established prayer. And whoever purifies himself only purifies himself for [the benefit of] his soul. And to Allah is the [final] destination.

Surah Ghafir:

40:55 So be patient, [O Muhammad]. Indeed, the promise of Allah is truth. And ask forgiveness for your sin and exalt [Allah] with praise of your Lord in the evening and the morning.

Surah Ash-Shura:

42:38-40 And those who answer the call of their Lord and establish worship, and whose affairs are a matter of counsel, and who spend of what We have bestowed on them, And those who, when tyranny strikes them, they defend themselves, And the retribution for an evil act is an evil one like it, but whoever pardons and makes reconciliation – his reward is [due] from Allah . Indeed, He does not like wrongdoers.

Surah Mujadilah:

58:13 Have you feared to present before your consultation charities? Then when you do not and Allah has forgiven you, then [at least] establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. And Allah is Acquainted with what you do.

Surah Jumu’ah:

62:9 O you who have believed, when [the adhan] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumu’ah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allah and leave trade. That is better for you, if you only knew.

62:10 And when the prayer has been concluded, disperse within the land and seek from the bounty of Allah, and remember Allah often that you may succeed.

Surah Ma’arij:

70:19-23 Indeed, mankind was created anxious: When evil touches him, impatient, And when good touches him, withholding [of it], Except the observers of prayer – Those who are constant in their prayer

70:34-35 And those who [carefully] maintain their prayer: They will be in gardens, honored.

Surah Al-Muzzamil:

73:20 Indeed, your Lord knows, [O Muhammad], that you stand [in prayer] almost two thirds of the night or half of it or a third of it, and [so do] a group of those with you. And Allah determines [the extent of] the night and the day. He has known that you [Muslims] will not be able to do it and has turned to you in forgiveness, so recite what is easy [for you] of the Qur’an. He has known that there will be among you those who are ill and others traveling throughout the land seeking [something] of the bounty of Allah and others fighting for the cause of Allah. So recite what is easy from it and establish prayer and give zakah and loan Allah a goodly loan. And whatever good you put forward for yourselves – you will find it with Allah. It is better and greater in reward. And seek forgiveness of Allah. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.

Surah Al-Muddaththir:

74:40-45 [Who will be] in gardens, questioning each other About the criminals, [And asking them], “What put you into Saqar (hell)?” They will say, “We were not of those who prayed, Nor did we used to feed the poor. And we used to enter into vain discourse with those who engaged [in it],

Surah Al-Bayyina:

98:5 And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, [being] sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give zakah. And that is the correct religion.

Surah Al-Maun:

107:4-6 So, Woe to those performers of Salah, [But] who are heedless of their prayer – Those who make show [of their deeds]

Quotes About Everyday Praying

You live 24 hours a day, you work 8 hours a day, you sleep 8 hours a day, what do you do with the other 8! Put that into years. You live 60 years: you sleep 20 years, you work 20 years, what do you do with the other 20! – Leonard Ravenhill

A day without prayer is a day without blessing, and a life without prayer is a life without power. – Edwin Harvey

About four days a week, I do pretty good at having a morning prayer time. But even at that, it’s a rambling sort of thing. What I have learned to do better is to try to keep my mind turned toward God and ear inclined toward God throughout the day, and I think I’m doing better at that, but I’ve got a long way to go. – Max Lucado

Accustom yourself gradually to carry Prayer into all your daily occupation — speak, act, work in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be. – François Fénelon

All I did was pray to God, every day. In prison camp, the main prayer was, ‘Get me home alive, God, and I’ll seek you and serve you.’ I came home, got wrapped up in the celebration, and forgot about the hundreds of promises I’d made to God. – Louis Zamperini

All I’m saying is, is God the god who we look to for comfort during tragedies? Is he the god who can control all those things, or is he the god that we don’t even trust with our daily lives… As long as there’s prayer and exams, as long as there’s games, there will be prayers. – Benjamin Watson

Always start the day with prayer. It is the greatest of all mind conditioners. – Norman Vincent Peale

An authentic life is the most personal form of worship. Everyday life has become my prayer. – Sarah Ban Breathnach

At the end of the day, when I kick back with some barbecue and a CokeZero in front of a blockbuster film playing within the convenience of my fully air-conditioned house, I’ll say a small prayer thanking God for the American culture. – Steven Crowder

Before I go to those teams, I say, ‘Hey, I’m a Muslim and I have to pray five times a day.’ And they respect it so much that they give me a prayer room. So before the game, after the game, before practice, before I fly out, I can go to that room whenever I want and pray. – Enes Kanter

Begin each day with private reading of the Word and prayer. – Jim Elliot

Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach. – Woodrow Wilson

Daily prayers to God should never be seen as a task. It should be a necessity in our life just as air is a necessity for us in order to breathe and live. – Oliver Powell

Discipline is not consistency, and the reason why I say that is – like, for an example, making prayer five times a day, that establishes routine and consistency. That I can do. And having certain fundamental consistencies in business, can do. But time management, outside of that, that’s where that’s a challenge. – Ali Shaheed Muhammad

Don’t forget to pray today, because God didn’t forget to wake you up this morning. – Anonymous

Every single morning, I have a person sitting right there next to me in prayer with a tape recorder – and a song comes up every day. – Andrae Crouch

Exercise, prayer, and meditation are examples of calming rituals. They have been shown to induce a happier mood and provide a positive pathway through life’s daily frustrations. – Chuck Norris

Find out what works for you, whether it’s exercise, gardening, prayer, cooking, reading or any other activity that engages you and your family in positive acclivities and plan these activities into your day. – Karen Pence

For most of us, I believe, to withdraw daily from the conflict to recharge our spiritual batteries, to step away from overbearing responsibilities, to meet God in His word and on our knees in prayer, is the best preparation to face the challenges of life. – David Packer

God will lead you where He wants you to be, but you have to talk to Him daily to see where He wants you to go. The key is prayer. – Anonymous

Guantanamo Bay can be and has been visited repeatedly by the International Red Cross and other human-rights groups for observation in an open, regular, and transparent manner. Detainees receive the same medical care as the guard force and are able to participate in their daily prayer sessions. – Tom Cotton

Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down. – John Wesley

Heavenly Father has given a simple pattern for us to receive the Holy Ghost not once but continually in the tumult of our daily lives. The pattern is repeated in the sacramental prayer: We promise that we will always remember the Savior. We promise to take His name upon us. We promise to keep His commandments. – Henry B. Eyring

Here is the secret of Jesus’ life and work for God: He prayerfully waited for His Father’s instructions and for the strength to follow them. Jesus had no divinely-drawn blueprint; He discerned the Father’s will day by day in a life of prayer. – Charles E. Hummel

I also would like to encourage you to pray over and pray with your children daily, no matter how young they are. The prayers you pray stick with them all throughout their life. – Brandon Harrison

I always said a prayer before I ran, and my prayer was to win. My prayer was that God would allow me to run my best on that day, or better than my best. So whatever the outcome is, I have to be satisfied with it if I know I gave it my best effort. – Gail Devers

I balance with prayer and music. I sing every day. – Aaron Neville

I begin each day with prayer and meditation. Throughout the day, I use affirmations and positive intentions to move through blocks, and each evening, I close the day with self-reflection and an inventory of my growth throughout the day. – Gabrielle Bernstein

I can remember coming downstairs before school every day and my mom would be reading her Bible and doing her devotion and praying. Both my parents were prayer warriors. – Mike Fisher

I couldn’t imagine not talking to God each day. It’s during my prayers when I feel closest to Him. – Buffy Andrews

I do get up in the morning and I try to spend at least half an hour meditating and reading something spiritual. I start my day with meditation and prayer, and I truly believe that all the stuff you do on the outside isn’t as important as what you do on the inside. – Alana Stewart

I envy Muslims their practice of regular and genuine prayer. It’s a beautiful practice that enriches their daily lives. – Jay Parini

I get up earlier than my husband and I intentionally spend time in prayer and Bible reading just to focus myself for the day, because the days get crazy. – Anne Graham Lotz

I had one request when I started doing the plays. My prayer was, ‘God, let me do well enough to be able to take care of my mother.’ I was able to do that ’til the day she died because of my audience. – Tyler Perry

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day. – Abraham Lincoln

I have never been religious. I talk to God every day, but He’s never said a word to me about religion! I think the most powerful prayer is surrender. – Raymond Moody

I homeschool, so the start of the day is reading Bible scripture, memorization, and prayer. – Jodi Benson

I pray quite a bit, actually. And even if you don’t believe in prayer, just have a go. Pray for a good day, or just pray for your friend, or whatever it might be. And it’s amazing, man, ’cause it absolutely works. I guarantee, it genuinely does work. – Rob Halford

I pray to start my day and finish it in prayer. – Tim Tebow

I pray to start my day and finish it in prayer. I’m just thankful for everything, all the blessings in my life, trying to stay that way. I think that’s the best way to start your day and finish your day. It keeps everything in perspective. – Tim Tebow

I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. – George Mueller

I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished…. I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation of it. – George Mueller

I say a prayer several times a day about what I can control and what I can’t control. – Courtney A. Kemp

I still remember the days I prayed for the things I have now. – Anonymous

I still say the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ every day. It covers a lot of ground in our relation to the world. – Rupert Sheldrake

I think faith is the small mustard seed of opportunities every day. For example, ‘Am I going to love this person? Am I going to share my faith with this person? Am I going to pray that little prayer?’ It really is a daily thing where you seize those little mustard seed opportunities and then see what God does. – Mark Batterson

I think you grow wherever God plants you. I hope I’m growing as a person of faith, as a Christian. That should be our number one objective this journey of life. That all starts with a personal intimate relationship with Christ and then being in prayer every single day about all of those things – being tenacious about it. – J. C. Watts

If a minister can lead the Senate in prayer every day… what is so wrong with beginning every day of school with an ecumenical prayer? – Jim Webb

If anyone ever asks you what you do during the day, say you pray, you understand? – Marjane Satrapi

If your day is hemmed in with prayer, it is less likely to come unraveled. – Cynthia Lewis

In Morocco, a Muslim country, I got to hear the call to prayer five times a day. At first it felt kind of scary, kind of dangerous, because of the propaganda towards anything Muslim in the U.S. subconsciously coming out in me. By the end of the trip, it was so beautiful, and then not hearing it when I got back to L.A. really threw me off. – Mark Foster

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus assumes that asking for forgiveness would be a daily occurrence, as would praying that we might be delivered from evil and led not into temptation. – Kevin DeYoung

In the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach. – Woodrow Wilson

It always helps to have a bit of prayer in your back pocket. At the end of the day, you have to have something, and for me, that is God, Jesus, my Catholic upbringing, my faith. – Pierce Brosnan

Just as you wouldn’t leave the house without taking a shower, you shouldn’t start the day without at least 10 minutes of sacred practice: prayer, meditation, inspirational reading. – Marianne Williamson

Just everything that I’ve done, everything that I do, is to this day, all major decisions are all through prayer – all my actions, although a sinner, but you know what? I’m cool with that. – Terry Bradshaw

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

Little of the Word with little prayer is death to the spiritual life. Much of the Word with little prayer gives a sickly life. Much prayer with little of the Word gives more life, but without steadfastness. A full measure of the Word and prayer each day gives healthy and powerful life. – Andrew Murray

Love to pray. Feel often during the day the need for prayer, and take trouble to pray. Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own. – Mother Teresa

Make it your daily ministry to lift him up before your Heavenly Father. He needs a praying wife. Ask God to protect him and to protect your marriage. – Lisa Jacobson

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang. – Maya Angelou

Observe the seven seasons of secret prayer every day. – Adoniram Judson

On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. – Bill Wilson

One cannot help being impressed by the protesters. They have begun each day of the protest in Kiev in prayer and all activities are accomplished with a collective sense of respect, kindness, and an intention to conduct a peaceful revolution. – Bob Schaffer

Open a Jewish daily prayer book used in any part of the world, and Zionism will leap out at you. – Ephraim Mirvis

Part of the beauty of Judaism, and surely this is so for other faiths also, is that it gently restores control over time. Three times a day we stop what we are doing and turn to God in prayer. We recover perspective. We inhale a deep breath of eternity. – Jonathan Sacks

Rather than set aside daily time for prayer, I pray constantly and spontaneously about everything I encounter on a daily basis. When someone shares something with me, I’ll often simply say, ‘let’s pray about this right now.’ – Thomas Kinkade

The circumstances of our lives are another medium of God’s communication with us. God opens some doors and closes others… The happy coincidences and frustrating impasses of daily life are laden with messages. Patient listening and the grace of the Spirit are the decoding devices of prayer. It is a good habit to ask, What is God saying to me in this situation? Listening is part of prayer. – Anonymous

The prayer offered to God in the morning during your quiet time is the key that unlocks the door of the day. Any athlete knows that it is the start that ensures a good finish. – Adrian Rogers

The serenity prayer, ‘God grant me the strength to accept…’ That’s a prayer that’s actually in my car. I say it every day. – Lauren London

The soul is a muscle, and it needs to be exercised a little every day. Say a morning prayer just to say something. – Catherine Hicks

The sweetest time of the day is when you pray. Because you are talking to the one who loves you the most. – Anonymous

There are a lot of farmers and ranchers who are struggling. I get on my knees every day. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it. – Tom Vilsack

When fathers come home after a tough day at work, they should come home to serve, like my father did, teaching lessons around the dinner table and leading the family in worship and prayer. – Tony Evans

When my children were growing up, we began every family meal – which included breakfast and dinner every day – with a prayer. We are Jewish and so it was the prayer over bread, when we were having bread, or the catch-all prayer for everything when we weren’t. – Ezekiel Emanuel

You may pray for an hour and still not pray. You may meet God for a moment and then be in touch with Him all day. – Fredrik Wisloff

Quotes About Power Of Prayer

‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding. – Alice Walker

Change can be accomplished most of all through the power of prayer, because with God all things are possible. – Wilferd A. Peterson

I am walking proof of the power of prayer. – Fabrice Muamba

I believe in God and the power of prayer. – Kris Jenner

I believe people can change and I believe through the power of prayer, God can change people and people’s outlooks. – Ernie Johnson Jr.

I do believe in the power of prayer. – Geraldine Ferraro

I do believe we’re all connected. I do believe in positive energy. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in putting good out into the world. And I believe in taking care of each other. – Harvey Fierstein

I don’t know what in the world happened. I don’t know if it was the power of the prayer or God himself, but it just reached out, either while I was driving or walking down the sidewalk or sleeping, and it just – the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me… All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him! – Evel Knievel

I feel the presence of a higher power. I believe that what you give is what you get. It’s universal law. I believe in the power of prayer and of words. I’ve learned that when you predict that negative things will happen, they do. – Alicia Keys

I know many people that could be described as “Good Christian folk,” and I bet those people have experienced answers to prayer and seen the power of God in their lives. – Mark J. Musser

I think that the power of the Silent Minute lies in its inherent lack of external direction: what participants actually do during that minute – prayer, contemplation, focus – is up to them. – Liz Williams

I’m not proud that, in my time, I’ve tried to harness the power of prayer to fit into a pair of jeans. – Faith Salie

I’ve always believed in the power of prayer. One prayer can accomplish more than a thousand plans. That isn’t a magic formula, but it’s an idea that if you pray, keep praying and then praying some more. – Mark Batterson

My father was an Episcopalian minister, and I’ve always been comforted by the power of prayer. – Anna Lee

Never doubt the power of prayer. – Anonymous

No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it. – Anonymous

Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference. – Max Lucado

The marvellous and supernatural power of prayer consists not in bringing God’s will down to us, but in lifting our will up to his. – Robert Law

The power of prayer and faith in God is something that has guided so many of us in good times and bad. – Kim Reynolds

Today we thank God for all the blessings He has bestowed upon this great Country and ask Him to continue to heal our land and meet our needs – and we do so through the power of prayer. – Nick Rahall

You are stronger than you think, because the power of Almighty God is available to you. Your strength is renewed when you trust in Him. – Kendra Tillman

Short And Powerful Prayer Quotes

‘Safe Harbor’ is a state of mind… it’s the place – in reality or metaphor – to which one goes in times of trouble or worry. It can be a friendship, marriage, church, garden, beach, poem, prayer, or song. – Luanne Rice

A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing. – Anonymous

A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men. – Leonard Ravenhill

A person without prayer is like a tree without roots. – Pope Pius XII

A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward. – Phillips Brooks

A prayerless Christian should be a nonexistent species. – Geoff Treasure

A single grateful thought toward heaven is the most perfect prayer. – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning. – Leonard Ravenhill

All our perils are as nothing, so long as we have prayer. – C. H. Spurgeon

All prayers are answered if we are willing to admit that sometimes the answer is ‘no’. – Anonymous

All the storehouses of God are open to the voice of faith in prayer. – D. M. McIntyre

Amen is not the end of a prayer, it just gets us ready to go to the next level. – Gary Busey

Anything is a blessing which makes us pray. – Charles Spurgeon

As long as algebra is taught in school, there will be prayer in school. – Cokie Roberts

As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools. – Anonymous

As long as we continue living we must continue praying. – Matthew Henry

As we pour out our bitterness, God pours in his peace. – F.B. Meyer

Be thankful that God’s answers are wiser than your answers. – Anonymous

Before prayer changes others, it first changes us. – Billy Graham

Courage is fear that has said its prayers. – Anonymous

Do I pray? Yes. Prayer is very important to me. – Vera Farmiga

Do not neglect secret prayer, for it is the soul of religion. – Ellen G. White

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. – Phillips Brooks

Don’t pray for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs. – Anonymous

Don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines. – Anonymous

Don’t stop praying. He hears you and He is working it out for your good. – Anonymous

Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure. – D. L. Moody

Faith prays, unbelief does not. – Anonymous

Fasting, coupled with mighty prayer, is powerful. – Joseph B. Wirthlin

God answers all prayers, but sometimes his answer is ‘no’. – Dan Brown

God can pick sense out of a confused prayer. – Anonymous

God does not listen to the prayers of the proud. – Hebrew Proverb

God does nothing but prayer, and everything with it. – John Wesley

God hears a mother’s prayer. – Victoria Gotti

God hears our silent prayers. – Anonymous

God knows, we don’t want prayer. – Oliver North

God listen to even the smallest prayers. – Anonymous

God warms his hands at man’s heart when he prays. – John Masefield

God’s answers are wiser than our prayers. – Anonymous

Grow flowers of gratitude in the soil of prayer. – Anonymous

I believe above the storm the smallest prayer will still be heard. – Anonymous

I believe in prayer and in strong belief. – Tina Turner

I believe in prayer. I believe in gratitude and serving people. – Kiran Bedi

I believe in prayer. I pray every night. – John McCain

I believe in prayer. It’s the best way we have to draw strength from heaven. – Josephine Baker

I believe that prayer is our powerful contact with the greatest force in the universe. – Loretta Young

I believe that the greatest form of prayer is praise to God. – Billy Graham

I grew up in the church, and my mom is, like a major prayer warrior. – Rotimi

I grew up in the Holiness Church, where prayer was an event. – Iyanla Vanzant

I had a mother who prayed for me, and prayer changes everything. – Dennis Edwards

I have relied on prayer for health care all of my life. – Henry Paulson

I love prayer candles, and I use them often. – Marianne Williamson

I pray, not wish because I have God, not a genie. – Anonymous

I read a poem every night, as others read a prayer. – Tahar Ben Jelloun

I really believe in prayer. – Shanice Williams

I say a little prayer before I sleep. – Kunal Kapoor

I’ll do a little prayer here and there if I feel the need to. – Jeff Gordon

I’ll tell you right now. I’m for prayer in school. – Kinky Friedman

I’m a true believer in prayer, a big believer in prayer. – Janet Jackson

I’m for prayer in schools. – Charles Evers

If the devil can’t make us bad, he will make us busy. – Anonymous

If weak in prayer, we are weak everywhere. – Leonard Ravenhill

If you can’t pray a door open, don’t pry it open. – Anonymous

If you have time to worry you have time to pray. – Anonymous

If you only pray when you’re in trouble, you’re in trouble. – Anonymous

In worship, God imparts himself to us. – C.S.Lewis

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? – Corrie ten Boom

It is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone. – Hudson Taylor

It’s hard to fall when you are already on your knees. – Anonymous

It’s not that you lack time it’s a lack of desire. – Anonymous

Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart. – Anonymous

Keep praying, even if you have only a whisper left. – Anonymous

Let not our prayers die while our Intercessor lives. – Anonymous

Most people do not pray; they only beg. – Anonymous

Music is a form of prayer. – Toru Takemitsu

My life is one big prayer because my life is one big blessing. – Rekha

My longing for truth was a single prayer. – Edith Stein

My mom taught us the Serenity Prayer at a young age. – Toby Keith

No man is greater than his prayer life. – Leonard Ravenhill

No one has failed who keeps trying and keeps praying. – Anonymous

Our prayers are sometimes answered without us realizing. – Catherine Pulsifer

Our prayers do make a difference. – Max Lucado

Pray hardest when it’s hardest to pray. – Anonymous

Pray not for crutches but for wings. – Phillip Brooks

Pray, and let God worry. – Martin Luther

Prayer delights God’s ear; it melts His heart. – Thomas Watson

Praying doesn’t mean repeating a prayer. – Juanes

Reading is the last act of secular prayer. – Richard Powers

Rich is the person who has a praying friend. – Janice Hughes

Singing is a prayer to me. – Aaron Neville

Sometimes all you need to do is pray. – Anonymous

Tenacious prayer is a lifestyle that produces results. – Tony Evans

The best of it is, God is with us. – John Wesley

The fewer the words, the better the prayer. – Martin Luther

The greatest battles are won when you pray. – Anonymous

The greatest prayer is patience. – Anonymous

The man who kneels to God can stand up to anything. – Louis H. Evans

The man who prays without faith has a radical defect in his character. – H. W. Fulford

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. – Anonymous

The sovereign cure for worry is prayer. – William James

The things you take for granted someone else is praying for. – Anonymous

Time spent in prayer is never wasted. – François Fénelon

To me, writing is prayer. I pray all the time. – Luis Alberto Urrea

To pray well is the better half of study. – Martin Luther

Very few of us know how to fight the right way. – Chris Fabry

Warfare is not prayer! It is in addition to prayer. – Frank Hammond

What is the life of a Christian but a life of prayer? – David Brown

When life is rough pray, when life is great pray. – Anonymous

When life seems more than you can stand, kneel. – Anonymous

When prayers are strongest, mercies are nearest. – Edward Reynolds

When the Christian stops praying the devil shouts for joy. – Anonymous

Wishing will never be a substitute for prayer. – Ed Cole

Within God’s limitations prayer is unlimited. – E. F. Hallock

You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience. – Barnabas

More Prayer Quotes

A beginner must look on himself as one setting out to make a garden for his Lord’s pleasure, on most unfruitful soil which abounds in weeds. His Majesty roots up the weeds and will put in good plants instead. Let us reckon that this is already done when the soul decides to practice prayer and has begun to do so. – Saint Teresa of Avila

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

A couple months before I got the audition for ‘Arrow,’ my husband and I had just sold everything we owned, packed our dogs and belongings into a truck, and moved to Los Angles with a prayer and almost no money. When I ended up booking the role, we both cried from joy and gratitude for a week straight. – Juliana Harkavy

A faithful God does not expect you to do what you cannot; He supplies the needed strength. – Erwin W. Lutzer

A godly man is a praying man. As soon as grace is poured in, prayer is poured out. Prayer is the soul’s traffic with Heaven; God comes down to us by His Spirit, and we go up to Him by prayer. – Thomas Watson

A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself, so that those who govern can govern. But what is the best that we can offer to those who govern? Prayer! – Pope Francis

A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being. – James E. Faust

A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God. – Leonard Ravenhill

A prayer that must have a cannon behind it better never be uttered. Forgiveness ought not to go in partnership with shot and shell. Love need not carry knives and revolvers. – Robert Green Ingersoll

A servant of the Lord stands bodily before men, but mentally he is knocking at the gates of heaven with prayer. – John Climacus

A soul which gives itself to prayer, either much or little, should on no account be kept within narrow bounds. – Saint Teresa of Avila

A walk in nature is a perfect backdrop to combine exercise, prayer, and meditation while enhancing the benefit of these activities. – Chuck Norris

A wise rabbi once told me that it is not how many prayers we don’t say that matters to God, but rather how many we do. – Phyllis Tickle

A word is an arbitrary label – that’s the foundation of linguistics. But many people think otherwise. They believe in word magic: that uttering a spell, incantation, curse, or prayer can change the world. Don’t snicker: Would you ever say, ‘Nothing has gone wrong yet’ without looking for wood to knock? – Steven Pinker

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation. – Will Rogers

Action is the normal completion of the act of will which begins as prayer. That action is not always external, but it is always some kind of effective energy. – William Inge

Acumen Fund is my prayer in response to genocide and what happened in Rwanda. – Jacqueline Novogratz

After much thought and prayer, I have come to my own personal conclusion that we shouldn’t tell people who they can love or who they can marry. – Kay Hagan

All I know is that when I pray, coincidences happen; and when I don’t pray, they don’t happen. – Dan Hayes

All my time not devoted to my master’s service was spent either in prayer, or in making experiments in casting different things in moulds made of earth, in attempting to make paper, gunpowder, and many other experiments, that, although I could not perfect, yet convinced me of its practicability if I had the means. – Nat Turner

All of my babies know that I preach all day… I ain’t trying to hide no light under no bushel. Everybody needs a little light in their life, and when they need prayer, they know where to come because they know I love them all, and I ain’t judging nobody. – Betty Wright

All vital praying makes a drain on a man’s vitality. True intercession is a sacrifice, a bleeding sacrifice. – J.H. Jowett

Although all serious Christians recognize the importance that the Bible places on prayer, most fall short when it comes to doing it. – Tony Evans

Although God’s grace, favor, and honor are freely given, you can pray to receive these benefits in your life. – Jimi Akanbi

Although the ACLU would argue that it is unconstitutional for me, as a public official, to do this in a government building, let alone at a football game, I will end with my prayer for the next administration: Please God, no more Souters. – William H. Pryor

Always pro to have eyes that see the best in people, a heart that forgives the worst, a mind that forgets the bad, and a soul that never loses faith in God. – Anonymous

Always respond to every impulse to pray. The impulse to pray may come when you are reading or when you are battling with a text. I would make an absolute law of this – always obey such an impulse. – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated. – Madalyn Murray O’Hair

An investor doesn’t have a prayer of picking a manager that can deliver true alpha. – Eugene Fama

An unschooled man who knows how to meditate upon the Lord has learned far more than the man with the highest education who does not know how to meditate. – Charles Stanley

And if at night one holds you closely pressed, locked in his prayers so you cannot stray, …..you are the guest …..who comes, but not to stay. – Rainer Maria Rilke

And most important is to pray, which I believe is thinking in its highest form. For then your thoughts are in tune with God, Who sees a lot further down the road than you do. – Norman Vincent Peale

And shall I pray Thee change Thy will, my Father, Until it be according unto mine? But, no, Lord, no, that never shall be, rather I pray Thee blend my human will with Thine. – Amy Carmichael

And while he sought, he cried and prayed and promised everything he could think of. – Selma Lagerlof

Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they’re thirsty. That’s prayer. They don’t live an unconscious life, they simply have no language to talk about these things. But they are grateful for the good things that come along. – Mary Oliver

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. – Corrie Ten Boom

Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon. – George MacDonald

Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts. – Alan Cohen

Arabic is very twisting, very beautiful. The call to prayer is quite haunting; it almost makes you a believer on the spot. – John Updike

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day – like writing a poem or saying a prayer. – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

As a non-believer I don’t get the idea of asking god for things via prayer. – Uday Chopra

As a people of faith, we know that prayer is a powerful instrument. And as one Nation under God, we know that many times our most powerful tool is prayer. – Nick Rahall

As it is the business of tailors to make clothes, and the business of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray! – Martin Luther

As priests uphold their people in prayer, so their people are to uphold them with prayer and love, for he cannot work without his people. – Arthur Middleton

As we regularly spend time reading God’s Word and talking to Him in prayer, we put ourselves in position for Him to do things in our lives we could never do on our own. – Joyce Meyer

As well could you expect a plant to grow without air and water as to expect your heart to grow without prayer and faith. – Charles Spurgeon

As you get in sync with the will of God, you will see that prayer is not getting God to do what you want Him to do, but prayer is getting you to do what God wants you to do. – Greg Laurie

As you read or listen to God’s Word and spend time talking to Him in prayer, your spirit will eventually become stronger than your flesh. – Joyce Meyer

Basically, I’m for anything that gets you through the night – be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels. – Frank Sinatra

Beautiful things comfort; they bring a real clarity and ease. We have to continue to make our environments beautiful – it’s sort of like a prayer. If you surround yourself with beautiful things, you have a better life – one with more oxygen. – Anjelica Huston

Before I do or say anything, I pray. This is the difference between acting and reacting. – David Yonggi Cho

Before I go and even get in an airplane to go on a flight, I say a prayer, and I always think about my family. – Victor J. Glover

Before we can pray, ‘Lord, Thy Kingdom come,’ we must be willing to pray, ‘My Kingdom go.’ – Anonymous

Before we took down the tree each year, Dad would always say a prayer that we would be together the next Christmas. I cling to that prayer, which serves as a reminder that it’s important to be grateful in the present for the people you love because, well, you never know. – Catherine Hicks

Before you go to sleep, run over your personal world mentally and thank God for everyone and everything. – Norman Vincent Peale

Being light is turning the other cheek when you have been offended. Being light is not only publically forgiving a person that would choose to be your enemy, but it’s also including your enemy in your prayers at night. – Matthew Robert Payne

Being listened to and being heard is an experience that doesn’t happen terribly often. To listen compassionately or nonjudgmentally to another person – not to get too heavy about it – but I once heard somebody say that was a form of real prayer. – Gabriel Byrne

Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things ‘above all that we ask or think.’ – Andrew Murray

But prayer is greatly neglected. And this is unfortunate, for the most powerful energy one can generate is prayer energy. – Norman Vincent Peale

But the prayer of repentance is a refuge for the believer. It is the godly response of one who knows that he is in sin. – R.C. Sproul

By consistently praying, you’ll be able to draw closer to God and realign yourself with his plan for your life. No matter where you are in your life, or what you have done, God has a plan for you. – Julia Bristol

By my definition, prayer is consciously hanging out with God. Being with God in a deliberate way. – Malcolm Boyd

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. – Anonymous

Christians demonstrate their faith in God by asking Him to supply their needs and trusting Him to answer their prayers. – Lilliet Garrison

Constantly practice the habit of gazing inwardly upon God. – A.W. Tozer

Continuing a Lenten series on prayer: Prayer is co-operation with God. It is the purest exercise of the faculties God has given us – an exercise that links these faculties with the Maker to work out the intentions He had in mind in their creation. – E. Stanley Jones

Cover this confirmation process with prayer. When they make it harder for us to pray, we just pray harder. – Zell Miller

Dance is like a prayer for me. I will never leave it, when I am dancing I am dancing for my God. – Esha Deol

Dear children in Jesus Christ, prayer is absolutely necessary. – Vincent McNabb

Did not God sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask, we should be ruined at our own request. – Hannah More

Do not exclusively say your prayers in the form of asking God for something. The prayer of thanksgiving is much more powerful. – Norman Vincent Peale

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 task. – Phillips Brooks

Don’t be discouraged if the answer to your prayer does not come immediately. Study, ponder, and pray, sincerely having faith, and live the commandments. – Joseph B. Wirthlin

Don’t let your emotions be your decision maker. Stop and pray, let God lead you. He can change everything. – Anonymous

Don’t think of the things you didn’t get after praying. Think of the countless blessings God gave you without asking. – Anonymous

Don’t worry about having the right words; worry more about having the right heart. It’s not eloquence he seeks, just honesty. – Max Lucado

Dream big. Believe big. Pray big. Make room for God to do something new in your life. – Joel Osteen

Each book I write is a shout into the silence and a prayer and a plea for change. – Jacqueline Woodson

Each heartfelt prayer, each Church meeting attended, each worthy friend, each righteous decision, each act of service perfomed all precede that goal of eternal life. – Thomas S. Monson

Each life is unique. But for all, repentance will surely include passing through the portal of humble prayer. Our Father in Heaven can allow us to feel fully the conviction of our sins. He knows the depths of our remorse. He can then direct what we must do to qualify for forgiveness. – Henry B. Eyring

Every one should find some suitable time, day or night, to sink into his depths, each according to his own fashion. Not every one is able to engage in contemplative prayer. – Johannes Tauler

Every sincere prayer is heard and answered by our Heavenly Father, but the answers we receive may not be what we expect or come to us when we want or in the way we anticipate. – David A. Bednar

Every time before I go into the studio, I say a prayer, and I really ask God for inspiration. – Lindsey Stirling

Every time in my life when I have chosen to delay following inspired counsel or decided that I was an exception, I came to know that I had put myself in harm’s way. Every time that I have listened to the counsel of prophets, felt it confirmed in prayer, and then followed it, I have found that I moved toward safety. – Henry B. Eyring

Every time someone ends a prayer in the Western world they say Amen – that is the name of an Egyptian god associated with completion. So we’re still praying to their gods. – Whitley Strieber

Every true prayer is a prayer of the Church; by means of that prayer the Church prays, since it is the Holy Spirit living in the Church, Who in every single soul ‘prays in us with unspeakable groanings’. – Edith Stein

Every Wednesday, my husband and I have a study group with our friends. I attend church. We try to devote time in the morning, say a prayer. – Carrie Underwood

Everybody needs a little light in their life, and when they need prayer, they know where to come, because they know I love them all, and I ain’t judging nobody. – Betty Wright

Everybody thought I was going to give up after the Destiny’s Child situation. But I’m not one to say, ‘Oh, poor me – it’s over.’ I knew that as long as I kept a strong prayer life, I would be able to fulfil my destiny. – LeToya Luckett

Experience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask for in prayer. – Mary Baker Eddy

Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them. – Mahalia Jackson

Faith is the fountain of prayer, and prayer should be nothing else but faith exercised. – Thomas Manton

Firstly, before every game, I always speak with my mum. She really encourages me a lot. Then, once I’m out on the field, I say a little prayer for my team and for everyone on the field, both sides, so that nothing bad happens, no-one gets injured. – Naby Keita

For hundreds of millions of Americans who believe in God, prayer is our bridge between Earth and Heaven, our way of opening our hearts to the Lord. Through this intimate relationship we find peace and guidance. – Nick Rahall

For Islamist terrorist groups such as ISIS, the holy month of Ramadan – a time of fasting and prayer for the vast majority of Muslims – is seen as a particularly auspicious time to launch terrorist attacks. – Peter Bergen

For me, in my Christian belief, prayer is not an opportunity to manipulate God into doing what you want him to. Prayer is an opportunity to have a conversation with God to try to get in tune with what his will is. – Francis Collins

For me, it is essential to have the inner peace and serenity of prayer in order to listen to the silence of God, which speaks to us, in our personal life and the history of our times, of the power of love. – Adolfo Perez Esquivel

For me, learning is a continuous process and an all-inclusive one – reading a book, learning a musical instrument or learning the martial art called taekwondo. Teach myself something new – that’s my prayer. – Sonu Nigam

For me, making time for God is like making time to fill my stomach – like the physical space in the stomach needs food, spiritual space in one’s soul needs regular prayer. – Kay Kay Menon

For me, prayer is not so much me setting out a shopping list of requests for God to consider as it is a way of ‘keeping company with God.’ – Philip Yancey

For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God. – Mother Teresa

For years, I prayed to the gods of Cao Dai for healing and peace. But as one prayer after another went unanswered, it became clear that either they were nonexistent or they did not care to lend a hand. – Phan Thi Kim Phuc

Ford is such an answered prayer and an absolute blessing. – Virginia Williams

Forgiveness is enshrined in the Lord’s prayer – forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. These scriptures point to the power of forgiveness not only as a way to absolve transgressions but to ensure that the person extending forgiveness will be forgiven of theirs. – Anthea Butler

Forgiving the men who killed my parents and brother was a process, a journey into deeper and deeper prayer. – Immaculee Ilibagiza

Frequent prayer has great value. On its surface, this sounds simplistic. But if we’re to keep prayer at the forefront of our ministry, we and our people have to pray again and again. – Adam Hamilton

From faith, hope, and love, the virtues of religion referring to God, there arises a double act which bears on the spiritual communion exercised between God and us; the hearing of the word and prayer. – William Ames

Get your mind right, get your spirit right, and get your body right. And keep it there. That requires working out; that requires fasting, eating well, prayer, and getting to know who you are. And not bending. – Mya

Getting stress out of your life takes more than prayer alone. You must take action to make changes and stop doing whatever is causing the stress. You can learn to calm down in the way you handle things. – Joyce Meyer

Giving is not just in money either. We can give unconditional love; we can give mercy, our prayers, our talents and services. – Jason Ponzio

God always answers us in the deeps, never in the shallows of our soul. – Amy Carmichael

God can handle your doubt, anger, fear, grief, confusion, and questions. You can bring everything to him in prayer. – Rick Warren

God does hear what we pray. You don’t need a megaphone or a million people to get His attention. But the point of prayer is not to get what we want. Prayer changes the person who prays. – Chris Fabry

God does not delay to hear our prayers because he has no mind to give; but that, by enlarging our desires, he may give us the more largely. – Anselm of Canterbury

God does not stand afar off as I struggle to speak. He cares enough to listen with more than casual attention. He translates my scrubby words and hears what is truly inside. He hears my sighs and uncertain gropings as fine prose. – Timothy Jones

God does nothing except in response to believing prayer. – John Wesley

God gave us two ears and one mouth, so we ought to listen twice as much as we speak. – Anonymous

God has not always answered my prayers. If he had, I would have married the wrong man – several times! – Ruth Bell Graham

God is fighting your battles, arranging things in your favor, and making a way even when you don’t see a way. – Anonymous

God is looking for people to use, and if you can get usable, he will wear you out. The most dangerous prayer you can pray is this: ‘Use me.’ – Rick Warren

God is much in the difficult home problems as in the times of quiet and prayer. – Evelyn Underhill

God is not a vending machine where if you put in enough prayer quarters we get a Reese’s Pieces bag that pops out. – Joel C. Rosenberg

God is waiting eagerly to respond with new strength to each little act of self-control, small disciplines of prayer, feeble searching after him. And his children shall be filled if they will only hunger and thirst after what he offers. – Richard Holloway

God may turn his ears from prattling prayers, or preaching prayers, but never from penitent, believing prayers. – William S. Plumer

God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede. – Oswald Chambers

God says, “Whilst praying, your heart must be at peace before God, and it must be sincere. You are truly communing and praying with God; you must not deceive God using nice-sounding words. – Anonymous

God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil. – Mother Teresa

God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer. – Mother Teresa

God speaks to those who take time to listen, and He listens to those who take time to pray. – Anonymous

God understands our prayers even when we can’t find the words to say them. – Anonymous

God will always be there with us and give us the strength to meet the difficulties of life. – Wendell E. Mettey

God will do great things for you if you will wait for Him. Yield to Him. Cooperate with Him. – John Smith

God’s first line of defense – and offense – for every situation is prayer. – Joyce Meyer

God’s way of answering the Christian’s prayer for more patience, experience, hope, and love often is to put him into the furnace of affliction. – Richard Cecil

God, let your voice become the loudest one I hear and the one I’m most sensitive to. – Anonymous

God, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us tap and develop these powers. – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Good things come to those who believe, better things come to those who are patient and the best things come to those who don’t give up. – Anonymous

Grace works that way. It’s a kind word from a gentle person with an impossible prayer. It’s a force sometimes transmitted best hand to hand in a dark place. – Bob Goff

Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart. – Anonymous

Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused. – Spurgeon

Growing up, I came to love Egypt and respect Islam, but I never thought to go beyond the surface. Back in Canada, many of my father’s Egyptian friends questioned his decision not to raise his only child more strictly in the faith. I was not taught salat, the Muslim ritual of prayer, nor did I study Arabic. – Shereen El Feki

Grudge no expense – yield to no opposition – forget fatigue – till, by the strength of prayer and sacrifice, the spirit of love shall have overcome. – Maria Weston Chapman

Having soon discovered to be great, I must appear so, and therefore studiously avoided mixing in society, and wrapped myself in mystery, devoting my time to fasting and prayer. – Nat Turner

He had one uniform practice, and a very bad one it was, during the time of family worship, and just three or four seconds before the conclusion of the prayer, he started to his feet, and ran barking round the apartment like a crazed beast. – James Hogg

He knows the tax code as thoroughly as the pope knows the Lord’s Prayer. – William Proxmire

He that is never on his knees on earth shall never stand upon his feet in heaven. – C. H. Spurgeon

He that loves the Word and the purity of its precepts cannot turn traitor. – William Gurnall

He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and a happy life. – William Law

History is silent about revivals that did not begin with prayer. – Edwin Orr

Households that have lost loved ones, or suffered health or financial difficulties, might avoid mentioning such in Thanksgiving grace. But if prayer is going to be authentic, such things need to be mentioned. – Rev. Richard Clancy

How can we condemn those who are truly blinded by evil? We can’t. We shouldn’t. How do we bring about conversion of those living in blindness? By love. By truth in charity. By offering forgiveness. By offering mercy. With prayer. – Abby Johnson

How can we thank him? We have no power to do him any service. Lord, allow us to share this inheritance from our father with him as well. Take him too, and his family, into Your constant care. – John and Elizabeth Sherrills

Humble prayer to our Heavenly Father, in deep faith in Jesus Christ, is essential to qualify us for the companionship of the Holy Ghost. – Henry B. Eyring

I agree with the idea that there is a separation of church and state. That teachers should not be leading prayer – a particular kind of prayer in classrooms. – Ken Buck

I also pray for favor and His anointing on my life and ministry that I might have spiritual blessing when I minister to people. They’re my principal prayers; I don’t have a prayer list that I go down. – Pat Robertson

I always carry prayer cards to St. Jude and St. Martha with me. – Patsy Kensit

I always meditate before every show. I say a prayer with my crew and my band to get in the mode, and I also stretch because it’s a very athletic show. We’ve got to entertain; it’s what we do. – Lindsey Stirling

I always say a prayer before the blocks – it helps calm me down. – Caeleb Dressel

I am not a theologian or a historian, and I feel no call to become a defender of the faith, so in my case, the search for what remains valuable focuses on language itself: Catholic prayer, ritual, the naming of things. – Alice McDermott

I ask everyone in Russia to pray for me, beginning with the bishops, whose whole life is a single prayer. I ask prayers also of those who humbly do not believe in the efficacy of their prayers, as well as of those who do not believe in prayer at all and even consider it useless. – Nikolai Gogol

I basically try to visualize the team doing good things on the court the night before the game. I get shots up. There’s not actually a pregame ritual that I do. I’m still trying to figure that out. I say a prayer. I go out with confidence. – Trey Burke

I began to see my life and each breath I am given as a living prayer to God and a way to pray for others for our world. – Mary C. Neal

I believe that to pray without ceasing means to think good thoughts without ceasing. – Wilferd A. Peterson

I believe that what is really important is that God can speak to us. If we have the humility to approach him in prayer with the right attitude, he can speak to our intelligence directly. – Henry B. Eyring

I believe that wishes and hopes have a slight negative tinge to them. It is something which postpones what you should get. Prayer is better where you have a direct connection with God and it also has the power to make it happen for you. – Rekha

I can take my telescope and look millions of miles into space; but I can go away to my room and in prayer get nearer to God and heaven than I can when assisted by all the telescopes of earth. – Isaac Newton

I close my eyes, then I drift away, into the magic night I softly say. A silent prayer, like dreamers do, then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you. – Roy Orbison

I concluded that all religions had the same foundation – a belief in the supernatural – a power above nature that man could influence by worship – by sacrifice and prayer. – Robert Green Ingersoll

I couldn’t believe my grandmother would be lying to me. She went to church every morning of the week and she said grace before every meal, and somebody who did that would never tell lies. I was beginning to believe every word she spoke. – Roald Dahl

I deepen my experience of God through prayer, meditation, and forgiveness. – Marianne Williamson

I did not pray for any relief, but I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility and love. – Brother Lawrence

I don’t believe in God, in prayer, in going to temples begging God to give me and my family happiness. I am not asking everyone to be an atheist, but good thoughts are not spent in a temple. – Suhasini Maniratnam

I don’t believe in prayer, I’m a pretty hardcore agnostic. – Simone Giertz

I don’t boast about being a holy person but I know that prayer can do miracles. – Johnny Lever

I don’t know what heavy penance I would not have gladly undertaken rather than practice prayer. – Saint Teresa of Avila

I don’t know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I’m some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer. – Henri Matisse

I don’t need politicians doing a 24-hour prayer with Oral Roberts to get our country back on track. – Lewis Black

I don’t think there’s such a thing as a selfish prayer. Prayer puts you in communication so you can talk about whatever you want to talk about. – Iyanla Vanzant

I dread to think where my cherished plans may have landed me and once again can thank him that he does not always say yes to my prayer requests! – Margaret Weston

I feel God’s presence in my life, as a direct result of prayer. We say, ‘Why, God?’ when bad things happen to us. But I don’t know how anybody can live without faith. – Sara Evans

I find a great deal of comfort and care in my faith and prayer. I’d sooner do without air than prayer. – Mary Karr

I find that it takes a lot of years of living, and many more of reckoning, to come up with one worthwhile paragraph. And when a deadline looms, prayer doesn’t hurt, either. – Carmen Agra Deedy

I firmly believe God continues to answer the prayers of His people even after He has taken them to heaven. Never forget that God isn’t bound by time the way we are. We see only the present moment; God sees everything. We see only part of what He is doing; He sees it all. – Billy Graham

I firmly believe in prayer. It is possible to reach out and tap the unseen power which gives strength and anchor in time of need. – Ezra Taft Benson

I first began to read religious books at school, and especially the Bible, when I was eleven years old; and almost immediately commenced a habit of secret prayer. – Francis W. Newman

I go to a small Catholic school where we have mass every week and say a prayer every morning, but we also are in Los Angeles, where people are so progressive and open. – Josie Totah

I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin, and my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come, and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of a mirror because I wanted to see my fair face first. – Lupita Nyong’o

I had people having prayer circles for me at the age of 10. – Tyler Henry

I had rather learn what some men really judge about their own justification from their prayers than their writings. – John Owen

I had rather stand against the cannons of the wicked than against the prayers of the righteous. – Thomas Lye

I had wanted to be a regular character on a series for a while. ‘The Brady Bunch’ was an answer to a prayer. – Susan Olsen

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. – Abraham Lincoln

I have fabulous sons, but unfortunately, they both have that thrill-seeker gene – bigger, higher, faster, scarier. I have a deal with God. If I’m breathing, that’s a prayer for my sons’ safety. – Linda Thompson

I have held many things in my hands, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess. – Martin Luther

I have lived to thank God that not all my prayers have been answered. – Jean Ingelow

I have many times been driven to my knees by the utter conviction that I had nowhere else to go. – Abraham Lincoln

I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it. – Voltaire

I have never separated the writing of poetry from prayer. I have grown up believing it is a vocation, a religious vocation. – Derek Walcott

I have said in many interviews that God had a better plan for me than I ever anticipated. I still firmly believe that, and I am grateful for a prayer answered. – Phyllis Smith

I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I am able to do it. – John Wesley

I hold onto the Scripture that says, ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in all things give thanks.’ I’m not saying I don’t have problems or that I don’t worry, but I try not to be stressed. I manage my anxiety through prayer. Worry shows up on your face, and I don’t want that! – Kim Fields

I introduced H.Res 430, a congressional resolution calling upon the president to declare a National Day of Prayer for Law Enforcement. – John Fleming

I judge that my prayer is more than the devil himself; if it were otherwise, Luther would have fared differently long before this. – Martin Luther

I knew ‘Promises,’ and I knew ‘Never Fall In Love Again,’ only from the radio, from being a kid; and of course, that ‘House is Not a Home’ and ‘Say A Little Prayer.’ – Sean Hayes

I knew in my heart that it was right to go on a mission, but it required a lot of fasting and prayer to make the decision.Now that I am returned, I realize even more that I made the right decision. – Shawn Bradley

I know no words of prayer – God help me because I can not help myself. – Harold E. Hughes

I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side. – Abraham Lincoln

I like the Kardashians, but I do keep them on the top of my prayer list. – Tamar Braxton

I like the monastic life… in the prayer and the praising… this has charged me with new energy, spiritual energy. This is very important for my ministry outside the monastery. – Pope Theodoros II

I mean talk. Never forget that God is your friend. And like all friends, He longs to hear what’s been happening in your life. Good or bad, whether it’s been full of sorrow or anger, and even when you’re questioning why terrible things have to happen. So I talk with him. – Nicholas Sparks

I mean, George Bush is a man of prayer. He talks to the lord. He tries to get his direction from the lord. – Pat Robertson

I must ask the Lord to direct the Holy Spirit within me to drain the life out of sin and in prayer. – J. I. Packer

I must confess that it is a lot easier for me as a pastor to preach about prayer than to spend that same amount of time engaged in it. – Tony Evans

I must secure more time for private devotions. I have been living far too public for me. The shortening of devotions starves the soul, it grows lean and faint. I have been keeping too late hours. – William Wilberforce

I never heard about tefillin. I was unfamiliar with the deep history and ritual of being an Orthodox Jew. Before you get out of bed, you say a prayer, and then you get out of bed, say another one. – Ato Essandoh

I never set out to write prayers at all. But there was a span of time when I didn’t find it easy to pray, but, when I went to write one of the things I had to write, a prayer would come. – Gloria Gaither

I no longer wield the power of the office for the government of the church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, within St. Peter’s bounds. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as pope, shall be a great example in this for me. He showed us the way to a life which, active or passive, belongs wholly to the work of God. – Pope Benedict XVI

I offer my performance as prayer for someone I’ve worked with as an actor or someone who has died. The image that comes into my head as I walk to the stage, I offer that performance up for that person. – Liam Neeson

I often write about nonreligious people, and I try to find situations where their sense of humanity is restored or discovered. I think you can be a good person in many ways. And I think you often have to be careful that prayer can seem superficial, because it’s a very complicated thing to love your neighbor as yourself. – Horton Foote

I pray for all of us, oppressor and friend, that together we may succeed in building a better world through human understanding and love … – Dalai Lama

I pray for faith that my future will be good if I live today well, and in peace. I will remember that staying in the present is the best thing I can do for my future. I will focus on what’s happening now instead of what’s going to happen tomorrow. – Melody Beattie

I pray for miracles. I have always found prayer to bring quick results. – Martha Reeves

I pray God will curse the writer, as the writer has cursed the world with this beautiful, stupendous creation, terrible in its simplicity, irresistible in its truth–a world which now trembles before the King in Yellow. – Robert W. Chambers

I pray that you will see the value of praying from scripture and will begin to create your own scriptural prayers. – Kim Trujillo

I prayed like a man walking in a forest at night, feeling his way with his hands, at each step fearing to fall into pure bottomlessness forever. Prayer is like lying awake at night, afraid, with your head under the cover, hearing only the beating of your own heart. – Wendell Berry

I really like worship music. It settles my soul. Gets me back on track. The lyrics are almost like a prayer, so it’s my go-to. – Jodi Benson

I remember being at school during morning meeting and looking around at everybody, 350 kids, saying a prayer. We’re all very young and no one knows what it means, and I remember feeling strange that people were just repeating words that they didn’t understand. I refused to participate. For some reason I always rejected it, but respectfully. – Sean Durkin

I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life. – Abraham Lincoln

I sang at the Inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral. – Michael W. Smith

I so earnestly believe that prayer can be helpful and guide you and protect you and inspire you. I mean, I’m in awe. – Horton Foote

I spend a lot of time in prayer. God doesn’t always show up on my time, but he always shows up! – Rachel Boston

I spent a couple years just earnestly praying, asking the question that I don’t think we ask enough: ‘God what do you want to do with me?’ Really getting into our prayer closet, seeking His heart, asking what He wants to do in our lives. – Scott Pruitt

I tell people that If one woman can get prayer taken out of the school, it may very well be that God Is asking another woman to get prayer back into the schools. I am confident that’s what God wants us to do. – Anita Bryant

I thank the Ghanaians and all Africans across the world for their support and prayer. – Edouard Mendy

I think intuition can be a form of answered prayer. You do the best you can – thinking, figuring, planning – and then you pray. – Conrad Hilton

I think of prayer as a spiritual lifeline back to where I most want to be. – Marianne Williamson

I think one thing is that prayer has become more useful, interesting, fruitful, and… almost involuntary in my life. – Mary Oliver

I think prayer is much more than reciting something we learned as children. I think it’s a conversation. – Winnie Anderson

I think prayer is one of the greatest healers around, more than medication. – Engelbert Humperdinck

I think that some of the greatest prayer is prayer where you don’t say one single word or ask for anything. – A.W. Tozer

I think that’s a struggle of every Christian, to be able to get to that point where they’re in constant prayer with God – so that everything they do, in thought, in speech, in work, is praising God and worshipping God. – Troy Polamalu

I think the Lord’s Prayer is a very powerful prayer. And the prayer of St. Francis. – Dennis Kucinich

I think when a musician loses their inhibition and dives deep into their soul, that’s a prayer. It’s so powerful that you will touch people whether it’s good or bad. – Arturo O’Farrill

I try to remind myself not to go anywhere or do anything without asking for spiritual direction through prayer and meditation. – Marianne Williamson

I used a lot of pancake makeup and a prayer, and a Buddhist chant. – Steven Cojocaru

I used to have a little silent prayer: ‘Dear God, let my ability to get work be the same as my celebrity.’ That would be a hard burden: to be a household name and not be able to get work. – Ted Danson

I used to think there was something dirty about being paid for something which is a sacred thing to do. I can’t disconnect the act of writing music from the act of prayer. If anyone tries to stop me working, it feels like someone is trying to stop me from taking communion. – John Tavener

I wanted to cut past the polemics and experience London’s Muslim communities for myself. My first visit was to Tower Hamlets, an East London borough that is about 38% Muslim, among the highest in the U.K. As I walked down Whitechapel Road, the adhan, or call to prayer, echoed through the neighborhood. – Andy Ngo

I warm up with my mom and make sure I understand what the songs are about and make sure I’m using the right technique. To be honest with you, I really don’t practice a lot… Usually, I say a prayer and ask the Lord to sing with me and help me and stand on the stage with me. – Jackie Evancho

I write in my study, where I also have my prayer altar. I believe that keeps me focused and gives me positive energy and reminds me that I’m merely the instrument of greater creative forces. – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I’d always put on little shows at home, but when I was 11, I did a community event in Woodford, where anyone could go. You had three days of vocal training and performed your song at the end. I sang ‘I Say a Little Prayer.’ It’s a tough song to sing but they gave me the confidence to go for it and belt it out. – Naomi Scott

I’d been focused on trying to start civil disobedience since 2010. I’d tried many things and they hadn’t worked. So I went on a retreat and prayed, with some psychedelic medicines. It was really intense and I prayed for what I called the codes for social change and within a month my prayer was answered. – Gail Bradbrook

I’d never go up to somebody and start preaching, but if somebody asks I’m willing to talk about it. Often, after people have seen me praying, they’ll ask and it’s a chance to show how normal prayer time is and why we do it, to teach people about the religion. Not to try to change them, but to explain. – Moeen Ali

I’m convinced that the man who has learned to meditate upon the Lord will be able to run on his feet and walk in his spirit. Although he may be hurried by his vocation, that’s not the issue. The issue is how fast his spirit is going. To slow it down takes a period of time. – Charles Stanley

I’m healthy as can be – not an ache or a pain. A lot of my prayer is thanking the Lord that I am healthy. I pray for long life and good health. – Joel Osteen

I’m into crystals and good energy and harnessing more. It’s just like prayer. It helps you be grateful, think about good things, and keep that positive energy around you. – Kali Uchis

I’m just one of many moms who will say an extra prayer each night for our sons and daughters going into harm’s way. – Sarah Palin

I’m pretty much a good Catholic girl at heart and I believe in family. I also have a basic belief that God takes care of me. I believe in prayer, even though I’m not that religious. I just have that foundation from my family. I mean when you think that you’re just a human being and one of God’s creatures, you can’t take anything that seriously. – Catherine O’Hara

I’m really in touch, whether it’s prayer or meditation… there are so many powers greater than me in the world. I’ve been blessed and lucky enough to have been given a gift to share with other people. – Lindsay Lohan

I’ve taught a lot about prayer over the years and how it is really just talking to God. – Joyce Meyer

Ideally, every prayer of intercession we utter should be for the Lord’s will to be done, nothing more, and nothing less. Only His perfect will. – John Paul Thomas

If a prayer is the way we talk to God, if a million people pray, that’s got to be one big message. – Tony Verna

If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word – prayer. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell. – Charles Spurgeon

If Bible Christianity is to survive the present world upheaval, we shall need to have a fresh revelation of the greatness and the beauty of Jesus…. He alone can raise our cold hearts to rapture and restore again the art of true worship. – A.W. Tozer

If Congress can strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over school prayer cases, there is no provision in the Constitution immune from congressional tampering. – Max Baucus

If God can bring blessing from the broken body of Jesus and glory from something that’s obscene as the cross, He can bring blessing from my problems and my pain and my unanswered prayer. – Anne Graham Lotz

If God had granted all the silly prayers I’ve made in my life, where would I be now? – C. S. Lewis

If I could have one prayer answered, I would pray for patience. I move so fast sometimes. I try to slow down. – Debra Winger

If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it. – Tom Vilsack

If I had to pick, I’d say my favorite book is ‘A Prayer For Owen Meany’, by John Irving. – Sarah Dessen

If in prayer I come before a throne of grace, the faults of my prayer will be overlooked. – Charles Spurgeon

If man is man and God is God, to live without prayer is not merely an awful thing, it is an infinitely foolish thing. – Phillips Brooks

If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in its Master’s presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in our Lord’s presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour will be very well employed. – St. Francis de Sales

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

If we can bring our woes before God in prayer we have done the best possible thing. – William S. Plumer

If we cannot go to the house of the Lord we can go by faith to the Lord of the house. – Matthew Henry

If we ever forget our basic charter – ‘My house is a house of prayer’ – we might as well shut the church doors. – James S. Stewart

If we really want to achieve true prayer, we must turn our backs upon everything temporal, everything external, everything that is not divine. – Johannes Tauler

If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing. – Bill Wilson

If we would pray aright, the first thing we should do is to see to it that we really get an audience with God, that we really get into His very presence. Before a word of petition is offered, we should have the definite consciousness that we are talking to God, and should believe that He is listening and is going to grant the thing that we ask of Him. – Dr. R. A. Torrey

If we would turn the time we spent discussing the other’s life into prayer time instead, no telling what would happen to the glory of God. – Beth Moore

If you are a stranger to prayer, you are a stranger to the greatest source of power known to human beings. – Billy Sunday

If you are sick, fast and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people will not hear you, fast and pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and pray. – Frederick Franson

If you believe in prayer at all, expect God to hear you. If you do not expect, you will not have. God will not hear you unless you believe He will hear you; but if you believe He will, He will be as good as your faith. – Charles Spurgeon

If you do all the talking when you pray, how will you ever hear God’s answers? – Aiden Wilson Tozer

If you don’t understand Jesus, you can’t understand his prayer. – J. D. Salinger

If you just take the time to pray and realize that God is in control and can handle your situation, then you can be a much more positive, more optimistic person. – Krista “KK” Weatherspoon

If you prayed as much as you worried, you’d have much less to worry about. – Anonymous

If you read history you will find out that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. – C.S. Lewis

If you spend time praying for people instead of talking about them, you’ll get better results. – Anonymous

If you would never cease to pray, never cease to long after it. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer. – St. Augustine

In a world of prayer, we are all equal in the sense that each of us is a unique person, with a unique perspective on the world, a member of a class of one. – W. H. Auden

In centering prayer, the sacred word is not the object of the attention but rather the expression of the intention of the will. – Thomas Keating

In Lincoln’s day a President’s religion was a very private affair. There were no public prayer meetings, no attempts to woo the Religious Right. Few of Lincoln’s countrymen knew anything at all of his religious beliefs. – David Herbert Donald

In my deepest, darkest moments, what really got me through was a prayer. Sometimes my prayer was ‘Help me.’ Sometimes a prayer was ‘Thank you.’ What I’ve discovered is that intimate connection and communication with my creator will always get me through because I know my support, my help, is just a prayer away. – Iyanla Vanzant

In my opinion, it is a mistake to expect in prayer a response from God. Often, God’s response is outside prayer. And often, we do not link up an outside response with the effort we put into prayer. – Basil Hume

In our home there was always prayer – aloud, proud and unapologetic. – Lyndon B. Johnson

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

In prayer you gain your strength—the power to gird yourself with armor that extinguishes every weapon your enemy wields. – Priscilla Shirer

In prayer, we stand where angels bow with veiled faces. There, even there, the cherubim and seraphim adore before that selfsame throne to which our prayers ascend. And shall we come there with stunted requests and narrow, contracted faith? – Charles Spurgeon

In religious circles, depression is often deemed to be a spiritual condition that can be cured with prayer. – Tony Campolo

In rough times, pathfinders rely on work, friends, humor and prayer. They develop a support network. – Gail Sheehy

In the digital future, texts will be annotated visually, animated and illustrated like never before. The austere ‘prayer book’ paper that permitted the space for Shepard’s illustrations to Pepys’ diaries is now being recreated in the digital era. – Chris Riddell

In the morning, prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under his protection and safeguard. – Billy Graham

In working with people across the country and around the world, I’ve come to know that most of us go through times that re-route our prayer life. – Gloria Gaither

Inaugurals conventionally start with a history lesson and finish with a prayer. – Jonathan Raban

Instead of worrying we need to be thankful of what we have and by prayer and petition, present our requests to God. – Phanuel Muverengwi

Intercessory prayer is exceedingly prevalent. What wonders it has wrought! The Word of God teems with its marvelous deeds. Believer, thou hast a mighty engine in thy hand, use it well, use it constantly, use it with faith, and thou shalt surely be a benefactor to thy brethren. – C. H. Spurgeon

Intercessory prayer might be defined as loving our neighbour on our knees. – Charles Bent

Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? If so, you must not be surprised that you have not received the Holy Spirit, that prayer is difficult, or that your request for faith remains unanswered. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is a bipartisan gathering to be able to pray for the needs back in our districts, for our families and each other. Another thing the prayer caucus does is to address religious liberty issues around the country as they arise. – James Lankford

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer. – George Muller

It is a most delightful reflection that if I come to the throne of God in prayer, I may feel a thousand defects, but yet there is hope. I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do. – Charles Spurgeon

It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without heart. – Mahatma Gandhi

It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills. – Thomas Aquinas

It is important to learn to understand in a historical text, a text from the past, the living Word of God, that is, to enter into prayer and thus read Sacred Scripture as a conversation with God. – Pope Benedict XVI

It is my fervent hope and prayer that by exposing my mistakes and by pointing out the things that were a part of my early life, some who might be following the same paths might not make those same mistakes. – John Clayton

It is necessary to draw near unto God, but it is not required of you to prolong your speech till everyone is longing to hear the word ‘Amen’. – C. H. Spurgeon

It is necessary to rouse the heart to pray, otherwise it will become quite dry. The attributes of prayer must be: love of God, sincerity, and simplicity. – John of Kronstadt

It is no wonder that advocates of Obamacare blindly push forward with their agenda to force religious Americans to violate their own precepts: in the war between the state and the individual, religion is on the side of the individual and his or her relationship with God. That is why symbolic prayer matters. It is symbolic. – Ben Shapiro

It is not because we are drawn to prayer that we first begin to pray; more often, we have to begin prayer, and then the taste and the desire for it come. – Basil Hume

It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly, continue in prayer until we obtain an answer; and further we have not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us, and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing. – George Müller

It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk. – Henry Ward Beecher

It is really beautiful when someone prays for you without you knowing. It’s the highest form of respect and care. – Anonymous

It is the prayer of my innermost being to realize my supreme identity in the liberated play of consciousness, the Vast Expanse. Now is the moment, Here is the place of Liberation. – Alex Grey

It is true that a prayer that comes from the heart can move mountains, it increases your faith, and brings you closer to God. – Rebecca Small

It turns out that our ability to connect with other people is driven by our ability to connect deeply with ourselves. And that can be just a few minutes sitting on your porch feeling the breeze against your face. That can be a few moments spent in meditation or in prayer or remembering three things you’re grateful for. – Vivek Murthy

It was the courts, of course, that took away prayer from our schools, that took away Bible reading from our schools. It’s the courts that gave us same-sex marriage. So it is quite a battlefield, and the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land. – Rod Parsley

It would be unthinkable in Canadian public life today for the public inauguration of our supreme political figures to be accompanied by prayer. – Stockwell Day

It’s clearly more important to treat one’s fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one’s head to a prayer mat. – Naguib Mahfouz

It’s completely through prayer that I came to believe in God. I just sensed a presence south of my neck. – Mary Karr

It’s easy to kneel in church and hang your head, praying for God to forgive you, but you also must face what you’ve done and deal with it in a direct and forthright manner. – Stephen Arterburn

It’s important to have a place where you can recharge. Everybody’s is different, but I do think it should entail quiet because it needs to be where you hear your spirit most clearly. For me, that’s the prayer room in my apartment. And since my home is 700 square feet, I mean the coat closet near the front door. – India Arie

It’s impossible to see the face of Jesus without seeking that face in some concentrated way, in the practice of the faith, through prayer and action. – Jay Parini

It’s the perfect environment for prayer. Chanting in Greek… is like a beautiful opera, but way better. – Troy Polamalu

It’s too bad prayer comes bundled in a package of ‘spiritual disciplines.’ Really, we should see prayer as a spiritual privilege. We don’t do it as a callisthenic exercise to gain points with God; we do it, because it is good for us in every way. – Philip Yancey

It’s very important to have that prayer life. It’s very important to communicate always. – LeToya Luckett

It’s a wonderful thing when God gets a hold of a man. There is only one thing more wonderful is when a man on Earth gets a hold of God. – Anonymous

Jesus himself talked about prayer and meditation. Anything that brings you closer to the Lord, what’s wrong with that? – Dennis Quaid

Jesus’ point is that there’s more to prayer than sheer persistence. It takes believing that we serve a perfectly loving, all-knowing God who works life out according to his will, which is always good. – Erol Woods

Jews have a special relationship to books, and the Haggadah has been translated more widely, and reprinted more often, than any other Jewish book. It is not a work of history or philosophy, not a prayer book, user’s manual, timeline, poem or palimpsest – and yet it is all these things. – Jonathan Safran Foer

Jews have deep respect for the Queen and the royal family. We say a prayer for them every Sabbath in synagogue. We recite a special blessing on seeing the Queen. – Jonathan Sacks

Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. – Mother Teresa

Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God. – Soren Kierkegaard

Just the same way I’d say a prayer before going onstage, taking that even further and using the drum to inspire people. And using that as a vehicle for the intention. – Rick Allen

Keep a journal, and learn how to see how you as an individuals sees information so you can learn your own sign language. Meditate and practice psychic self defense and surrounding yourself with prayer. – John Edward

Keeping yourself spiritually healthy is often overlooked since it is the most simplistic. I suggest prayer, alone time with God, and being in a state of gratitude. – Tiffany Hurd

Know how to ‘cling’ to him in prayer, and then you will see the face of Christ more clearly in those whom you are called to serve. – Basil Hume

Leaders must be released from the idea that they must be great prayer warriors before they can begin to call others to prayer. – David Bryant

Learn to worship God as the God who does wonders, who wishes to prove in you that he can do something supernatural and divine. – Andrew Murray

Let God’s grace be the mosque, and devotion the prayer mat. Let the Quran be the good conduct. – Guru Nanak

Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. – Maya Angelou

Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good. – Maya Angelou

Let no one profess to trust in God, and yet lay up for future wants, otherwise the Lord will first send him to the hoard he has amassed, before He can answer the prayer for more. – George Muller

Let the fires go out in the boiler room of the church and the place will still look smart and clean, but it will be cold. The Prayer Room is the boiler room for its spiritual life. – Leonard Ravenhill

Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we will desire to know Him. As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him. We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy. – Brother Lawrence

Let us pray, therefore, and implore of His mercy, that we may live blameless in love, free from all human partialities for one above another. – Clement of Rome

Let your decisions be comfortable and aligned with God. When there are still doubts, pray more until you find peace with the matter. – Carol Nkambule

Let’s confess our sin individually and collectively to the Lord and then ask Him to bless us with the strength to walk away from our sin and toward the arms of Christ who wants us to experience new life. – John Stange

Life has a way of presenting problems, difficulties and challenges that far supercede our own abilities but with the help of God through prayer, these issues can be put behind us. – Byron Pulsifer

Liturgy, in truth, is an event by means of which we let ourselves be introduced into the expansive faith and prayer of the Church. This is the reason why the early Christians prayed facing east, in the direction of the rising sun, the symbol of the returning Christ. – Pope Benedict XVI

Lord, let our leaders praise You and hear the Word of the Lord spoken through the mouths of Your prophets. – Kimberly Daniels

Love the people who treat you right. Pray for those who don’t. Life is too short to be anything but happy. – Anonymous

Make intercessory prayer a priority in your life and the life of your family. It will cause you to be more empathetic, less self-obsessed, and increasingly more like Christ. – Monica Johnson

Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips. – Viktor E. Frankl

Many men pray, not many of them like to do it. A few pray long, the others make a short cut. – Mark Twain

Many ministers became too busy preaching about grace and stopped preaching about the critical need for an abundant prayer life. – Michael Caputo

Many of us cannot reach the mission fields on our feet, but we can reach them on our knees. – T. J. Bach

Many people don’t pray because they’ve learned to live without prayer. – Anonymous

Many people pray as if God were a big aspirin pill, they come only when they hurt. – B. Graham Dienert

Many prayers in liturgical texts have strong biblical roots. The Lord’s Prayer directly comes from the Gospel. – Adrian Ryan Lyons

Marvel at the wonder of communing with the Creator of the universe while sitting in the comfort of your home. – Sarah Young

May 2 is traditionally the National Day of Prayer, a government-designated religious event intended to encourage people to ‘turn to God in prayer and meditation.’ – Elizabeth Flock

Meditation and prayer are one of the most efficient tools we can use to inspire our world. – Frank Arrigazzi

Memory, so complete and clear or so evasive, has to be ended, has to be put aside, as if one were leaving a chapel and bringing the prayer to an end in one’s head. – Harold Brodkey

Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers. – J. Sidlow Baxter

Men who know their God are before anything else men who pray, and the first point where their zeal and energy for God’s glory come to expression is in their prayers. If there is little energy for such prayer, and little consequent practice of it, this is a sure sign that as yet we scarcely know our God. – J. I. Packer

Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything. – Saint Teresa of Avila

Mighty prayer movements have preceded every great historical and Biblical revival. – Sammy Tippit

Mind how you pray. Make real business of it. Let it never be a dead formality…plead the promise in a truthful, business-like way…Ask for what you want, because the Lord has promised it. – Charles Spurgeon

Ministers should not pray so loud, and long, as to exhaust the strength. It is not necessary to weary the throat and lungs in prayer. God’s ear is ever open to hear the heart-felt petitions of his humble servants, and he does not require them to wear out the organs of speech in addressing him. – Ellen G. White

Most churches don’t know that God rules the world by the prayers of his saints. – Andrew Murray

Most of the great books on prayer are written by ‘experts’ – monks, missionaries, mystics, saints. I’ve read scores of them, and mainly they make me feel guilty. – Philip Yancey

Most of us know about God, but that is quite different from knowing God. – Billy Graham

Mr. Tennyson has said that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, but he wisely refrains from saying whether they are good or bad things. – Samuel Butler

My ‘Book of Prayer’ is the most important thing I carry. If I’m tense about something or need to pray for protection for my kids, it always helps. – Tina Knowles

My 4-year-old son prays every night for his best friend who is the same age – our next door neighbor in Liberia, a little Liberian boy: ‘Dear God, please don’t let him get Ebola.’ I’m proud of him for thinking about his friend and praying for him but that’s not a prayer that a 4-year-old should have to consider. – Kent Brantly

My constant prayer, my number one foreign goal, is to bring peace to Israel. And in the process to Israel’s neighbours. – Jimmy Carter

My dad used to sit me on his knee and read from the Bible to us. We were a praying family. Ours was a family of love and a family of prayer. – Roma Downey

My father saw Islam as a way to connect with the community. He never went to prayer services except for big communal events. I am absolutely certain that my father did not go to services every Friday. He was not religious. – Maya Soetoro-Ng

My favorite prayer is Footprints in the Sand. You know that prayer? I know the times that he carried me, you know? I kind of wore him out. – Aaron Neville

My grandmother India always said God had pointed a finger at our family, asking for just a bit more discipline, more praying, and more hard work because he had blessed us with good health and good brains. – Melba Patillo Bills

My grandparents and my mom prayed the rosary a lot, and later in life, I had a priest friend of mine teach me centering prayer, based on Father Thomas Keating’s work. That led to practicing different kinds of meditation off and on as I got older. – Tim Ryan

My hope and prayer is that the body of Christ in America will awake with holy boldness, a boldness content neither with silence nor mere words but that backs up those words with action and results. – Frank Wolf

My humble prayer is that all men everywhere may understand more fully the significance of the atonement of the Savior of all mankind, who has given us the plan of salvation which will lead us into eternal life, where God and Christ dwell. – Harold B. Lee

My husband is Dutch, and his family, when you sat down to eat food at the table, you never left the table until you ate living bread and drank living water. They never left the table until they’d read Scripture together. So morning, lunch, suppertime, Scripture was always read at the table, and then there was prayer to close. – Ann Voskamp

My impression, is that prayer is one of the most basic forms of magic. That it’s harnessing the powers of your mind. – Boyd Rice

My little secret before I do every scene is I say a short little prayer. – Justin Baldoni

My main ambition in life is to be on the devil’s most wanted list. – Leonard Ravenhill

My mom is very structured. She gets up, she does her prayers, and she eats her oatmeal with blueberries and Greek yogurt, and she has her prayer list, and she doesn’t worry too much about things. – Maria Bamford

My most earnest prayer is that every man and every woman will get it into his or her heart that they are in very deed the architects of their lives. – Heber J. Grant

My mother was a Sunday school teacher. So I am a byproduct of prayer. My mom just kept on praying for her son. – Steve Harvey

My prayer became ‘May I find peace… May I love this life no matter what.’ I was seeking an inner refuge, an experience of presence and wholeness that could carry me through whatever losses might come. – Tara Brach

My prayer for ORU is this, that this university may become the fertile womb for the next generation of Holy Spirit evangelists, to build his eternal kingdom. – Reinhard Bonnke

My prayer for you, Donald Trump, would be for you to have an opportunity to experience the delight and the joy of what oneness truly is. And if you can have that in your life, if you could feel that feeling in your life, then my prayer would be that your division and your separation, your attack, would dissolve with that boundary. – Gabrielle Bernstein

My prayer is improvised – though like some standard jazz performance, the improv happens within pretty strict parameters – and asks for nothing. – Darin Strauss

My prayer is that the good news of Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah, would flood Jewish communities around the world, that the veil would be lifted, and that we would see a massive turning of Israel to the Lord Jesus. – John Piper

My prayer is to learn new things, imbibe fresh insights. You must not take life too seriously. You must enjoy the process of living. – Sonu Nigam

My prayer life and my connection with God are on the highest level. – LeToya Luckett

My religion would be a gentle faith that believed in the sacredness of leisure. Napping as a form of prayer. – Garrison Keillor

My suggestion to newspapers everywhere is to give the public a reason to read them again. So here’s an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences. – Graydon Carter

Never believe that true prayer consists in mere babbling, reciting so many psalms and vigils, saying your beads while you allow your thoughts to roam. – Johannes Tauler

Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Never stop praying, even after God gave you what you prayed for. – Anonymous

Never underestimate the incredible power and tremendous blessing of prayer. – Mark J Musser

Never was a faithful prayer lost. Some prayers have a longer voyage than others, but then they return with their richer lading at last, so that the praying soul is a gainer by waiting for an answer. – William Gurnall

No god ever gave any man anything, nor ever answered any prayer at any time – nor ever will. – Madalyn Murray O’Hair

No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere. – Leonard Ravenhill

No one can pray and worry at the same time. When we worry, we aren’t praying. When we pray, we aren’t worrying. – Max Lucado

No white group has founded a major religion on this planet. The major religious were started in the Orient and the Middle East, not in Greece and Rome. I always knew you racists didn’t have a prayer. – Jane Elliot

None can believe how powerful prayer is, and what it is able to effect, but those who have learned it by experience. It is a great matter when in extreme need to take hold on prayer. – Martin Luther

Not to pray because you do not feel fit to pray is like saying, ‘I will not take medicine because I am too ill.’ Pray for prayer: pray yourself, by the Spirit’s assistance, into a praying frame. – Charles Spurgeon

Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other’s hearts in prayer. – Charles Finney

Notice, we never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray! For prayer is a great deterrent. – Leonard Ravenhill

O Christ, on you the many-eyed cherubim are unable to look because of the glory of your countenance, yet out of your love you accepted spittle on your face. Remove the shame from my face, and grant me to have an unashamed face before you at the time of prayer. – Isaac of Nineveh

Of a truth, there is an inward, formless, inarticulate, almost unconscious, prayer, the very breath of love, whereby the soul is knit fast to the God whom it has tracked, amidst the tangled underwood of human life, to his covert on the eternal hills. – Vincent McNabb

Of all duties, prayer certainly is the sweetest and most easy. – Laurence Sterne

Of all spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father. – Richard J. Foster

Of all the duties enjoined by Christianity none is more essential and yet more neglected than prayer. – François Fénelon

Of all the things Christ wants for us, loving him and focusing our attention on him are the most important. – Charles Stanley

Of all things, guard against neglecting God in the secret place of prayer. – William Wilberforce

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

Older boys were allowed to beat younger ones at my 15th-century English boarding school, and every boy had to run a five-mile annual steeplechase through the sludge and rain of an October day, as horses do. We wrote poems in dead languages and recited the Lord’s Prayer in Latin every Sunday night. – Pico Iyer

One cannot get deep into religion until one gets deep into prayer. – W. E. Sangster

One of the greatest attacks of the enemy is to make you busy, to make you hurried, to make you noisy, to make you distracted, to fill the people of God and the Church of God with so much noise and activity that there is no room for prayer. There is no room for being alone with God. There is no room for silence. There is no room for meditation. – Paul Washer

One of the values of centering prayer is that you are not thinking about God during the time of centering prayer so you are giving God a chance to manifest. In centering prayer there are moments of peace that give the psyche a chance to realize that God may not be so bad after all. God has a chance to be himself for a change. – Thomas Keating

One positive command he gave us: You shall love and honor your emperor. In every congregation a prayer must be said for the czar’s health, or the chief of police would close the synagogue. – Mary Antin

One way to re-collect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquillity, is not to let it wander too far in other times: you should keep it strictly in the presence of God. – Brother Lawrence

Only the long melancholy call to prayer, or the wail of women over the dead, or the barking of dogs, breaks the silence which at sunset falls as a pall over Baghdad. – Isabella Bird

Our dear Lord said we should pray always. Everything we are doing should be either a prayer in itself or can be made into a prayer. Any action that is not in itself wrong can be done in union with God and His divine will. – Vincent McNabb

Our families should gather for family prayer morning and night. – Joseph B. Wirthlin

Our hearts were made for you, Oh Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you. – St Augustine

Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means for getting something for ourselves; the Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. – Oswald Chambers

Our prayer and God’s mercy are like two buckets in a well; while the one ascends the other descends. – Mark Hopkins

Our prayers are sometimes answered without us realizing or, in ways that we did not ask for but always remember God’s plan is better than ours. – Catherine Pulsifer

Our prayers are strengthened when we know God is listening and that He is faithful. – Dr. David Jeremiah

Our prayers can go where we cannot…there are no borders, no prison walls, no doors that are closed to us when we pray. – Brother Andrew

Our prayers have no expiration date. You never know when, where, or how God will answer. – Anonymous

Our real work is prayer. What good is the cold iron of our frantic little efforts unless first we heat it in the furnace of our prayer? Only heat will diffuse heat. – Mother Maribel

Our synagogues are spread all over the world, and we want people to respect them and look after them. And we have to respect the places of prayer of others. – A. B. Yehoshua

Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil… prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon. – Terry Pratchett

Patients describing the benefits of prayer often talk about how it provides a sense of well being. – Armstrong Williams

People would be surprised to know how much I learned about prayer from playing poker. – Mary Hunter Austin

Personal prayer, it seems to me, is one of the simplest necessities of life, as basic to the individual as sunshine, food and water -and at times, of course, more so. By prayer I mean an effort to get in touch with the Infinite. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

Poetry and prayer are very similar. – Carol Ann Duffy

Positive thinking can change you, but it won’t change somebody else. But positive prayer can make a difference in someone else. – Rick Warren

Practical prayer is harder on the soles of your shoes than on the knees of your trousers. – Austin O’Malley

Pray also for me, for I need your love along with the mercy of God so that I may be worthy of the duty for which I am destined and so that I will not be found reprobate. – Ignatius

Pray as though no work would help, and work as though no prayer would help. – Proverb

Pray causes things to happen that wouldn’t happen if you didn’t pray. – John Piper

Pray for all the saints. Pray also for kings, for those in power, for princes, for those that persecute and hate you, and for the enemies of the cross, so that your fruit may be apparent to everyone and that you may be perfect in Him. – Polycarp

Pray for someone else’s child, your pastor, the military, the police officers, the firemen, the teachers, the government. There’s no end to the ways that you can intervene on behalf of others through prayer. – Monica Johnson

Pray for the desire and power to follow His will and not fight for your own. You’ll never know what God has waiting for you right down the road. – Tricia Goyer

Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan. – John Bunyan

Pray that God would guide your search for Jesus this Christmas, and that He would open your heart to the revelation of His truth. – Christine Trevino

Pray that you might faithfully hear the Word and use the Word to glorify God in all other things that you hear and say. – Gregory E. Lang

Pray till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge it in God’s will. – Frederick William Robertson

Pray without ceasing on behalf of everyone. For in them there is hope of repentance so that they may attain to God. Permit them, then, to be instructed by your works, if in no other way. Be meek in response to their wrath, humble in opposition to their boasting; to their blasphemies return your prayers; in contrast to their error be steadfast in the faith; and for their cruelty display your gentleness. – Ignatius

Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer. – J.C. Ryle

Praying without faith is like shooting without a bullet; it makes a noise but does no execution. – Francis Burkitt

Publicly leading a church in prayer deserves thoughtful preparation. – Kevin DeYoung

Quit playing, start praying. Quit feasting, start fasting. Talk less with men, talk more with God. Listen less to men, listen to the words of God. Skip travel, start travail. – Leonard Ravenhill

Read my letter to the old folks, and give my love to them, and tell my brothers to be always watching unto prayer, and when the good old ship of Zion comes along, to be ready to step aboard. – Harriet Tubman

Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them. – George Saunders

Regardless of where you are or what country you are in, God knows your prayers. – D. Duane Engler

Regardless of your current life circumstances, spend some time in prayer right now thanking God for who He is and what He has done for you. – Erwin W. Lutzer

Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere. – James Martineau

Remember that bodily exercise, when it is well ordered, as I have said, is also prayer by means of which you can please God our Lord. – Saint Ignatius

Remember, our prayers do not need to be long. Sometimes only a word or two will suffice. – Dr. David Jeremiah

Repentance, prayer, and pondering over the scriptures are essential parts of our qualifying for the gifts of the Spirit in our priesthood service. Further magnification of our power to serve will come as we respond with faith to go forward in our callings with the Holy Ghost to help us. – Henry B. Eyring

Sacrifice, discipline and prayer are essential. We gain strength through God’s word. We receive grace from the sacrament. And when we fumble due to sin – and it’s gonna happen – confession puts us back on the field. – Lou Holtz

Satan always rocks our cradle when we sleep at our devotions. – Joseph Hall

Satan cannot deny but that great wonders have been wrought by prayer. As the spirit of prayer goes up, so his kingdom goes down. – William Gurnall

Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying. – Paul E. Billheimer

Satan tries to limit your praying because he knows your praying will limit him. – Anonymous

School prayer, abortion, and school busing are indeed controversial issues. I doubt that there ever will be complete agreement on the public-policy questions they raise. – Max Baucus

Scientific prayer makes God a celestial lab rat, leading to bad science and worse religion. – Michael Shermer

Scripture is the thing I like to share with people more than anything. My prayer reality is quite kooky. I have this very unique dialogue with the Lord. I utilize my own sort of street vocabulary – nothing slang that would be unacceptable. – Stephen Baldwin

Search for a person who claims to have found Christ apart from someone else’s prayer, and your search may go on forever. – E. Bauman

Shakespeare is one of the last books one should like to give up, perhaps the one just before the Dying Service in a large Prayer book. – Charles Lamb

She (my mother) became a warrior far superior to any epic hero. She became a giant on her knees. With a sword in one hand she battled the enemies of death and disease, and with her other hand stretched toward heaven she kept beseeching God’s help and His mercy. – Bishop T.D. Jakes

Simply defined, prayer is earthly permission for heavenly interference. – Tony Evans

Since 1775, when the first Continental Congress called for a national day of prayer, there have been such events called for by almost every President. I saw the figures – 34 out of 44 Presidents have called for a national day of prayer. Some of those who didn’t have died in office. – James Dobson

Since God knows our future, our personalities, and our capacity to listen, he isn’t ever going to say more to us than we can deal with at the moment. – Charles Stanley

Sincere friendship towards God, in all who believe him to be properly an intelligent, willing being, does most apparently, directly, and strongly incline to prayer; and it no less disposes the heart strongly to desire to have our infinitely glorious. – Jonathan Edward

So I went in front of the judge, and I had my St. Jude prayer book in my pocket and my St. Jude medal. And I’m standing there and that judge said I was found guilty, so he sentenced me to what the law prescribed: one to 14 years. – Aaron Neville

So let us pray, not for him but for overselves and for all those whose job it is to wear those great big shoes he left this nation to fill… – Ralph Ellison

So what is prayer? I believe it is communication with God. It is an expression of our thoughts and feelings to God. – Margaret Weston

Solemnity is proper in church, but things that are proper in church are not necessarily proper outside, and vice versa. For example, I can say a prayer while washing my teeth, but that does not mean I should wash my teeth in church. – C. S. Lewis

Some churches make intercessory prayer part of their weekly schedule. If that’s not the case at your church, find another person in the faith to intercede with or go before God on your own. – Monica Johnson

Some comics have long routines to get them in the mood – I just prefer to sit down, write out the same jokes in a different order and then have a little prayer that I won’t be met by silence. – Jack Whitehall

Some of us pray demands. Some of us pray complaints. Some of us pray knowing, and some of us pray not knowing. But prayer is the attitude that you hold in your heart. – Iyanla Vanzant

Some people pray just to pray and some people pray to know God. – Andrew Murray

Some people think God does not like to be troubled with our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is not to come at all. – D.L. Moody

Some people think that prayer just means asking for things, and if they fail to receive exactly what they asked for, they think the whole thing is a fraud. – Gerald Vann

Some spiritually alert parents hold early-morning devotionals with their families in their homes. They have a hymn, prayer, and then read and discuss the Book of Mormon. – Ezra Taft Benson

Sometimes all it takes is just one prayer to change everything. – Anonymous

Sometimes prayer is the only connection you may ever have with some people. – Marsha Marks

Sometimes the purpose of prayer is to get us out of circumstances, but more often than not, the purpose of prayer is to get us through them. – Mark Batterson

Sometimes we think we are too busy to pray. That is a great mistake, for praying is a saving of time. – C. H. Spurgeon

Sometimes…you can cry until there’s nothing wet in you. You can scream and curse to where your throat rebels and ruptures. You can pray, all you want, to whatever god you think will listen. And, still it makes no difference. It goes on, with no sign as to when it might release you. And you know that if it ever did relent…it would not be because it cared. – Jhonen Vasquez

Spend more time in study and prayer. That’s the secret of successful evangelism. – Billy Graham

Spending time with God through prayer and His Word is a prerequisite for having a great life and fulfilling your purpose. – Joyce Meyer

Spirituality – prayer – is a big part of my life. – David Hasselhoff

St. Thomas is right. The essential prayer is the prayer of petition. – Vincent McNabb

Stay faithful. If you’re hurting, stay hopeful. Pray and give thanks to God for the opportunity to grow; ask Him to shed light, ask Him for clarity. – Thomas Nelson

Study your prayers, a great part of my time is spent getting in tune for prayer. – Robert McCheyne

Thank you most of all for friends. We appreciate the complicated and wonderful gifts you give us in each other. – Kate DiCamillo

Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding. – Alice Walker

Thanks to my Buddhist faith, to the positivity that arose from prayer, I put the optimism of determination before the pessimism of logic and reason. – Roberto Baggio

That little book she carried all around the whole house … is at the whole root of this whole business. – J. D. Salinger

The ‘means of grace’ are such as Bible reading, private prayer, and regularly worshiping God in Church, wherein one hears the Word taught and participates in the Lord’s Supper. I lay it down as a simple matter of fact that no one who is careless about such things must ever expect to make much progress in sanctification. – J. C. Ryle

The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking. – Will Rogers

The aim … is to wake everybody up to the need and benefits of saying the Jesus Prayer. – J. D. Salinger

The amount of time we spend with Jesus – meditating on his Word and his majesty, seeking his face – establishes our fruitfulness in the kingdom. – Charles Stanley

The best Christian is he that is the greatest monopolizer of time for private prayer. – Thomas Brooks

The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching. – Joseph Smith, Jr.

The Bible is filled with several examples that confirm the powerful link between fasting and answered prayers. – John Miller

The candidate was required to prepare himself by confession, fasting, and passing the night in prayer. – Horatio Alger

The Christian leaders of the future have to be theologians, persons who know the heart of God and are trained – through prayer, study, and careful analysis – to manifest the divine event of God’s saving work in the midst of the many seemingly random events of their time. – Henri Nouwen

The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’ – Billy Graham

The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe. – Augustus M. Toplady

The Christian will find his parentheses for prayer even in the busiest hours of life. – Richard Cecil

The Church has not yet touched the fringe of the possibilities of intercessory prayer. Her largest victories will be witnessed when individual Christians everywhere come to recognize their priesthood unto God and day by day give themselves unto prayer. – John R. Mott

The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising. – Leonard Ravenhill

The Congressional Prayer Caucus has worked successfully to advocate for and protect values that are fundamental to the fabric of our nation, and I’m honored to serve as co-chairman. – James Lankford

The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave – caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition – cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner. – Saint Teresa of Avila

The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer. – Saint Augustine

The devil is aware that one hour of close fellowship, hearty converse with God in prayer, is able to pull down what he hath been contriving and building many a year. – Flavel

The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it. – Frederick William Robertson

The Election Commission stopped me from campaigning. I accepted it and reached people through my prayer – in silence. People gave their approval. Praying in silence is important, and this spiritual prayer has paid off. – Yogi Adityanath

The essence of meditation is a period of time set aside to contemplate the Lord, listen to him, and allow him to permeate our spirits. – Charles Stanley

The experience of prayer when there is no awareness of God and no apparent response from ourselves should not lead us to escape from prayer or give it up. – Basil Hume

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

The goal of prayer is not to change God’s mind about what you want. The goal of prayer is to change your own heart, to want what He wants, to the glory of God. – Chris Fabry

The God of justice is with us, and our word, our work – our prayer for freedom will not, cannot be in vain. – Elizabeth Cady Stanton

The great people of the earth today are the people who pray, (not) those who talk about prayer. – S.D.Gordon

The great thing in prayer is to feel that we are putting our supplications into the bosom of omnipotent love. – Andrew Murray

The greatest and best talent that God gives to any man or woman in the world is the talent of prayer. – Alexander Whyte

The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer. – F.B. Meyer

The heads of regiments are required to see that the troops join in prayer morning and evening as far as the service will permit. – Toussaint Louverture

The history of our country has been driven by a Judeo-Christian worldview, and so that has dominated the landscape. So it’s important that we recognize the lordship of Jesus Christ without apology in our emphasis on prayer. – Tony Evans

The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our teacher. That’s why, in prayer, we can ask the Lord to open up Scripture and make it come alive to us, to open our understanding. He left his Spirit with us until we join him in Heaven. – Michele Bachmann

The Holy Spirit turns prayer from activity into energy. – John Blanchard

The ideal for Christians is to pray without ceasing. We should study and meditate in God’s Word. We should remain in a constant state of fellowship with the Heavenly Father. – Greg Winfield

The impulse to prayer, within our hearts, is evidence that Christ is urging our claims in heaven. – Augustus H. Strong

The Irish Catholic side was married to the life of an actor and I found out acting could be a form of prayer. – Liam Neeson

The issue of prayer is not prayer; the issue of prayer is God. – Abraham Joshua Heschel

The joining of the whole congregation in prayer has something exceedingly solemn and affecting in it. – Karl Philipp Moritz

The joy which answers to prayer give, cannot be described; and the impetus which they afford to the spiritual life is exceedingly great. – George Muller

The language of the Catholic Church – the liturgy, the prayer, the gospels – was in many ways my first poetry. – Alice McDermott

The Latin root of ‘precariousness’ is ‘to obtain by prayer.’ The precariat must ask for favours, for charity, to show obsequiousness, to plead with figures of authority. It is degrading and stigmatizing. – Guy Standing

The limitless loving devotion to God, and the gift God makes of Himself to you, are the highest elevation of which the heart is capable; it is the highest degree of prayer. The souls that have reached this point are truly the heart of the Church. – Edith Stein

The Lord’s prayer contains the sum total of religion and morals. – Duke of Wellington

The Lord’s Prayer is the most perfect piece of poetry. I always feel at peace and moved when I recite it. – Mary Quant

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

The measure of any Christian is his prayer life. – Vance Havner

The measure of our love for others can largely be determined by the frequency and earnestness of our prayers for them. – A. W. Pink

The more I get connected to my own breath and my own yogic experience and my own prayer and my own idea, the ideas that have existed for so long – that we all belong to each other and we could live a deeper spiritual existence – the more I get connected to that, the more I shun this world. – Giancarlo Esposito

The more often we invite God into our ordinary moments, the more our eyes and hearts will notice Him working. – Anonymous

The more we have to testify of and the more people testifying, the more the world will realize how deep and wide His love, that miracles happen and prayer works. – Bill Vincent

The more you prayer the more you will endeavor to live the way that God intended. – Olivia Benjamin

The most common phrase bandied about these days is ‘Oh my God’. People say it automatically all the time – not realising that that’s a form of prayer. – Morrissey

The most eloquent prayer is the prayer through hands that heal and bless. – Billy Graham

The most important thing is our hearts. The great thing about prayer is that God looks primarily at our hearts. – Greg Laurie

The music that I have learned and want to give is like worshipping God. It’s absolutely like a prayer. – Ravi Shankar

The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayer-less religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. – Samuel Chadwick

The only hope of salvation from the delusions and the heresies, the innovations and the traps of wicked people and of the devil is prayer, repentance, and humility. – Elder Joseph the Hesychast

The only reason we don’t have revival is because we are willing to live without it! – Leonard Ravenhill

The people who know God well—mystics, hermits, prayerful people, those who risk everything to find God—always meet a lover, not a dictator. – Richard Rohr

The physical voice we use in prayer need not be great nor startling; even should we not lift up any great cry or shout, God will yet hear us. – Origen

The prayer of faith is the only power in the universe to which the great Jehovah yields. – Robert Hall

The proof is in the pudding. If you put your mind and hard work and prayer into what you do, it will happen. – Latto

The real end of prayer is not so much to get this or that single desire granted, as to put human life into full and joyful conformity with the will of God. – Charles Bent

The reality is, my prayers don’t change God. But, I am convinced prayer changes me. Praying boldly boots me out of that stale place of religious habit into authentic connection with God Himself. – Lysa TerKeurst

The reason why we obtain no more in prayer is because we expect no more. God usually answers us according to our own hearts. – Richard Alleine

The relationship to one’s fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one’s striving. – Franz Kafka

The right wing always mobilizes around constitutional amendments: the right to bear arms, school prayer. – Al Sharpton

The romantic embrace can only be compared with music and with prayer. – Havelock Ellis

The same group of New York pseudo-intellectuals who’ve put down prayer are the same ones who put down L.A. – Marianne Williamson

The Savior is the perfect example of praying for others with real intent. In His great Intercessory Prayer uttered on the night before His Crucifixion, Jesus prayed for His Apostles and all of the Saints. – David A. Bednar

The scientific observer of Nature is a kind of mystic seeker in the act of prayer. – Muhammad Iqbal

The Scriptures were not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives. – D.L. Moody

The secret of reaching men is to know the secret of reaching God. – John Blanchard

The soul of a woman is so important to maintain given all that is on our plates. Figuring out how to do it can be a little tricky. My prayer was, ‘Lord, please help me. How can I do it all and not be overwhelmed? How can I do it all and still be happy?’ His answer: Find the stolen moments of joy in all you do. – Niecy Nash

The story of Christian reformation, revival, and renaissance underscores that the darkest hour is often just before the dawn, so we should always be people of hope and prayer, not gloom and defeatism. God the Holy Spirit can turn the situation around in five minutes. – Os Guinness

The supreme thing is worship. The attitude of worship is the attitude of a subject bent before the King… the fundamental thought is that of prostration, of bowing down. – Campbell Morgan

The traditional religious right’s failure to restore public-school prayer or pass an antiabortion constitutional amendment has likely helped fuel the spread of the more extreme dominionist school. – Jon Meacham

The trappings of a religious cult tend to fall into candlelit ceremonies and robes and group chanting and singing and prayer. – Sean Durkin

The trouble with our praying is, we just do it as a means of last resort. – Anonymous

The true spirit of prayer is no other than God’s own Spirit dwelling in the hearts of the saints. And as this spirit comes from God, so doth it naturally tend to God in holy breathings and pantings. It naturally leads to God, to converse with him by prayer. – Jonathan Edwards

The value of persistent prayer is not that He will hear us but that we will finally hear Him. – William McGill

The value of prayer is seen in the life of Jesus. He often withdrew from the crowds and even from His own disciples in order to spend significant time with His Father. – Charles Stanley

The very name Jerusalem means City of Peace. Violently evicting families from their homes in which generations have lived is not an act of peace. A show of strong force during prayer is not an act of peace. Destroying holy sites is not an act of peace. – Jamaal Bowman

The vigour of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts. – George Mueller

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

The world calls for, and expects from us, simplicity of life, the spirit of prayer, charity towards all, especially towards the lowly and the poor, obedience and humility, detachment, and self-sacrifice. Without this mark of holiness, our word will have difficulty in touching the heart of modern man. – Pope Paul VI

The world was made partly that there may be prayer; partly that our prayers might be answered. – C.S. Lewis

There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer. – John Wooden

There are no depths from which the prayer of faith cannot reach heaven. – John Blanchard

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing. – Herbert Hoover

There are parts of our calling, works of the Holy Spirit, and defeats of the darkness that will come no other way than through furious, fervent, faith-filled, unceasing prayer. – Beth Moore

There can be no doubt that the practice of opening legislative sessions with prayer has become part of the fabric of our society. – Warren E. Burger

There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer. – D.A.T. Pierson

There have been times that I have taken prayer cloths that have been anointed as a point of contact. I put them in my loved ones sneakers, I put them under their bed. I put them on parts of my body that I believe God for healing. – Paula White

There is a mighty lot of difference between saying prayers and praying. – John G. Lake

There is a place where thou canst touch the eyes Of blinded men to instant, perfect sight; There is a place where thou canst say, “Arise” To dying captives, bound in chains of night; There is a place where thou canst reach the store Of hoarded gold and free it for the Lord; There is a place – upon some distant shore – Where thou canst send the worker and the Word. Where is that secret place–dost thou ask, “Where?” O soul, it is the secret place of prayer! – Alfred Lord Tennyson

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

There is no point in petitioning God for something He has already given you. – Frank Hammond

There is no problem with the opening of new houses of prayer for Lutherans and Pentecostals. – Vladimir Zhirinovsky

There is no way that Christians, in a private capacity, can do so much to promote the work of God and advance the kingdom of Christ as by prayer. – Jonathan Edwards

There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. – Brother Lawrence

There is nothing a natural man hates more than prayer. – Robert Murray M’Cheyne

There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him. – William Law

There is power in speaking people’s names before the Lord. When others hear someone talk to Jesus on their behalf, healing often starts to take place. – Charles Stanley

There must be the inward worship within the shrine if there is to be outward service. – Alexander MacLaren

There stand out in my life many incidents in my youth, of wonderful inspiration and power through men preaching the gospel in the spirit of testimony and prayer. – Heber J. Grant

There was a cold night smell in the chapel. But it was a holy smell. It was not like the smell of the old peasants who knelt at the back of the chapel at Sunday mass. That was a smell of air and rain and turf and corduroy. But they were very holy peasants. They breathed behind him on his neck and sighed as they prayed. – James Joyce

There was a time in my life that I thought prayer did not matter either. There was a time earlier in my life where I did not give God a second thought. – Ernie Johnson Jr.

There’s something about the idea of writing, and thinking about writing as a form of prayer – the way as a writer you call out into the world and throw your words into the world. You’re not praying to a god, but you’re almost conjuring a reader to arrive. That’s what books do: they’re an invitation to readers. – Ruth Ozeki

Therefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning, watching in prayer, persevering in fasting, beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God not to lead us into temptation. – Polycarp

Think of God; attachments will gradually drop away. If you wait till all desires disappear before starting your devotion and prayer, you will have to wait for a very long time indeed. – Ramana Maharshi

Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things! – Andrew Murray

This, I thought, is what is meant by ‘thy will be done’ in the Lord’s Prayer, which I had prayed time and again without thinking about it. It means that your will and God’s will may not be the same. It means there’s a good possibility that you won’t get what you pray for. It means that in spite of your prayers you are going to suffer. – Wendell Berry

Those who are preparing for the coming of Christ should be sober, and watch unto prayer, for our adversary, the Devil, goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; whom we are to resist steadfast in the faith. – Ellen G. White

Those who give themselves to prayer should in a special manner have always a devotion to St. Joseph; for I know not how any man can think of the Queen of the angels, during the time that she suffered so much with the Infant Jesus, without giving thanks to St. Joseph for the services he rendered them then. – Saint Teresa of Avila

Those who have truly decided to serve the Lord God should practice the remembrance of God and uninterrupted prayer to Jesus Christ, mentally saying: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.’ – St. Seraphim of Sarov

Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in prayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to Him, make prayer a rare and feeble thing. – Anonymous

Though I forget to say my prayers or lose my words because life has taken me toward other things, I am grateful dear God, for your constancy within my life and although I may not show the same commitment, believe that my heart intends to strive always to give back that same constancy that you, in your Grace, have offered me. – Sheryl Withers

Though we cannot by our prayers give God any information, yet we must by our prayers give him honour. – Matthew Henry

Through prayer, fasting, and studying, God will answer. – Monica Johnson

Through Scripture meditation, prayer, group Bible study, and sitting under the teaching of God’s Word, we get to know our Lord better and draw closer to him. – Randy Alcorn

Through the 1980s and ’90s, evangelicals sought to turn back the forces of secularization. Groups like the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition pressed for laws recognizing Christianity’s unique place in American life, including laws that would allow prayer in public schools and Christian displays in public places. – Josh Hawley

Throughout my life, I have talked to Heavenly Father regularly through prayer. I am very grateful to my parents for teaching me that Heavenly Father lives and that He always listens to us. He listens to me, and He listens to you. I know that He will always be there for you. – Margaret D. Nadauld

Time spent on the knees in prayer will do more to remedy heart strain and nerve worry than anything else. – George D. Stewart

Time spent with God in the secret place is never the cause of spiritual inefficiency. – Maurice Roberts

Titan is the one place in our solar system whose geographical and atmospheric diversity and complexity are rivaled only by the Earth’s. It’s very Earth-like, but it’s also very different, which means we have a lot to learn as well as a prayer of understanding what we find. – Carolyn Porco

To ascertain the Lord’s will, we ought to use scriptural means. Prayer, the word of God, and His Spirit should be united together. We should go to the Lord repeatedly in prayer, and ask Him to teach us by His Spirit through His word. – George Muller

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. – Martin Luther

To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the spirit of the world. – Karl Barth

To desire revival… and at the same time to neglect (personal) prayer and devotion is to wish one way and walk another. – A.W. Tozer

To gather with God’s people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer. – Martin Luther

To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees. – Billy Graham

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. – Mahatma Gandhi

To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do. – Victor Hugo

To go to the synagogue with one’s father on the Passover eve – is there in the world a greater pleasure than that? What is it worth to be dressed in new clothes from head to foot, and to show off before one’s friends? Then the prayers themselves – the first Festival evening prayer and blessing. – Sholom Aleichem

To pray effectively we must want what God wants – that and that only is to pray in the will of God. – A. W. Tozer

To pray is to change. All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives. – Richard J. Foster

To pray rightly, you must make God your hope, stay, and all. Right prayer sees nothing substantial or worth being concerned about except God. – John Bunyan

To pray without expectation is to misunderstand the whole concept of prayer and relationship with God. – A. W. Tozer

To properly prepare to receive personal revelation, we must repent, ask through prayer, be obedient, search the scriptures, fast, think pure thoughts, and develop a spirit of reverence. – L. Lionel Kendrick

Today as you pray, remember that God’s timing is often different than ours. – Christopher Greer

Today, there’s no excuse for not learning how to get our financial houses in order. Some of us close our eyes, take a deep breath and say a prayer when it comes to managing our finances. – A’Lelia Bundles

Too often the word ‘prayer’ induces guilt because we don’t do enough of it. After all, I’ve never met anyone who said they pray too much! All of us fall short. And we often feel like our prayers fall flat. – Mark Batterson

Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble. – Anonymous

True prayer is a way of life, not just for use in cases of emergency. Make it a habit, and when the need arises you will be in practice. – Billy Graham

True prayer is done in secret, but this does not rule out the fellowship of prayer altogether, however clearly we may be aware of its dangers. In the last resort it is immaterial whether we pray in the open street or in the secrecy of our chambers, whether briefly or lengthily, in the Litany of the Church, or with the sigh of one who knows not what he should pray for. True prayer does not depend either on the individual or the whole body of the faithful, but solely upon the knowledge that our heavenly Father knows our needs. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that – it is a spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth. – Charles Spurgeon

True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us. – Mary Baker Eddy

Trust and obey the guidance of the Lord by reading His Word and earnestly pray that He will give you the right judgement in whatever you choose to do. – Janet Fuller

Try praying and ask God to show you in His Word what you should do about anything you need to know about. – Mary DeKok Blowers

Two of the central ingredients to our family are food and faith, so sitting down together and thanking God for the food He’s provided means everything to us. Prayer is a natural part of our lives – not only around the dinner table, but all day long. – Phil Robertson

Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer. – Mark Twain

Very simply, prayer is about taking this basic instinct and consciously communicating with this ‘Other’, with the person Christians would call ‘God’. – SPCK

Vilnius was once known as ‘The Jerusalem of Lithuania’ because of the number of prayer houses and scholars there; in the first half of the 20th century, it became a center of Yiddish-language scholarship. – Elizabeth McCracken

VoltaireFaith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them. – Mahalia Jackson

We are either in the process of resisting God’s truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth. – Charles Stanley

We are not trying to manipulate God and tell Him what to do. Rather, we are asking Him to tell us what to do. – Richard J. Foster

We are to pray in times of adversity, lest we become faithless and unbelieving. We are to pray in times of prosperity, lest we become boastful and proud. We are to pray in times of danger, lest we become fearful and doubting. We are to pray in times of security, lest we become self-sufficient. – Billy Graham

We ask for silver and God sometimes sends his denials wrapped in gold. – Anonymous

We ask what we think to be best; God gives what he knows to be best. – William Burkitt

We can be tired, weary, and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that he injects into our bodies energy, power and strength. – Charles Stanley

We can give unconditional love; we can give mercy, our prayers, our talents and services. – Jason Ponzio

We can take our questions, doubts, needs, dreams, and circumstances to the Lord in prayer, asking him to reveal the answers in Scripture. – Joel Patchen

We don’t have a prayer of defeating the Red Threat of our generation without a long boom of almost unprecedented duration. – Mitch Daniels

We gather for prayer, and reading the Bible, and singing the songs of David. – William Brewster

We have people on the road with us – our wives, our families and pastors. We come alongside each other, and we’re always in prayer. – Sonny Sandoval

We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties. – Oswald Chambers

We have wasted our spirit in the regions of the abstract and general just as the monks let it wither in the world of prayer and contemplation. – Alexander Herzen

We lie to God in prayer if we do not rely on him afterwards. – Robert Leighton

We live unto Him, so committing our service to the Lord is the first and foremost priority of our lives. We can start with our reasonable service: prayer, studying, fasting, tithing, fellowshipping, and witnessing. – Monica Johnson

We may pray when we say least, and we may pray least when we say most. – Augustine

We music fans go to shows for transcendence; it’s like being called to prayer. – Ezra Furman

We must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another. – Anonymous

We must learn to measure ourselves, not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. Many of us, I suspect, have no idea how impoverished we are at this level. Let us ask the Lord to show us. – J. I. Packer

We must move from asking God to take care of the things that are breaking our hearts, to praying about the things that are breaking His heart. – Anonymous

We must never believe the lie which says that the details of our lives are not the proper content of prayer. – Richard Foster

We must never get tired of praying for our loved ones, because sometimes God works suddenly, and sometimes He works over a period of time. – Joyce Meyers

We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything. – George Eliot

We need more Christians for whom prayer is the first resort, not the last. – John Blanchard

We observe that in the scriptures, fasting almost always is linked with prayer. Without prayer, fasting is not complete fasting; it’s simply going hungry. – Joseph B. Wirthlin

We pray because our own solutions don’t work and because prayer deploys, activates, and fortifies us against the attacks of the enemy. We pray because we’re serious about taking back the ground he has sought to take from us. – Priscilla Shirer

We pray in Jesus’ name because He is our hope. We pray in Jesus’ name because it is within His life that we now live. – Jamin Goggin and Kyle Strobel

We pray the love of God enfolds you during your difficult times and He helps you heal with the passage of time. – Catherine Pulsifer

We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers, and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation. – Tertullian

We set forth our petitions before God, not in order to make known to Him our needs and desires, but rather so that we ourselves may realize that in these things it is necessary to turn to God for help. – St. Thomas Aquinas

We should not permit prayer to be taken out of the schools; that’s the only way most of us got through. – Sam Levenson

We spend millions of dollars per year supplying more than adequate meals and a Koran to every detainee along with a prayer rug that meets their religious standards. – Bill Shuster

We use prayer when we need something, but praying is also for giving thanks for all your blessings. – Catherine Pulsifer

We waste most of our time trying to get God to do something He has already done—or praying for God to do something He told us to do. – Anonymous

We were at a kibbutz, and we were at a Shabbat service, and I opened up the prayer book, and on the first page, it said that the prayer book was in thanks to the sponsorship of this family in a temple in Kansas City. For me, it was a moment when I really kind of connected in a real serious way with my personal identity as a Jew. – Jason Kander

We’re living in what I like to call the ‘Thank You Economy,’ because only the companies that can figure out how to mind their manners in a very old-fashioned way – and do it authentically – are going to have a prayer of competing. – Gary Vaynerchuk

We’re people of faith so we just try and approach everything with prayer. – Karen Pence

We’re so mixed up about religion in this culture. We say the Pledge of Allegiance, ‘under God indivisible,’ but there’s no prayer in the schools. I would be so untethered without my personal faith. I wouldn’t be able to go through a day – but that’s my own experience. – Virginia Euwer Wolff

Well look, I mean, I think that prayer and holy water, and things like that are all fine. They don’t do any good, but they don’t necessarily do any harm. It’s touching to be thought of in that way. It makes up for those who tell me that I’ve got my just desserts. – Christopher Hitchens

Well the basic thesis is that there’s a god in heaven who is all powerful who wants to help people. And that – he will answer prayer, and does miraculous things in people’s lives. And so I’ve documented some of these wonderful things. – Pat Robertson

What an excellent ground of hope and confidence we have when we reflect upon these three things in prayer – the Father’s love, the Son’s merit and the Spirit’s power! – Thomas Manton

What I normally do before going on stage is pray – normally we do a group prayer with the crew or whoever is around, like our security guard, our tour manager and whoever else is back there and wants to pray with us. – Normani Kordei

What is love if it be not fiery? What are prayers if the heart be not ablaze? They are the battles of the soul. – Samuel Chadwick

What keeps me sane the most is, honestly, the Serenity Prayer. – Bryce Dallas Howard

What most of all hinders heavenly consolation is that you are too slow in turning yourself to prayer. – Thomas a Kempis

What wings are to a bird and sails to a ship, so is prayer to the soul. – Corrie Ten Boom

Whatever a person may pray for, that person prays for a miracle. Every prayer comes down to this – Almighty God, grant that two times two not equal four. – Ivan Turgenev

When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy. – Corrie Ten Boom

When a golden girl can win Prayer from out the lips of sin, When the barren almond bears, And a little child gives away its tears, Then shall all the house be still And peace comes to Canterville. – Oscar Wilde

When a man is at his wits’ end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get in touch with Reality. – Anonymous

When a man makes alliance with the Almighty, giants look like grasshoppers. – Vance Havner

When about fifteen I once made a great scandal by taking out my knife in prayer meeting and assaulting a young man who, while I was kneeling down during the prayer, stood above me and squeezed my neck. – Simon Newcomb

When at night you cannot sleep, talk to the Shepherd and stop counting sheep. – Anonymous

When I come out of my dressing room, I go to my heart and say a little prayer and go out on stage. There I am, coming to lift you up and to motivate you. I want to bring joy. It’s gospel, and gospel is the truth. It’s what I do. I’m going to bring you the truth and lift up your spirit. – Mavis Staples

When I don’t really know what to pray or how to pray, I take God’s words and make them my prayers. – Dannah Gresh

When I first got into the major label system, they were like, ‘Hey, you’re great – now write with a million people so we can get songs.’ That was something I hadn’t done before, and the songwriters I was working with had worked on some massive numbers – like ‘True Colours.’ One of the guys wrote ‘Livin On A Prayer.’ – LP

When I get out of bed in the morning, I literally say a prayer. The first thing I do is thank God that I got through the night. – Shannon Bream

When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavored to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. The photograph thus taken has been almost the embodiment of a prayer. – Julia Margaret Cameron

When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don’t pray, they don’t. – William Temple

When I pray, I pray believing that God will speak to me and give me an answer to that prayer. That’s what a calling is. If I pray, a calling means that I feel like I have a sense from God. – Michele Bachmann

When I put my faith in Jesus Christ as my savior, and I asked him to forgive and to come into my life, and He does – from that moment forward I have established a personal relationship with God that I have to develop, you know, through Bible reading and prayer, and living my life for him. – Anne Graham Lotz

When I was a child, we never began a meal without prayer. We thanked God for the food, for each other. – Jacqueline Woodson

When I was a kid, I’d kneel down at the side of my bed every night before I went to sleep, and my mother and I would say a Greek prayer to the Virgin Mary. – Olympia Dukakis

When I was a little child, my parents taught me by example to pray. I began with a picture in my mind of Heavenly Father being far away. As I have matured, my experience with prayer has changed. The picture in my mind has become one of a Heavenly Father who is close by, who is bathed in a bright light, and who knows me perfectly. – Henry B. Eyring

When I was young, I really wanted to be a part of the end-of-year awards shows, but now that I’m actually there, it feels weird. I used to go to church and ended the year with a prayer, but now I spend it with people I’m not very familiar with at an award show, and I wonder if it’s something I should be doing. – Park Bo-gum

When I write, I try to represent the ordinary person in the pew, which means that, ironically, I’m qualified to write about prayer by being unqualified! – Philip Yancey

When I’m experiencing a fresh start in my own life, when I’m sorting through the options of what’s needed to reach my desired destination, my first step is always this: pray. – Squire Rushnell

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile. – Anonymous

When music is allowed to take the place of devotion and prayer, it is a terrible curse. Young people assemble together to sing, and, although professed Christians, frequently dishonor God and their faith by their frivolous conversation and their choice of music. – Ellen G. White

When prayer becomes your habit, miracles become your lifestyle. Never give up on prayer no matter what comes your way. – Anonymous

When prayer removes distrust and doubt and enters the field of mental certainty, it becomes faith; and the universe is built on faith. – Ernest Holmes

When praying for the Lord’s will about something questionable, don’t give up if you don’t receive clear leading after one prayer; just keep on praying until God makes it clear. – Curtis Hutson

When pressure builds up, don’t panic. Pray! Prayer is a tremendous stress reliever. It can be your safety valve. – Rick Warren

When the fire of prayer goes out, the barrenness of busyness takes over. – George Carey

When the Lord is to lead a soul to great faith he leaves its prayers unheard. – Andrew Murray

When we are spending regular time in our Bible and diligently committed to prayer, no attack can stand against our minds and we can resist the temptations. – Adam Cumpston

When we discipline ourselves by watching what we put into our hearts and minds, by doing the hard work of Bible study, by investing in prayer, and by faithfully surrounding ourselves with a group of like-minded believers, we begin to deepen and mature. – Mark J. Musser

When we don’t pray, we quit the fight. Prayer keeps the Christian’s armor bright. And Satan trembles when he sees. The weakest saint upon his knees. – William Cowper

When we miss out on prayer we cause disappointment to Christ, defeat to ourselves and delight to the devil. – John Blanchard

When we pray and don’t see an answer as quickly as we would like, it may be a result of circumstances that we can’t see. – Greg Laurie

When we pray and then worry, we are not exercising trust in God. We are not fully releasing our burdens or needs to Him; we are “taking them back” and working them over in our minds. – Joyce Meyers

When we pray for others, God listens to you and blessed them. So when you are safe and happy, remember that someone is praying for you. – Anonymous

When we pray, we relax, reflect, and renew our commitments to God. The peace that comes from consulting with God and receiving His divine wisdom is a powerful hug. – David DeNotaris

When we read our Bible, God speaks to us and when we pray, we speak to Him, and so our friendship with God grows strong. – Alan Toms

When we were kids, we said the Pledge of Allegiance because we were proud of this country, and we said prayer. You know, we thanked the good Lord above. – Johnny Van Zant

When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message. – Oswald Chambers

When you ask God for something, if you don’t believe, then why even ask? It’s an empty exercise. But if you pray and ask God for something, Jesus said, believe that he’s going to do it. Thank him in advance for what only he can do. And then look for how he answers your prayer. – Rick Warren

When you can’t do nothing but pray – you’ve done a whole lot. – T. D. Jakes

When you can’t put your prayer into words, God hears your heart. – Anonymous

When you cease from labour, fill up your time in reading, meditation, and prayer: and while your hands are labouring, let your heart be employed, as much as possible, in divine thoughts. – David Brainerd

When you fast and pray you are breaking through into the glory realm at an accelerated pace. – David Herzog

When you feel like worrying, try praying instead. Worrying only creates more stress, but prayer creates more peace. God is bigger than whatever is stressing you out. – Dave Willis

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

When you pray, try to let the prayer reach your heart; in other words, it is necessary that your heart should feel what you are talking about in your prayer, that it should wish for the blessing for which you are asking. Observe, during prayer, whether your heart is in accord with that which you are saying. – St John of Kronstadt

When you recognize the festive and the still moments as moments of prayer, then you gradually realize that to pray is to live. – Henri Nouwen

When your heart is broken, you plant seeds in the cracks and you pray for rain. – Anonymous

Where there is much prayer, there will be much of the Spirit; where there is much of the Spirit, there will be ever-increasing prayer. – Andrew Murray

Whether the prayer of Seneca was granted we do not know; but, as we do not again hear of Marcus, it is probable that he died before his father, and that the line of Seneca, like that of so many great men, became extinct in the second generation. – Frederic William Farrar

Whether we think of or speak to God; whether we act or suffer for him; all is prayer when we have no other object than his love, and the desire of pleasing him. – John Wesley

While doing centering prayer, the practice is to let go of any thought or perception. The priority is to be as silent as possible and when that is not possible to let the noise of the thoughts be the sacred symbol for a while, without analyzing them. – Thomas Keating

Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered. – George Meredith

Whoever has not begun the practice of prayer, I beg for the love of the Lord not to go without so great a good. There is nothing here to fear but only something to desire. – Saint Teresa of Avila

Why are these things happening in Portland? In part, it’s because we are a progressive community. Groups like Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys… they come from the outside. They come here because they know that their message is not necessarily welcomed here. They’re trying to provoke a reaction. – Ted Wheeler

Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I’d look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer. – L. M. Montgomery

Winters prayed the whole way over, prayed to live through it, prayed that he wouldn’t fail. – Stephen Ambrose

With a lot of prayer and the support of my family and friends, I have been able to rebuild my life and pursue my dreams! – Porsha Williams

With agents, I’ve learned to bring them into the process when I feel confident. You’re the only one that can really know what’s right for your career. You’re on a wing and a prayer through most of it. – Casey Wilson

With continued prayer and an equally-determined commitment to action for needed anti-violence reforms, let us resolve to work toward a new era in which every American child and every adult are protected from the ravages of brutality, safe and secure in our homes and schools and communities. – Bernice King

With that in mind and in celebration of National Prayer Day, today I have proposed in the House of Representatives a Constitutional Amendment that would restore voluntary prayer in our Nation’s schools. – Nick Rahall

Without our faith, we wouldn’t have been able to succeed. On many occasions, before we’d go out on a sit-in, before we went on the freedom ride, before we marched from Selma to Montgomery, we would sing a song or say a prayer. Without our faith, without the spirit and spiritual bearings and underpinning, we would not have been so successful. – John Lewis

Without prayer, without faith in the Almighty, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings. – John Lewis

Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow. – Benjamin Franklin

Work is a prayer. And I start off every morning dedicating it to our Creator. – Joseph Murray

Work, work, from morning until late at night. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours in prayer. – Martin Luther

Worship and intercession must go together; the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means that we rouse ourselves up to get the mind of Christ about the one for whom we pray. – Oswald Chambers

Writing about prayer to a secular audience is tap-dancing on the radio. I want to say, ‘Gee whiz, isn’t this great,’ and have everyone’s head cocked like the RCA dog. – Mary Karr

Years of drought and famine come and years of flood and famine come, and the climate is not changed with dance, libation or prayer. – John Wesley Powell

Yet prayer alone will not avail. Faith and works must always be associated. – John Harvey Kellogg

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holy of holies of Jewish time. It is that rarest of phenomena, a Jewish festival without food. Instead it is a day of fasting and prayer, introspection and self-judgment when, collectively and repeatedly, we confess our sins and pray to be written into God’s Book of Life. – Jonathan Sacks

You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. – S. D. Gordon

You can meditate on almost anything: a prayer, song, image or word. Close your eyes; sit in a comfortable position. Take a breath, and say the word out loud, emphasizing the humming sound at the end. When you come to the end of the breath, take another one and say the word again. And so on. – Dean Ornish

You can see God from anywhere if your mind is set to love and obey Him. – A.W. Tozer

You cannot pray for someone and hate them at the same time. – Billy Graham

You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. – Thich Nhat Hanh

You know the value of prayer: it is precious beyond all price. Never, never neglect it. – Sir Thomas Buxton

You know, I suffer kind of from survivor’s guilt. It’s like you suffer from success because you feel like – why me? Why am I so special? What makes me so different from the next man and why am I able to achieve these things that this person can’t? Prayer is the only thing that helps me get through it. – Goldlink

You often feel that your prayers scarcely reach the ceiling; but, oh, get into this humble spirit by considering how good the Lord is, and how evil you all are, and then prayer will mount on wings of faith to heaven. – Charles Simeon

You pray for things and accept the blessings when they come, you know? And it is about how you talk to yourself and what you say morning, noon and night about what you want to happen in your life. Some folks call that creative visualization. Other people call it prayer. But it is about that message that you send out there to yourself. – Al Jarreau

You’re not gonna get through life without being worshipful or devoted to something. You’re either devoted to your job, or to your desires. So the best way to spend your life is to try to be devoted to prayer, to Allah. – Mos Def

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

Your heart has to be prepared ahead of time through faith and prayer and grace and mercy and love and forgiveness so you can keep your heart open in hell, when hell happens. – Richard Rohr

Your personal time with God is huge, your quiet time, your study, prayer, but being around other Christian followers… and the church just feeds you. You come away feeling rejuvenated, you get a great message. – Ryan Tannehill

Prayer Quotes From Stormie Omartian

And take the helmet of salvation, • and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; • praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, • being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints (Ephesians 6:14-18). – Stormie Omartian

As Commander of these armies, He shows us how to take back from the enemy all he has stolen that is rightfully ours. We do that in prayer as prayer warriors! – Stormie Omartian

As prayer warriors, we must remember that no matter how hopeless a situation may appear to us, God gives us power in prayer to do something about it. – Stormie Omartian

Do not be afraid; only believe” (Mark 5:36). – Stormie Omartian

Even though Jesus put the enemy under His feet and won the victory for us, we still must move into that victory. There are still battles to be fought in prayer. – Stormie Omartian

Faith dissolves fear and makes us courageous. – Stormie Omartian

God sees us from the perspective of who He created us to be, but we too often see ourselves from our limitations instead of our possibilities. – Stormie Omartian

God sees us—someone worth dying for. God loves us, but we too often see ourselves as unloved. God sees us as chosen and accepted, but we may see ourselves as rejected. – Stormie Omartian

It means asking God to keep us undeceived so that we never allow deception to take root. Knowing the truth liberates us from all possibility of deception and illuminates any darkness in our life. – Stormie Omartian

Jesus is the Commander of two armies. One is an army of angels in heaven and one is the army of prayer warriors on earth. – Stormie Omartian

Know that we win the war when we pray in power because prayer is the battle. – Stormie Omartian

Lord, show me anything in me that is not right in Your eyes so I can confess it before You, because I choose to live Your way. – Stormie Omartian

PRAYER Lord, help me to put on the full spiritual armor You have provided for me so that I can stand against the wiles of the devil” every day. In Jesus’ name I pray. GO DEEPER” – Stormie Omartian

Praying always means praying through things and not giving up. It means being ever-watchful and persevering in prayer in order to see breakthrough. – Stormie Omartian

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, • having put on the breastplate of righteousness, • and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; • above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. – Stormie Omartian

The enemy wants to steal our peace and keep us stirred up, anxious, fearful, upset, and always in a stance of waiting for something terrible to happen at any minute. – Stormie Omartian

There are many things God wants to do on earth and in people’s lives, but if someone doesn’t leap in and answer the call to pray, it won’t happen. – Stormie Omartian

We must acknowledge that we depend on God and choose to live our life for Him. Even though we are a new creation, we still must decide to live like we are. – Stormie Omartian

When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He gives us the desires of our heart. When we commit our ways to the Lord and trust in Him, He brings our desires to pass as we pray about them (Psalm 37:4-5). – Stormie Omartian

You need this armor to stop any onslaught of the enemy’s destructive arrows into your life and the lives of those you care about—both now and in the future. – Stormie Omartian

Prayer Quotes From E.M. Bounds

A holy life does not live in the closet, but it cannot live without the closet. – E.M. Bounds

An obedient life is a great help to prayer. In fact, an obedient life is a necessity to prayer, to the sort which accomplishes things. The absence of an obedient life makes prayer an empty performance, a mere misnomer. A penitent sinner seeks pardon and salvation and has an answer to his prayers even with a life stained and debauched with sin. But God’s royal intercessors come before him with royal lives. Holy living promotes holy praying. God’s intercessors ‘lift up holy hands,’ the symbols of righteous, obedient lives. – E.M. Bounds

Enthusiasm is more active than faith, though enthusiasm cannot remove mountains nor call into action any of the omnipotent forces which faith can command. Activity is often at the expense of more solid, useful elements, and generally to the total neglect of prayer. To be too busy with God’s work to commune with God, to be busy with doing church work without taking time to talk to God about His work, is the highway to backsliding, and many people have walked therein to the hurt of their immortal souls. – E.M. Bounds

Every preacher who does not make prayer a mighty factor in his own life and ministry is weak as a factor in God’s work and is powerless to project God’s cause in this world. – E.M. Bounds

Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer. – E.M. Bounds

Giving thanks is the very life of prayer. – E.M. Bounds

God cannot help hearing the prayer of an obedient child. – E.M. Bounds

God does not bestow His gifts on the casual of hasty comers and goers. Much with God alone is the secret of knowing Him and of influence with Him. – E.M. Bounds

God draws mightily near to the praying soul. – E.M. Bounds

God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. They outlive the lives of those who uttered them. – E.M. Bounds

God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil. – E.M. Bounds

God’s acquaintance is not made hurriedly. – E.M. Bounds

He only can truly pray who is all aglow for holiness, for God, and for heaven. – E.M. Bounds

He who is too busy to pray will be too busy to live a holy life. Satan had rather we let the grass grow on the path to our prayer chamber than anything else. – E.M. Bounds

He who would pray, must obey. He who would get anything out of his prayers, must be in perfect harmony with God. Prayer puts into those who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for the spirit of disobedience is not of God and belongs not to God’s praying hosts. – E.M. Bounds

Heaven is too busy to listen to half-hearted prayers or to respond to pop-calls. – E.M. Bounds

Holy living is essential preparation for prayer. – E.M. Bounds

If prayer puts God to work on earth, then, by the same token, prayerlessness rules God out of the world’s affairs and prevents Him from working. – E.M. Bounds

In doing God’s work, there is no substitute for praying. The men of prayer cannot be displaced with other kinds of men. – E.M. Bounds

It is necessary to iterate and reiterate that prayer, as a mere habit, as a performance gone through by routine or in a professional way, is a dead and rotten thing. – E.M. Bounds

It is only when the whole heart is gripped with the passion of prayer that the life-giving fire descends, for none but the earnest man gets access to the ear of God. – E.M. Bounds

Jesus taught that perseverance is the essential element in prayer. – E.M. Bounds

Life growing in its purity and devotion will be a more prayerful life. – E.M. Bounds

Man’s access in prayer to God opens everything and makes his impoverishment his wealth. All things are his through prayer. – E.M. Bounds

Men of prayer, before anything else, are indispensable to the furtherance of the kingdom of God on earth. No other sort will fit in the scheme or do the deed. Men, great and influential in other things but small in prayer, cannot do the work Almighty God has set out for His Church to do in this, His world. – E.M. Bounds

No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame. – E.M. Bounds

No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack. – E.M. Bounds

Nothing is clearer than that prayer has its only worth and significance in the great fact that God hears and answers prayer. – E.M. Bounds

Nothing is more important to God than prayer in dealing with mankind. But it is likewise all-important to man to pray. – E.M. Bounds

Our praying, however, needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails. – E. M. Bounds

Pray without ceasing; continue in prayer; continuing instant in prayer; in everything by prayer, let your request be made known unto God; pray always, pray and not faint; men should pray everywhere; praying always, with all prayer and supplication. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all chains, opens all prisons, and widens all straits by which God’s saints have been held. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer concerns God, whose purposes and plans are conditioned on prayer. His will and His glory are bound up in praying. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer is a specific divine appointment, an ordinance of Heaven, whereby God purposes to carry out His gracious designs on earth and to execute and make efficient the plan of salvation. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer is God’s plan to supply man’s great and continuous need with God’s great and continuous abundance. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer is no petty duty, put into a corner; no piecemeal performance made out of the fragments of time which have been snatched from business and other engagements of life; but it means that the best of our time, the heart of our time and strength must be given. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer is not learned in a classroom but in the closet. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honors God and brings him into active aid. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer is the one prime, eternal condition by which the Father is pledged to put the Son in possession of the world. Christ prays through His people. – E. M. Bounds

Prayer lays hold upon God and influences Him to work. This is the meaning of prayer as it concerns God. This is the doctrine of prayer, or else there is nothing whatever in prayer. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer makes a godly man, and puts within him the mind of Christ, the mind of humility, of self-surrender, of service, of pity, and of prayer. If we really pray, we will become more like God, or else we will quit praying. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer must be broad in its scope – it must plead for others. Intercession for others is the hallmark of all true prayer. When prayer is confined to self and to the sphere of one’s personal needs, it dies by reason of its littleness, narrowness and selfishness. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer should not be regarded as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer succeeds when all else fails. – E.M. Bounds

PRAYER, praise and thanksgiving all go in company. – E.M. Bounds

Prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them; outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world. – E.M Bounds

Prayer honours God, acknowledges his being, exalts his power, adores his providence, secures his aid. – E. M. Bounds

Private place and plenty of time are the life of prayer. – E.M. Bounds

Public prayers are of little worth unless they are founded on or followed up by private praying. – E.M. Bounds

Sainthood’s piety is made, refined, perfected, by prayer. The gospel moves with slow and timid pace when the saints are not at their prayers early and late and long. – E.M. Bounds

Spiritual work is taxing work, and men are loath to do it. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. – E.M. Bounds

Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still. – E.M. Bounds

The church upon its knees would bring heaven upon the earth. – E. M. Bounds

The goal of prayer is the ear of God. – E.M. Bounds

The greatest benefactor this age could have is the man who will bring the teachers and the church back to prayer. – E.M. Bounds

The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men – men of prayer. – E.M. Bounds

The life of the individual believer, his personal salvation, and personal Christian graces have their being, bloom and fruitage in prayer. – E.M. Bounds

The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the little time we give to it. – E.M. Bounds

The men to whom Jesus Christ committed the fortunes and destiny of His Church were men of prayer. To no other kind of men has God ever committed Himself in this world. – E.M. Bounds

The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day. – E.M. Bounds

The prime need of the church is not men of money nor men of brains, but men of prayer. – E. M. Bounds

The sanctity of prayer is needed to impregnate business. We need the spirit of Sunday carried over to Monday and continued until Saturday. But this cannot be done by prayerless men, but by men of prayer. – E.M. Bounds

The story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer. – E.M. Bounds

To be too busy with God’s work to commune with God is the highway to backsliding. – E.M. Bounds

To give prayer the secondary place is to make God secondary in life’s affairs. – E. M. Bounds

To see God, to know God, and to live for God-these form the objective of all true praying. – E.M. Bounds

True prayer must be aflame. Christian life and character need to be all on fire. – E.M. Bounds

Trust receives what prayer acquires. So, what prayer needs, at all times, is abiding and abundant trust. – E.M. Bounds

Walking with God down the avenues of prayer we acquire something of His likeness, and unconsciously we become witnesses to others of His beauty and His grace. – E. M. Bounds

We are feeble, weak and impoverished because of our failure to pray. God is restrained in doing because we are restrained by reason of our non-praying. All failures in securing heaven are traceable to lack of prayer or misdirected petition. – E.M. Bounds

We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. It surmounts or removes all obstacles, overcomes every resisting force and gains its ends in the face of invincible hindrances. – E.M. Bounds

We may excuse the spiritual poverty of our preaching in many ways, but the true secret will be found in the lack of urgent prayer for God’s presence in the power of the Holy Spirit. – E.M. Bounds

What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men who the Holy Spirit can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not come on machinery but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer. – E. M. Bounds

When we say that prayer puts God to work, it is simply to say that man has it in his power by prayer to move God to work in His own way among men, in which way He would not work if prayer was not made. – E.M. Bounds

While the pulpit must hold to its unswerving loyalty to the Word of God, it must, at the same time, be loyal to the doctrine of prayer which that same Word illustrates and enforces upon mankind. – E.M. Bounds

Wise is he in the day of trouble who knows his true source of strength and who fails not to pray. – E.M. Bounds

Without devotion prayer is an empty form, a vain round of words. – E.M. Bounds

Woe to the generation of sons who find their censers empty of the rich incense of prayer, whose fathers have been too busy or too unbelieving to pray, and perils inexpressible and consequences untold are their unhappy heritage. – E.M. Bounds

You know the value of prayer: it is precious beyond all price. – E.M. Bounds

Prayer Quotes From Wikiquote

• If the one who offers prayer knew how much divine mercy is descending upon him, he would surely not raise his head from prostration.
  • Ali, Ghurar al-Hikam wa Durar al-Kalim (Exalted Aphorisms And Pearls Of Speech). p. 710. Translated by Tahir Ridha Jaffer. Ansariyan Publications – Qum (2012).

• Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.
  • Maya Angelou, Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer (2006)

• The most acceptable prayer is the one offered with the utmost spirituality and radiance; its prolongation hath not been and is not beloved by God. The more detached and the purer the prayer, the more acceptable is it in the presence of God.
  • Báb, Persian Bayán, VII, 19

• Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth.
  • Philip James Bailey, Festus (1813), scene Elsewhere.

• Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.
  • J. Sidlow Baxter, Reported in Charlie Jones, Bob Kelly, The Tremendous Power of Prayer (2000) p. 46.

• PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.
  • Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911).

• God shapes the world by prayer.
  • Edward McKendree Bounds Purpose in Prayer (1920), p. 9.

• Apostolic preaching cannot be carried on unless there be apostolic prayer.
  • Edward McKendree Bounds, The Weapon of Prayer.

• In prayerful sympathy and love. Hold to the old truth — double distilled.
  • Edward McKendree Bounds, Last card to Homer W. Hodge, dated 26 June 1913.

• God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers,
  And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face,
  A gauntlet with a gift in ‘t.
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), Book II.

• Every wish
  Is like a prayer — with God.
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), Book II.

• Hope, he called, belief
  In God, — work, worship * * * therefore let us pray!
  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), Book III.

• There are, O householder, five desirable, pleasant, and agreeable things which are rare in the world. What are those five? They are long life, beauty, happiness, fame and (rebirth in) a heaven. But of those five things, O householder, I do no teach that they are to be obtained by prayer or by vows.
  • Gautama Buddha, Anguttara Nikaya 5.43

• For a noble disciple, O householder, who wishes to have long life, it is not befitting that he should pray for long life or take delight in so doing. He should rather follow a path of life that is conducive to longevity.
  • Gautama Buddha, Anguttara Nikaya 5.43

• All my life I have prayed, and all my life I have been refused answer. I scarcely believed in the gods anymore, or if I did, it was only to curse them for their indifference. They betrayed my father, who had served Them loyally all his life. They betrayed my mother, or They were powerless to save her, which was as bad or worse. If a god has come to me, He certainly hasn’t come for me!
  • Lois McMaster Bujold, The Hallowed Hunt (2005), Chapter 6

• When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God.
  • Basil of Caesarea, Letter to Gregory, Saint Basil: The Letters, R. Deferrari, trans. (1926), vol. 1, p. 15.

• We must resist wandering thoughts in prayer. Raising our hands reminds us that we need to raise up our minds to God, setting aside all irrelevant thoughts.
  • John Calvin, Book III Ch. 20 First Rule, para. 1 and 2.

• Some one will say, Does he not know without a monitor both what our difficulties are, and what is meet for our interest, so that it seems in some measure superfluous to solicit him by our prayers, as if he were winking, or even sleeping, until aroused by the sound of our voice? Those who argue thus attend not to the end for which the Lord taught us to pray. It was not so much for his sake as for ours. … It is very much for our interest to be constantly supplicating him; first, that our heart may always be inflamed with a serious and ardent desire of seeking, loving and serving him, while we accustom ourselves to have recourse to him as a sacred anchor in every necessity; secondly, that no desires, no longing whatever, of which we are ashamed to make him the witness, may enter our minds, while we learn to place all our wishes in his sight, and thus pour out our heart before him; and, lastly, that we may be prepared to receive all his benefits with true gratitude and thanksgiving, while our prayers remind us that they proceed from his hand.
  • John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 3 (1536)

• Let the first rule of right prayer then be, to have our heart and mind framed as becomes those who are entering into converse with God. This we shall accomplish in regard to the mind, if, laying aside carnal thoughts and cares which might interfere with the direct and pure contemplation of God, it not only be wholly intent on prayer, but also, as far as possible, be borne and raised above itself. … When I say it must be raised above itself, I mean that it must not bring into the presence of God any of those things which our blind and stupid reason is wont to devise, nor keep itself confined within the little measure of its own vanity, but rise to a purity worthy of God.
  • John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 4 (1536)

• The ceremony of lifting up our hands in prayer is designed to remind us that we are far removed from God, unless our thoughts rise upward.
  • John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 5 (1536)

• Can we suppose anything more hateful or even more execrable to God than this fiction of asking the pardon of sins, while he who asks at the very time either thinks that he is not a sinner, or, at least, is not thinking that he is a sinner; in other words, a fiction by which God is plainly held in derision?
  • John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 6 (1536)

• He who comes into the presence of God to pray must divest himself of all vainglorious thoughts, lay aside all idea of worth; in short, discard all self- confidence, humbly giving God the whole glory, lest by arrogating any thing, however little, to himself, vain pride cause him to turn away his face.
  • John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, Chapter 20, Section 8 (1536)

• As our blessed Lord has required us to pray that his kingdom may come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, it becomes us not only to express our desires of that event by words, but to use every lawful method to spread the knowledge of his name. In order to this, it is necessary that we should become, in some measure acquainted with the religious state of the world; and as this is an object we should be prompted to pursue, not only by the gospel of our Redeemer, but even by the feelings of humanity, so an inclination to conscientious activity therein would form one of the strongest proofs that we are the subjects of grace, and partakers of that spirit of universal benevolence and genuine philanthropy, which appear so eminent in the character of God himself.
  • William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792), Introduction

• The most glorious works of grace that have ever took place, have been in answer to prayer; and it is in this way, we have the greatest reason to suppose, that the glorious out-pouring of the Spirit, which we expect at last, will be bestowed.
  • William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians (1792), Sect. V : An Enquiry into the Duty of Christians in general, and what Means ought to be used, in order to promote this Work.

• Many can do nothing but pray, and prayer is perhaps the only thing in which Christians of all denominations can cordially, and unreservedly unite; but in this we may all be one, and in this the strictest unanimity ought to prevail. Were the whole body thus animated by one soul, with what pleasure would Christians attend on all the duties of religion, and with what delight would their ministers attend on all the business of their calling.
  We must not be contented however with praying, without exerting ourselves in the use of means for the obtaining of those things we pray for. Were the children of light, but as wise in their generation as the children of this world, they would stretch every nerve to gain so glorious a prize, nor ever imagine that it was to be obtained in any other way.
  • William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians (1792), Sect. V : An Enquiry into the Duty of Christians in general, and what Means ought to be used, in order to promote this Work.

• Suppose your prayers aren’t answered. What do you say? “Well, it’s God’s will.” “Thy will be done.” Fine, but if it’s God’s will, and He’s going to do what He wants to anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn’t you just skip the praying part and go right to His will? It’s all very confusing.
  • George Carlin, You Are All Diseased (1999).

• I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same 50% rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don’t. Same as God, 50-50. Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe, the wishing well and the rabbit’s foot, same as the Mojo Man, same as the Voodoo Lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat’s testicles, it’s all the same: 50-50. So just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself.
  • George Carlin, You Are All Diseased (1999).

• To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions they demand, is to fall into superstition.
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992), § 2111.

• Can a little speck in the vast universe truly address the Infinite? The answer is that Prayer is precisely what converts that little speck into an entity of inestimable and cosmic significance.
  • Jeffrey Cohen, Following the Synagogue Service, Chapter III, p. 23, Gnesia Publications, 1997, ISBN 0-946000-01-8

• He prayeth best who loveth best
  All things, both great and small.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798; 1817), Part VII.

• He prayeth well who loveth well
  Both man and bird and beast.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798; 1817), Part VII.

• The power of prayer is based on the reality that there is no separation: all atoms, throughout cosmos, are linked. The effectiveness of prayer depends upon the level of focused thought attained by the praying agent. Most prayer is supplication stemming from the astral desire-nature of that agent and is thus limited in scope. Prayer at its higher level is possible through the focused mind; on a yet higher level on the love intention of the soul-infused disciple, the soul itself thus being the agent.
  • Benjamin Creme, Compilation on prayer Share International magazine, (December 2003)

• The response to prayer is conditioned by the Law of Cause and Effect (the Law of Karma as it is called in the East) and the degree of intervention allowed to the Masters of Wisdom as the Divine Intermediaries. Thus Jesus, the Madonna, Krishna, Mohammed, and a host of Saints of all religions are prayed to for intercession. They can, and do, act as intermediaries as the Law allows.
  • Benjamin Creme, Compilation on prayer Share International magazine, (December 2003)

• It really does not matter to Whom you pray; the important thing is to believe in the one you choose. The more conscious the approach, the more mental, the more the will is involved, and the greater the faith of contact, the more the likelihood of the prayer being heard and, within karmic law, answered. My recommendation is to pray to Maitreya, as Representative of God, Divine Intermediary, not least because He has promised to answer the prayers of those who need His help. I would suggest that we should not pray for, and expect to receive, material goods or solutions to life problems, which it is our responsibility to find or work out for ourselves.
  • Benjamin Creme, Compilation on prayer Share International magazine, (December 2003)

• To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! … that is what I call prayer.
  • Claude Debussy, quoted in Claude Debussy: His Life and Works (1933) by Léon Vallas.

• In memorizing the prayer, it may be helpful to remind yourself that you are not addressing some extraterrestrial being outside you. The kingdom of heaven is within us, and the Lord is enshrined in the depths of our own consciousness. In this prayer we are calling deep into ourselves, appealing to the spark of the divine that is our real nature.
  • Eknath Easwaran, God Makes the Rivers Flow (1982), p. 184.

• Prayer that craves a particular commodity, — any thing less than all good, — is vicious.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”.

• First pray for the gift of tears, so that through sorrowing you may tame what is savage in your soul. And having confessed your transgressions to the Lord, you will obtain forgiveness from Him.
  • Evagrios the Solitary, On Prayer: One Hundred and Fifty-Three Texts, #5, in Philokalia, as translated and edited by G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard and Kallistos Ware (1979)

• When praying on behalf of Pharaoh to remove the plague of hail from him, Moses went out of the town to do so (Exod. 9. 20), because he would not pray in the midst of the idols and abominations that polluted the place and rendered it unfit for prayer to the throne of mercy. He went into the open, pure air of God to pray to God.
  • Exodus Rabbah 12, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p. 94-95

• David advisedly calls one of his Psalms (Psalm 90) ‘A prayer of Moses, the man of God,’ and another Psalm (Psalm 102) he names ‘A prayer of the afflicted,’ to convey to us the truth that the prayer of the greatest and of the most humble of men, that of the richest and that of the poorest, of the slave and of the master, are equal before God.

Prayers should be said in common, master and man mistress and maid, rich and poor together, for all are equal before God.

• Exodus Rabbah 21, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p. 99

• If your hands are stained by dishonesty, your prayers will be polluted and impure, and an offence to Him to whom you direct them. Do not pray at all before you have your hands purified from every dishonest act.
  • Exodus Rabbah 22, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p. 100

• God requires but earnest prayer and a penitent heart.
  Israel was redeemed from Egypt in answer to prayer. Joshua became a conqueror because of his prayer; in the days of the judges help was obtained by prayer; Samuel’s help for his people was granted in reply to prayer.
  • Exodus Rabbah 38 Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p. 105-106

• Reader, pray that soon this Iron Age
  Will crumble, and Beauty escape the rusting cage.
  • Philip José Farmer, in “Beauty in This Iron Age” in Starlanes #11 (Fall 1953); re-published in Pearls From Peoria (2006).

• I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel that it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third place, and teaching the fourth.
  • James O. Fraser 1922 in Geraldine Taylor, Behind the Ranges: The Life-changing Story of J.O. Fraser, Singapore: OMF International (IHQ) Ltd., 1998, 269.

• Prayer is not an asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one’s weakness.
  • Mahatma Gandhi in Young India (23 September 1926).

• In spite of despair staring me in the face on the political horizon, I have never lost my peace. In fact, I have found people who envy my peace. That peace, I tell you, comes from prayer; I am not a man of learning, but I humbly claim to be a man of prayer. I am indifferent as to the form. Every one is a law unto himself in that respect. But there are some well-marked roads, and it is safe to walk along the beaten tracks, trod by the ancient teachers. Well, I have given my personal testimony. Let every one try and find that as a result of daily prayer, he adds some thing new to his life, something which nothing can be compared.
  • Mahatma Gandhi in Young India (24 September 1931), also in Teachings Of Mahatma Gandhi (1945), edited by Jag Parvesh Chander, p. 457.

• Supplication, worship, prayer are no superstition; they are acts more real than the acts of eating, drinking, sitting or walking. It is no exaggeration to say that they alone are real.
  • Mahatma Gandhi, quoted in The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation (2002) by Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin, Ch. 18: The Techniques of Altruistic Transformation (concluded), p. 339.

• Prayer needs no speech. I have not the slightest doubt that prayer is an unfailing means of cleansing the heart of passions. But it must be combined with the utmost humility.
  • Mahatma Gandhi, quoted in The Ways and Power of Love: Types, Factors, and Techniques of Moral Transformation (2002) by Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin, Ch. 18: The Techniques of Altruistic Transformation (concluded), p. 339.

• Do not complain and cry and pray, but open your eyes and see, for the light is all about you, and it is so wonderful, so beautiful, so far beyond anything of which men have ever dreamt, for which they have ever prayed, and it is for ever and for ever.
  • Gautama Buddha, quoted by Charles Webster Leadbeater, in The Masters and the Path (1925) p. 229

• Nothing fails like prayer.
  • Attributed to Anne Nicol Gaylor in Dan Barker, The Good Atheist (2011), p. 98.

• The feeble prayer which a sick person can offer himself is infinitely better than all the prayers offered for him by others.
  • Genesis Rabbah 53, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p.81

• When Rebecca left her parents’ house they blessed her, and prayed that she might be the mother of millions of people (Gen. 24. 60). Yet she was barren till she herself and Isaac supplicated the Lord. Hence we see that it makes a difference who offers prayers.–Gen. Rabba 60.
  • Genesis Rabbah 60, Tales and Maxims from the Midrash by Rev. Samuel Rapaport, (1907), p.81-82

• At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
  His looks adorn’d the venerable place;
  Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
  And fools, who came to scoff, remain’d to pray.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village (1770), line 177.

• From the point of Light within the Mind of God
• Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
• Let Light descend on Earth.
• From the point of Love within the Heart of God
• Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
• May Christ return to Earth.
• From the centre where the Will of God is known
• Let purpose guide the little wills of men –
• The purpose which the Masters know and serve.
• From the centre which we call the race of men
• Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
• And may it seal the door where evil dwells.
• Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.
  • The Great Invocation

• Narrated As-Saburah: The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: Command a boy to pray when he reaches the age of seven years. When he becomes ten years old, then beat him for prayer.
  • HADITH Sunan Abu Dawud 2:494
• Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-‘As: The Apostle of Allah (peace be upon him) said: Command your children to pray when they become seven years old, and beat them for it (prayer) when they become ten years old; and arrange their beds (to sleep) separately.
  • Sunan Abu Dawud 2:495

• What returns does prayer show? None, if it is real prayer. For prayer is for growth. We can therefore, never return to what we were thank heaven, for we are growers. So prayer is a call. And it’s answered by a call. We call up and we are called on. We’re summoned, told to advance, to grow. That’s the nerve of prayer, as prayer is the nerve of religion.
  • Gerald Heard, Reflections (1959).

• He that will learn to pray, let him go to Sea.
  • George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651), No. 89.

• In prayer the lips ne’er act the winning part
  Without the sweet concurrence of the heart.
  • Robert Herrick, Hesperides (1648), The Heart.

• Prayer invites the Eternal Presence to suffuse or spirits and let God’s will prevail in our lives. Prayer cannot bring water to parched fields, or mend a broken bridge, or rebuild a ruined city; but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart, and rebuild a weakened will.
  • Prayer based on statements of Abraham Joshua Heschel in Shaarei Tefillah (Gates of Prayer, a siddur). Quoted in The Jewish Moral Virtues (1999) by Eugene B. Borowitz and Frances Weinman Schwartz.

• The focus of prayer is not the self. … It is the momentary disregard of our personal concerns, the absence of self-centered thoughts, which constitute the art of prayer. Feeling becomes prayer in the moment in which we forget ourselves and become aware of God. …. Thus, in beseeching Him for bread, there is one instant, at least, in which our mind is directed neither to our hunger nor to food, but to His mercy. This instant is prayer. We start with a personal concern and live to feel the utmost.
  • Abraham Joshua Heschel, as quoted in Judaism (1998) by Arthur Hertzberg, p. 300

• Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy. And yet being alive is no answer to the problems of living. To be or not to be is not the question. The vital question is: how to be and how not to be?
  The tendency to forget this vital question is the tragic disease of contemporary man, a disease that may prove fatal, that may end in disaster. To pray is to recollect passionately the perpetual urgency of this vital question.
  • Abraham Joshua Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays, p. 264

• It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good, and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring.
  • Robert G. Ingersoll, “Which Way?” (1884).

• Who is a worshiper? What is prayer? What is real religion? Let me answer these questions.
  Good, honest, faithful work, is worship. The man who ploughs the fields and fells the forests; the man who works in mines, the man who battles with the winds and waves out on the wide sea, controlling the commerce of the world; these men are worshipers. The man who goes into the forest, leading his wife by the hand, who builds him a cabin, who makes a home in the wilderness, who helps to people and civilize and cultivate a continent, is a worshiper.
  Labor is the only prayer that Nature answers; it is the only prayer that deserves an answer, — good, honest, noble work.
  • Robert G. Ingersoll, in appeal to the jury in the trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887).

• If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, “Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled”; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead.
  • James 2:15-17 (KJV).

• The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
  • James 5:16 (KJV).

• But petitional prayer is only one department of prayer; and if we take the word in the wider sense as meaning every kind of inward communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine, we can easily see that scientific criticism leaves it untouched. Prayer in this wide sense is the very soul and essence of religion.
  • William James, Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), Lecture XIX, “Other Characteristics”.

• But though I repeated my plea, and waited on my knees for nearly an hour, there was no answer.
  • N. K. Jemisin, The Broken Kingdoms (2011), Chapter 9

• • Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
  • Jesus, in Matthew 6:9-13 , as quoted in Lord’s Prayer to be given in three versions, by Andrew Brown, Independent UK, (18 September 2011)

• I have visited a few astronauts, but all three either ignored me or prayed. The senseless chanting, I confess, repulsed me.
  • Jaroslav Kalfař, Spaceman of Bohemia (2017), Chapter 6

• If prayer is an offering of the lips and pleasing to God, then mercifulness is actually the heart’s offering and is, as Scripture says, a sweet fragrance in God’s nostrils. Oh, when you think of God, never forget that he does not have the least understanding about money. My listener, if you were a speaker, what assignment would you choose: to speak to the rich about practicing generosity or to the poor about practicing mercifulness? I am quite sure which one I would choose or, rather, which one I have chosen-if only I were a speaker. Oh, there is something indescribably reconciling in speaking to the poor man about practicing mercifulness!
  • Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (1847), as translated by H. and E. Hong (1995) p. 321-322

• The surprising happened to him. In proportion as he became more and more earnest in prayer, he had less and less to say, and in the end he became quite silent. He became silent – indeed, what is if possible still more expressly the opposite of speaking, he became a hearer. He had supposed that to pray is to speak; he learnt that to pray is not merely to be silent but to hear. And so it is; to pray is not to hear oneself speak, but it is to be silent, and to remain silent, to wait, until the man who prays hears God.
  • Soren Kierkegaard Kierkegaard’s Christian Discourses & The Lilies of the Field & the Birds of the Air & The Discourses at the Communion on Fridays translated by Walter Lowrie Oxford University Press 1961 – p. 323

• Lord Jesus Christ, our foolish minds are weak; they are more than willing to be drawn—and there is so much that wants to draw us to itself. There is pleasure with its seductive power, the multiplicity with its bewildering distractions, the moment with its infatuating importance and the conceited laboriousness of busyness and the careless time-wasting of light-mindedness and the gloomy brooding of heavy-mindedness—all this will draw us away from ourselves to itself in order to deceive us. But you, who are truth, only you, our Savior and Redeemer, can truly draw a person to yourself, which you have promised to do—that you will draw all to yourself. Then may God grant that by repenting we may come to ourselves, so that you, according to your Word, can draw us to yourself—from on high, but through lowliness and abasement.
  • Søren Kierkegaard, Practice in Christianity (1850), as translated by H. and E. Hong (1991), p. 157

• A knowledge of the hidden side of life by no means teaches us to forget our dead, but it makes us exceedingly careful as to how we think of them; it warns us that we must adopt a resolutely unselfish attitude, that we must forget all about ourselves, and the pain of the apparent separation, and think of them neither with grief nor with longing, but always with strong affectionate wishes for their happiness and their progress. The clairvoyant sees exactly in what manner such wishes affect them, and at once perceives the truth which underlies the teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to the advisability of prayers for the dead. By these both the living and the dead are helped; for the former, instead of being thrown back upon his grief with a hopeless feeling that now he can do nothing, since there is a great gulf between himself and his loved one, is encouraged to turn his affectionate thought into definite action which promotes the happiness and advancement of him who has passed from his sight in the physical world.
  • C.W. Leadbeater The Hidden Side of things by C.W. Leadbeater, (1913)

• He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.
  • Luke 18:1 (KJV)
  • Variant: Then Jesus told his disciples…that they should always pray and not give up.
    • Luke 18:1 (NIV).

• In prayer you will never be lost.
  • Maitreya, Share International, (March 1990)

• Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
  • Gospel of Mark 1:35.

• For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
  • Attributed to Jesus in Mark 11:23-24 (KJV).

• Prayer was not so much a matter of asking for something as a clear statement of what was important to you; a definition of who you were, and what you lacked, what you were sorry for, what you wished to be. A peeling away to your essence.
  • Mary McMullen, Death by Bequest (1977), Ch. 19.

• “And for what it’s worth, which in my professional opinion isn’t a bloody lot, I’ll pray for you.”
  “Pray to what?” Marge said. He smiled….
  “Fuck it,” the man said. “Tell you what. What’s the point collecting stuff you don’t use? I’ll pray to all of them.”
  • China Miéville, Kraken (2010), ISBN 978-0-345-49749-9, Chapter 44 (p. 268; ellipsis represents a one-sentence elision of description)

• For those who do not guard their morals,
  Prayers are but wishful thinking.
  For those who do not practice what they preach,
  Oratory is but faithless lying.
  • Milarepa, Songs of Milarepa, as translated and edited by Garma C. C. Chang (1975), p. 17

• Hear his sighs though mute;
  Unskillful with what words to pray, let me
  Interpret for him.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book XI, line 31.

• But that from us aught should ascend to Heav’n
  So prevalent as to concern the mind
  Of God, high-bless’d, or to incline His will,
  Hard to belief may seem; yet this will prayer.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book XI, line 143.

• And if by prayer
  Incessant I could hope to change the will
  Of Him who all things can, I would not cease
  To weary Him with my assiduous cries.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book XI, line 307.

• Mein einziges Gebet ist das um Vertiefung. Durch sie allein kann ich wieder zu Gott gelangen. Vertiefung! Vertiefung!
  • My only prayer is a prayer for depth. Through depth alone can I come closer to God. Depth! Depth!
    • Christian Morgenstern, Stufen: Eine Entwickelung in Aphorismen und Tagebuch-Notizen (1922), p. 14.

• There are not petitional or intercessory prayers in Buddhism. However much we may pray to the Buddha we cannot be saved. The Buddha does not grant favors to those who pray to Him. Instead of petitional prayers there is meditation that leads to self-control, purification and enlightenment. Meditation is neither a silent reverie nor keeping the mind blank. It is an active striving. It serves as a tonic both to the heart and the mind. The Buddha not only speaks of the futility of offering prayers but also disparages a slave mentality. A Buddhist should not pray to be saved, but should rely on himself and win his freedom.
  • Narada Maha Thera, Buddhism in a Nutshell

• I don’t need to pray. I have God in myself.
  • Ashraf Pahlavi, In Bitter American Exile, the Shah’s Twin Sister, Ashraf, Defends Their Dynasty, People (May 05, 1980)

• I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.
  • Paul of Tarsus, 1 Corinthians 14:15 ESV

• Praying without ceasing is not ritualized, nor are there even words. It is a constant state of awareness of oneness with God; it is a sincere seeking for a good thing; and it is a concentration on the thing sought, with faith that it is obtainable.
  • Peace Pilgrim, Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words‎ (1994), p. 75.

• Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside.
  • Plato, Socrates’ prayer in Phaedrus, 279

• He pray’d by quantity,
  And with his repetitions, long and loud,
  All knees were weary.
  • Robert Pollok, The Course of Time (1827), Part VIII, line 628.

• Oats knelt in the mud and tried a prayer, but there was no answering voice from the sky. There never had been. He’d been told never to expect one. That wasn’t how Om worked anymore. Alone of all the gods, he’d been taught, Om delivered the answers straight into the depths of the head. Since the prophet Brutha, Om was the silent god. That’s what they said.
  If you didn’t have faith, then you weren’t anything. There was just the dark.
  He shuddered in the gloom. Was the god silent, or was there no one to speak?
  • Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum (1998)

• That’s what prayers are…it’s frightened people trying to make friends with the bully!
  • Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero (2001)

• God detests the prayers of a person who ignores the law.
  • Solomon, Proverbs 28:9, New Living Translation

• When trouble toucheth a man, He crieth unto Us (in all postures)- lying down on his side, or sitting, or standing. But when We have solved his trouble, he passeth on his way as if he had never cried to Us for a trouble that touched him! thus do the deeds of transgressors seem fair in their eyes!
  • Quran 10: 12

• “Observe prayer at early morning, at the close of the day, and at the approach of night; for the good deeds drive away the evil deeds.”
  • Quran

• “Put up then with what they say; and celebrate the praise of thy Loud before the sunrise, and before its setting: and some time in the night do thou praise Him, and in the extremes of the day, that thou haply mayest please Him.”
  • Quran

• “Observe prayer at sunset, till the first darkening of the night, and the daybreak reading-for the daybreak reading hath its witnesses’, and watch unto it in the night: this shall he an excess in service.”
  • Quran

• “Seek aid with patience and prayer.”
  • Quran

• “When ye have fulfilled your prayer, remember God standing and sitting, and lying on your sides; and when ye are in safety, then be steadfast in prayer-. Verily prayer is for the believers prescribed and timed.”
  • Quran

• But what happens in true petitionary prayer when it is part of genuine religion? Human beings face the incomprehensible plan of their existence, which they accept as at once incomprehensible and yet as originating in the wisdom and love of God; however it may turn out, whether it brings life or death. people then have a sense of themselves, with their own identity and vital impulses, as willed by God, without waiting to produce or force an intelligible synthesis between their vital impulses and the plan of their existence. And so they say Yes to the incomprehensibility of God and to their own will to live, without wanting to know how the two fit together. The unity of the two, which is not something that we can create, is petitionary prayer, since it is only prayer if it says radically, “Your will, not mine”, and it would not be petitionary prayer if it did not dare to ask God for something which we had thought of ourselves. Petitionary prayer is thus simply actualising the incomprehensibility of human existence which, down to the last fibre, comes from God alone and goes out to him, and yet is such that it can hold its own before God and not be destroyed.
  • Karl Rahner and Karl-Heinz Weger, Our Christian Faith, translated by Francis McDonagh (London: Burns & Oates, 1980), pp. 63–64.

• The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it.
  • Frederick William Robertson, quoted in Daily Strength for Daily Needs (1884), selected by Mary Tileston, February 22nd.

• It is not by prayer and humility that you cause things to go as you wish, but by acquiring a knowledge of natural laws.
  • Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society (1952), Ch. 1 : Science and Tradition.

• I do not pray to ask God for things. I pray to thank God for bringing me where I am.
  • the character Salim in the speculative fiction television series American Gods (first season, 2017)

• It was quite incomprehensible to me — this was before I began going to school — why in my evening prayers I should pray for human beings only. So when my mother had prayed with me and had kissed me good-night, I used to add silently a prayer that I had composed myself for all living creatures. It ran thus: “O, heavenly Father, protect and bless all things that have breath; guard them from all evil, and let them sleep in peace.”
  • Albert Schweitzer, Memoirs of Childhood and Youth; in Reverence for Life: An Anthology of Selected Writings, edited by Thomas Kiernan, New York: Philosophical Library, 1965, p. 1.

• Prayer is the expression of desire; its value comes from our inward aspirations, from their tenor and their strength. Take away desire, the prayer ceases; increase or diminish its intensity, the prayer soars upward or has no wings. Inversely, take away the expression while leaving the desire, and the prayer in many ways remains intact. Has a child who says nothing but looks longingly at a toy in a shop-window, and then at his smiling mother, not formulated the most moving prayer? And even if he had not seen the toy, is not the desire for play, innate in the child as is the thirst for movement, in the eyes of his parents a standing prayer which they grant?
  • Antonin Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life (1920), translated by Mary Ryan. Cork: The Mercier Press, 1948, p. 57.

• Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart, with strings of steel,
  Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 3, line 70.

• My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;
  Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 3.

• All his mind is bent to holiness,
  To number Ave-Maries on his beads.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (c. 1590-91), Act I, scene 3, line 58.

• Rather let my head
  Stoop to the block than these knees bow to any
  Save to the God of heaven and to my king.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (c. 1590-91), Act IV, scene 1, line 124.

• Go with me, like good angels, to my end;
  And, as the long divorce of steel falls on me,
  Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice,
  And lift my soul to heaven.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613), Act II, scene 1, line 75.

• My prayers
  Are not words duly hallow’d nor my wishes
  More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers and wishes
  Are all I can return.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613), Act II, scene 3, line 67.

• “Amen”
  Stuck in my throat.
  • William Shakespeare, Macbeth (1605), Act II, scene 2, line 32.

• When I would pray and think, I think and pray
  To several subjects; Heaven hath my empty words.
  • William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act II, scene 4, line 1.

• His worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish that way; but nobody but has his fault; but let that pass.
  • William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor (published 1602), Act I, scene 4, line 13.

• Well, if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent.
  • William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor (published 1602), Act IV, scene 5, line 104.

• If you bethink yourself of any crime
  Unreconcil’d as yet to heaven and grace,
  Solicit for it straight.
  • William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act V, scene 2, line 26.

• If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him?
  If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future?
  If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers?
  If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him?
  If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses?
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism (1811)

• Children are the keys of Paradise … They alone are good and wise, Because their thoughts, their very lives, are prayer.
  • Richard Henry Stoddard, Songs of Summer (1856), p. 113.

• At the highest level of consciousness, an individual is alone. Such solitude can seem strange, unusual, even difficult. Foolish people try to escape it by means of various dissipations in order to get away from this high point, to some lower point, but wise people remain at this high point, with the help of prayer.
  • Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, P. Sekirin, trans. (1997).

• Not prayer without faith, nor faith without prayer, but prayer in faith, is the cost of spiritual gifts and graces.
  • Henry Clay Trumbull (1895) Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers. p. 221.

• It is best to read the weather forecast before we pray for rain.
  • Mark Twain, in Merle Johnson (ed.), More Maxims of Mark (1927), p. 8.

• School children and students who love God should never say: “For my part I like mathematics”; “I like French”; “I like Greek.” They should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop that faculty of attention which, directed toward God, is the very substance of prayer.
  • Simone Weil, Waiting for God (1951), p. 105.

• MENDEL: Once you’re on your knees, you can’t stand up straight again.
  • Elie Wiesel, The Trial of God (1979), Act I

• True prayer is waiting for God to come when and how He wants to.
  • Edmund Wojtyła, older brother of Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) as quoted in Evert, Jason. Saint John Paul the Great: His Five Loves (Kindle Locations 188-189). Totus Tuus Press.

• Rapt into still communion that transcends
  The imperfect offices of prayer and praise,
  His mind was a thanksgiving to the power
  That made him; it was blessedness and love!
  • William Wordsworth, The Excursion

• Prayer ardent opens heaven.
  • Edward Young, Night Thoughts (1742-1745), Night VIII, line 721.

• Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen.
  • Roger Zelazny, Creatures of Light and Darkness (1969), Chapter 3, “Death, Life, the Magician and Roses”

Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 625-29.

• Yet then from all my grief, O Lord,
  Thy mercy set me free,
  Whilst in the confidence of pray’r
  My soul took hold on thee.
  • Joseph Addison, Miscellaneous Poems, Divine Ode, made by a Gentleman on the Conclusion of his Travels, Verse 6.

• And from the prayer of Want, and plaint of Woe,
  O never, never turn away thine ear!
  Forlorn, in this bleak wilderness below,
  Ah! what were man, should Heaven refuse to hear!
  • James Beattie, The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), Book I, Stanza 29.

• She knows omnipotence has heard her prayer
  And cries, “It shall be done—sometime, somewhere.”
  • Ophelia G. Browning, Unanswered.

• Just my vengeance complete,
  The man sprang to his feet,
  Stood erect, caught at God’s skirts, and prayed!
  So, I was afraid!
  • Robert Browning, Instans Tyrannus, VII.

• They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright!
  • Robert Burns, The Cotter’s Saturday Night (1786), Stanza 6.

• Father! no prophet’s laws I seek,—
  Thy laws in Nature’s works appear;—
  I own myself corrupt and weak,
  Yet will I pray, for thou wilt hear.
  • Lord Byron, Prayer of Nature.

• Father of Light! great God of Heaven!
  Hear’st thou the accents of despair?
  Can guilt like man’s be e’er forgiven?
  Can vice atone for crimes by prayer?
  • Lord Byron, Prayer of Nature.

• Pray to be perfect, though material leaven
  Forbid the spirit so on earth to be;
  But if for any wish thou darest not pray,
  Then pray to God to cast that wish away.
  • Hartley Coleridge, Poems (posthumous), Prayer.

• The saints will aid if men will call:
  For the blue sky bends over all.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel (c. 1797-1801, published 1816), conclusion to Part 1.

• But maybe prayer is a road to rise,
  A mountain path leading toward the skies
  To assist the spirit who truly tries.
  But it isn’t a shibboleth, creed, nor code,
  It isn’t a pack-horse to carry your load,
  It isn’t a wagon, it’s only a road.
  And perhaps the reward of the spirit who tries
  Is not the goal, but the exercise!
  • Edmund Vance Cooke, Prayer, The Uncommon Commoner.

• Not as we wanted it,
  But as God granted it.
  • Arthur Quiller-Couch, To Bearers.

• I always pray before any of the operation. I think God help me know what to do.
  • Ben Carson, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story. (p. 194).

• And Satan trembles when he sees
  The weakest saint upon his knees.
  • William Cowper, Hymns, Exhortation to Prayer.

• I ask not a life for the dear ones,
  All radiant, as others have done,
  But that life may have just enough shadow
  To temper the glare of the sun;
  I would pray God to guard them from evil,
  But my prayer would bound back to myself:
  Ah! a seraph may pray for a sinner,
  But a sinner must pray for himself.
  • Charles M. Dickinson, The Children.

• Our vows are heard betimes! and Heaven takes care
  To grant, before we can conclude the prayer:
  Preventing angels met it half the way,
  And sent us back to praise, who came to pray.
  • John Dryden, Britannia Rediviva, first lines.

• Grant folly’s prayers that hinder folly’s wish,
  And serve the ends of wisdom.
  • George Eliot, The Spanish Gypsy (1868), Book IV.

• Almighty Father! let thy lowly child,
  Strong in his love of truth, be wisely bold,—
  A patriot bard, by sycophants reviled,
  Let him live usefully, and not die old!
  • Ebenezer Elliott, Corn Law Rhymes, A Poet’s Prayer.

• Though I am weak, yet God, when prayed,
  Cannot withhold his conquering aid.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Nun’s Aspiration.

• True prayer is only another name for the love of God. Its excellence does not consist in the multitude of our words; for our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him. The true prayer is that of the heart, and the heart prays only for what it desires. To pray, then, is to desire — but to desire what God would have us desire.
  He who desires not from the bottom of his heart, offers a deceitful prayer.
  • François Fénelon, Pious Thoughts, Advice Concerning Prayer. Mrs. Mant’s translation.

• Ejaculations are short prayers darted up to God on emergent occasions. They are the artillery of devotion, and their principal use is against the fiery darts of the devil.
  • Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times, Meditations on all Kinds of Prayers, Ejaculations, their Use, V.

• So a good prayer, though often used, is still fresh and fair in the ears and eyes of Heaven.
  • Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times, Meditations on all Kinds of Prayers, XII.

• O Lord of Courage grave,
  O Master of this night of Spring!
  Make firm in me a heart too brave
  To ask Thee anything.
  • John Galsworthy.

• Who goes to bed, and doth not pray,
  Maketh two nights to every day!
  • George Herbert, The Temple (1633), The Church, Charms and Knots, Stanza 4.

• Resort to sermons, but to prayers most:
  Praying’s the end of preaching.
  • George Herbert, The Temple (1633), The Church Porch, Stanza 69.

• The prayer of Noah,
  He cried out in the darkness, Hear, O God,
  Hear HIM: hear this one; through the gates of death,
  If life be all past praying for, O give
  To Thy great multitude a way to peace;
  Give them to HIM.
  • Jean Ingelow, A Story of Doom, Book IX, Stanza 6.

• Is there never a chink in the world above
  Where they listen for words from below?
  • Jean Ingelow, Supper at the Mill.

• O God, if in the day of battle I forget Thee, do not Thou forget me.
  • William King attributes the prayer to a soldier, in his Anecdotes of his own time, p. 7. (Ed. 1818).

• My brother kneels, so saith Kabir,
  To stone and brass in heathen-wise,
  But in my brother’s voice I hear
  My own unanswered agonies.
  His God is as his fates assign
  His prayer is all the world’s—and mine.
  • Rudyard Kipling, Song of Kabir.

• I ask and wish not to appear
  More beauteous, rich or gay:
  Lord, make me wiser every year,
  And better every day.
  • Charles Lamb, A Birthday Thought.

• You know I say
  Just what I think, and nothing more nor less,
  And, when I pray, my heart is in my prayer.
  I cannot say one thing and mean another:
  If I can’t pray, I will not make believe!
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus, Part III, Giles Corey, Act II, scene 3.

• Let one unceasing, earnest prayer
  Be, too, for light,—for strength to bear
  Our portion of the weight of care,
  That crushes into dumb despair
  One half the human race.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Goblet of Life, Stanza 10.

• Like one in prayer I stood.
  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Voices of the Night, prelude, Stanza 11.

• Vigilate et orate.
  • Watch and pray.
  • Mark, XIII. 33. (From the Vulgate).

• O Domine Deus! speravi in te;
  O care mi Jesu! nunc libera me.
  In dura catena, in misera poena,
  Disidero te.
  Languendo, jemendo, et genuflectendo,
  Adoro, imploro, ut liberes me!
  • O Lord, my God,
    I have trusted in Thee;
    O Jesu, my dearest One,
    Now set me free.
    In prison’s oppression,
    In sorrow’s obsession,
    I weary for Thee.
    With sighing and crying,
    Bowed down in dying,
    I adore Thee, I implore Thee, set me free.
  • Mary, Queen of Scots; written in her Book of Devotion before her execution. Translation by Swinburne, Mary Stuart.

• God warms his hands at man’s heart when he prays.
  • John Masefield, Widow in the Bye Street, Part VI.

• Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
  • Matthew, VII. 7.

• Every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth.
  • Matthew, VII. 8.

• Not what we wish, but what we want,
  Oh! let thy grace supply,
  The good unask’d, in mercy grant;
  The ill, though ask’d, deny.
  • James Merrick, Hymn.

• Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
  Uttered or unexpressed,
  The motion of a hidden fire
  That trembles in the breast.
  • James Montgomery, Original Hymns, What is Prayer?

• Prayer moves the arm
  Which moves the world,
  And brings salvation down.
  • James Montgomery, Prayer.

• As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean
  Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see,
  So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion
  Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee.
  • Thomas Moore, As Down in the Sunless Retreats.

• O sad estate
  Of human wretchedness; so weak is man,
  So ignorant and blind, that did not God
  Sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask,
  We should be ruined at our own request.
  • Hannah More, Moses in the Bulrushes, Part I.

• Now I lay me down to take my sleep,
  I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep;
  If I should die before I wake,
  I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take.
  • New England Primer (1814).

• I talk to God but the sky is empty.
  • Sylvia Plath, Draft of letter to Richard Sassoon (1950-02-19), collected in Karen V. Kukil (ed.), The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000).

• Father of All! in every age,
  In every clime ador’d,
  By saint, by savage, and by sage,
  Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
  • Alexander Pope, Universal Prayer.

• If I am right, Thy grace impart,
  Still in the right to stay;
  If I am wrong, O teach my heart
  To find that better way!
  • Alexander Pope, Universal Prayer.

• In all thou dost first let thy Prayers ascend,
  And to the Gods thy Labours first commend,
  From them implore Success, and hope a prosperous End.
  • Pythagoras, Golden Verses, line 49. See M. Dacier’s Life of Pythagoras.

• They were ordinary soldiers, just the common Jean and Hans,
  One from the valley of the Rhine and one from fair Provence.
  They were simple-hearted fellows—every night each said his prayer:
  The one prayed Vater Unser and the other Notre Père.
  • Charles Alex Richmond, Lord’s Prayer.

• At the muezzin’s call for prayer,
  The kneeling faithful thronged the square,
  And on Pushkara’s lofty height
  The dark priest chanted Brahma’s might.
  Amid a monastery’s weeds
  An old Franciscan told his beads;
  While to the synagogue there came
  A Jew to praise Jehovah’s name.
  The one great God looked down and smiled
  And counted each His loving child;
  For Turk and Brahmin, monk and Jew
  Had reached Him through the gods they knew.
  • Harry Romaine, Ad Cœlum, in Munsey’s Magazine (January 1895).

• I pray the prayer the Easterners do,
  May the peace of Allah abide with you;
  Wherever you stay, wherever you go,
  May the beautiful palms of Allah grow;
  Through days of labor, and nights of rest,
  The love of Good Allah make you blest;
  So I touch my heart—as the Easterners do,
  May the peace of Allah abide with you.
  • Salaam Alaikum (peace be with you). Author unknown.

• In vota miseros ultimus cogit timor.
  • Fear of death drives the wretched to prayer.
  • Seneca the Younger, Agamemnon, 560.

• Nulla res carius constat quam quæ precibus empta est.
  • Nothing costs so much as what is bought by prayers.
  • Seneca the Younger, De Beneficiis, II. 1.

• The first petition that we are to make to Almighty God is for a good conscience, the next for health of mind, and then of body.
  • Seneca the Younger, Epistles, XIV.

• Earth bears no balsams for mistakes;
  Men crown the knave, and scourge the tool
  That did his will: but thou, O Lord,
  Be merciful to me, a fool.
  • Edward Rowland Sill, The Fool’s Prayer.

• Four things which are not in thy treasury,
  I lay before thee, Lord, with this petition:—
  My nothingness, my wants,
  My sins, and my contrition.
  • Robert Southey, Occasional Pieces, XIX. Imitated from the Persian.

• Prayers are heard in heaven very much in proportion to our faith. Little faith will get very great mercies, but great faith still greater.
  • Charles Spurgeon, Gleanings Among the Sheaves, Believing Prayer.

• To pray together, in whatever tongue or ritual, is the most tender brotherhood of hope and sympathy that men can contract in this life.
  • Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, Corinne (1807), Book X, Chapter V.

• Holy Father, in thy mercy,
  Hear our anxious prayer.
  Keep our loved ones, now far absent,
  ‘Neath Thy care.
  • Isabella S. Stephenson, hymn, sung universally among the British troops in the Great War.

• Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take,
  And stab my spirit broad awake;
  Or, Lord, if too obdurate I,
  Choose Thou, before that spirit die,
  A piercing pain, a killing sin,
  And to my dead heart turn them in.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson, Celestial Surgeon.

• My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.
  • Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, 28.

• Speak to Him thou for He hears, and spirit with spirit can meet—
  Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.
  • Alfred Tennyson, Higher Pantheism.

• More things are wrought by prayer
  Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
  Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
  For what are men better than sheep or goats
  That nourish a blind life within the brain,
  If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
  Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
  • Alfred Tennyson, Morte d’Arthur (1842), line 247.

• Battering the gates of heaven with storms of prayer.
  • Alfred Tennyson, St. Simeon Stylites, line 7.

• “‘Twas then belike,” Honorious cried,
  “When you the public fast defied,
  Refused to heav’n to raise a prayer,
  Because you’d no connections there.”
  • John Trumbull, McFingal, Canto I, line 541.

• From compromise and things half done,
  Keep me with stern and stubborn pnde;
  And when at last the fight is won,
  God, keep me still unsatisfied.
  • Louis Untermeyer, Prayer.

• God, though this life is but a wraith,
  Although we know not what we use,
  Although we grope with little faith,
  Give me the heart to fight—and lose.
  • Louis Untermeyer, Prayer.

• Prayer is
  The world in tune,
  A spirit-voyce,
  And vocall joyes,
  Whose Eccho is heaven’s blisse.
  • Henry Vaughan, The Morning Watch.

• Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.
  • Cease to think that the decrees of the gods can be changed by prayers.
  • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), VI. 376.

• Audiit, et voti Phœbus succedere partem
  Mente didit, partem volucres dispersit in auras.
  • Ae half the prayer wi’ Phœbus grace did find
    The t’other half he whistled down the wind.
  • Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), XI. 794. Translation by Scott—Waverley, Chapter XLIII. Same idea in Homer, Iliad, XVI, 250.

• J’ai toujours fait une prière à Dieu, qui est fort courte. La voici: Mon Dieu, rendez nos ennemis bien ridicules! Dieu m’a exaucé.
  • I always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: “O Lord, make our enemies quite ridiculous!” God granted it.
    • Voltaire, Letter to Étienne Noël Damilaville, 1767-05-16

• Prayer moves the Hand which moves the world.
  • John Aikman Wallace, There is an Eye that Never Sleeps, line 19.

• Who is this before whose presence idols tumble to the sod?
  While he cries out—”Allah Akbar! and there is no god but God!”
  • William Ross Wallace, El Amin, The Faithful.

• Making their lives a prayer.
  • John Greenleaf Whittier, To A. K. on Receiving a Basket of Sea Mosses.

• Though smooth be the heartless prayer, no ear in heaven will mind it;
  And the finest phrase falls dead, if there is no feeling behind it.
  • Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Art and Heart, Stanza 2.

• The imperfect offices of prayer and praise.
  • William Wordsworth, Excursion, Book I.

• “What is good for a bootless bene?”
  With these dark words begins my Tale;
  And their meaning is, whence can comfort spring
  When Prayer is of no avail?
  • William Wordsworth, Force of Prayer.

• The bells of Ryleston seemed to say,
  While she sat listening in the shade,
  With vocal music, “God us ayde!”
  And all the hills were glad to bear
  Their part in this effectual prayer.
  • William Wordsworth, White Doe of Rylstone, Canto VII, Stanza 11.

• Doubt not but God who sits on high,
  Thy secret prayers can hear;
  When a dead wall thus cunningly
  Conveys soft whispers to the ear.
  • Verse inscribed in the Whispering Gallery of Gloucester Cathedral.

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• A certain joyful, though humble, confidence becomes us when we pray in the Mediator’s name. It is due to Him; when we pray in His name it should be without wavering. Remember His merits, and how prevalent they must be. ” Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace.”
  • Nehemiah Adams, p. 460.

• The reason why we obtain no more in prayer, is because we expect no more. God usually answers us according to our own hearts.
  • Richard Alleine, p. 462.

• Let your prayers be composed of thanksgiving, praise, confession, and petition, without any argument or exhortation addressed to those who are supposed to be praying with you. Adopt no fixed forms of expression, except such as you obtain from Scripture. Express your desire in the briefest, simplest form, without circumlocution. Hallow God’s name by avoiding its unnecessary repetition. Adopt the simple devotional phrases of Scripture; but avoid the free use of its figures, and all quaint and doubtful application of its terms to foreign subjects. Pray to God and not to man.
  • Joseph Addison Alexander, p. 472.

• Like an echo from a ruined castle, prayer is an echo from the ruined human soul of the sweet promise of God.
  • William Arnot, p. 464.

• In the primitive church were not prayers simple, unpremeditated, united; prayers of the well-taught apostle; prayers of the accomplished scholar; prayers of the rough but fervent peasant; prayers of the new and zealous convert; prayers which importuned and wrestled with an instant and irrepressible urgency; — were they not an essential part of that religion, which holy fire had kindled; and which daily supplications alone could fan?
  • William Arthur, p. 473.

• How can He grant you what you do not desire to receive?
  • Augustine of Hippo, p. 462.

• He that loveth little prayeth little; he that loveth much prayeth much.
  • Augustine of Hippo, p. 464.

• Any heart turned Godward feels more joy
  In one short hour of prayer, than e’er was raised
  By all the feasts of earth since its foundation.
  • Philip James Bailey, p. 459.

• A good man’s prayers
  Will from the deepest dungeon climb to heaven’s height,
  And bring a blessing down.
  • Joanna Bailie, p. 459.

• Every praying Christian will find that there is no Gethsemane without its angel.
  • Thomas Binney, p. 469.

• A prayer in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned Godward.
  • Phillips Brooks, p. 457.

• Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold upon God’s willingness.
  • Phillips Brooks, p. 458.

• The best and sweetest flowers of paradise God gives to His people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven.
  • Thomas Brooks, p. 458.

• Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers. God will suit His returns to our requests. Lifeless services shall have lifeless answers. When men are dull, God will be dumb.
  • Thomas Brooks, p. 462.

• “Continuing instant in prayer.” The Greek is a metaphor taken from hunting dogs that never give over the game till they have got their prey.
  • Thomas Brooks, p. 464.

• Private prayer is so far from being a hindrance to a man’s business, that it is the way of ways to bring down a blessing from heaven upon it.
  • Thomas Brooks, p. 471.

• If any prayer be a duty, then secret prayer must be superlatively so, for it prepares and fits the soul for all other supplication.
  • Thomas Brooks, p. 471.

• God’s hearing of our prayers does not depend upon sanctifi- cation, but upon Christ’s intercession; not upon what we are in ourselves, but what we are in the Lord Jesus; both our persons and our prayers are accepted in the Beloved.
  • Thomas Brooks, p. 473.

• Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered.
  Her feet were firmly planted on the Rock;
  Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted,
  Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock.
  She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer,
  And cries, “It shall be done,” sometime, somewhere.
  Unanswered yet? Nay, do not say ungranted;
  Perhaps your part is not yet wholly done.
  The work began when first your prayer was uttered,
  And God will finish what He has begun.
  If you will keep the incense burning there,
  His glory you shall see sometime, somewhere.
  • Robert Browning, p. 474.

• Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.
  • John Bunyan, p. 468.

• When Christ went up into a mountain apart to pray, He dismissed the multitude, to teach us that when we address ourselves to God, we must first dismiss the multitude. We must send away the multitude of worldly cares, worldly thoughts, worldly concerns and business, when we would call upon God in duty.
  • William Burkitt, p. 465.

• Let faith each meek petition fill,
  And waft it to the skies;
  And teach our heart ’tis goodness still
  That grants it or denies.
  • Joseph Dacre Carlyle, p. 460.

• Let family worship be short, savory, simple, plain, tender, heavenly.
  • Richard Cecil, p. 471.

• Consider how august a privilege it is, when angels are present, and archangels throng around, when cherubim and seraphim encircle with their blaze the throne, that a mortal may approach with unrestrained confidence, and converse with heaven’s dread Sovereign! O, what honor was ever conferred like this?
  • Chrysostom, p. 459.

• Be not afraid to pray — to pray is right.
  Pray if thou canst with hope; but ever pray,
  Though hope be weak or sick with long delay;
  Pray in the darkness, if there be no light.
  • Hartley Coleridge, p. 461.

• He prayeth best who loveth best
  All things both great and small:
  For the dear God who loveth us,
  He made and loveth all,
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, p. 463.

• True prayer is an earnest soul’s direct converse with its God.
  • Theodore L. Cuyler, p. 456.

• Wise is that Christian parent who begins every morning with the word of God and fervent prayer.
  • Theodore L. Cuyler, p. 471.

• Answered prayers cover the field of providential history as flowers cover western prairies.
  • Theodore L. Cuyler, p. 474.

• In eternity it will be a terrible thing for many a man to meet his own prayers. Their very language will condemn him; for he knew his duty, but he did it not.
  • Theodore L. Cuyler, p. 475.

• When we pray to God with entire assurance, it is Himself who has given us the spirit of prayer.
  • St. Cyprian, p. 460.

• Are we to suppose that the only being in the universe who cannot answer prayer is that One who alone has all power at His command? The weak theology that professes to believe that prayer has merely a subjective benefit is infinitely less scientific than the action of the child who confidently appeals to a Father in heaven.
  • John William Dawson, p. 461.

• Saviour, breathe an evening blessing
  Ere repose our spirits seal;
  Sin and want we come confessing;
  Thou canst save, and Thou canst heal.
  • James Edmeston, p. 475.

• Lord! Thou art with Thy people still; they see Thee in the night-watches, and their hearts burn within them as Thou talkest with them by the way. And Thou art near to those that have not known Thee; open their eyes that they may see Thee — see Thee weeping over them, and saying, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life”— see Thee hanging on the cross and saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”—see Thee as Thou wilt come again in Thy glory to judge them at the last. Amen.
  • George Eliot, p. 464.

• Prayer, then, does not consist in sweet feelings, nor in the charms of an excited imagination, nor in that illumination of the intellect that traces with ease the sublimest truths of God; nor even in a certain consolation in the view of God; all these things are external gifts from His hand, in the absence of which love may exist even more purely, as the soul may then attach itself immediately and solely to God, instead of to His mercies.
  • François Fénelon, p. 458.

• For “we know not what we should pray for as we ought; ” but love leads us on, abandons us to all the operations of grace, puts us entirely at the disposal of God’s will, and thus prepares us for all His designs.
  • François Fénelon, p. 465.

• Prayer is so necessary, and the source of so many blessings, that he who has discovered the treasure cannot be prevented from having recourse to it, whenever he has an opportunity.
  • François Fénelon, p. 466.

• Ah! well it is for us that God is a loving Father, who takes our very prayers and thanksgivings rather for what we mean than for what they are; just as parents smile on the trailing weeds that their ignorant little ones bring them for flowers.
  • Edward Garrett, p. 462.

• Good prayers never come creeping home. I am sure I shall receive what I ask for or what I should ask.
  • Bishop Joseph Hall, p. 461.

• Your child is falling from a window. By the action of a natural law he will be killed. But he cries out for help, “Father! father!” Hearing his call, in this his day of trouble, you rush forth and catch him in your arms. Your child is saved. Natural law would have killed him, but you interposed, and, without a miracle, saved him. And cannot the great Father of all do what an earthly parent does?
  • Newman Hall, p. 473.

• Prayer is the breath of a new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it.
  • Rowland Hill, p. 457.

• I like ejaculatory prayer; it reaches heaven before the devil can get a shot at it.
  • Rowland Hill, p. 470.

• There it is — in such patient silence — that we accumulate the inward power which we distribute and spend in action; that the soul acquires a greater and more vigorous being, and gathers up its collective forces to bear down upon the piecemeal difficulties of life and scatter them to dust; there alone can we enter into that spirit of self-abandonment by which we take up the cross of duty, however heavy, with feet however worn and bleeding.
  • Wayland Hoyt, p. 470.

• I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.
  • Jean Ingelow, p. 474.

• If I were an impenitent child of godly parents, and should die so, I would rather go into eternity facing a legion of devils than my mother’s prayers.
  • Herrick Johnson, p. 475.

• He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray; and he who will be constant in prayer, shall know what it is to have a pure heart.
  • Pierre La Combe, p. 464.

• Worship is the earthly act by which we most distinctly recognize our personal immortality; men who think that they will be extinct a few years hence do not pray. In worship we spread out our insignificant life, which yet is the work of the Creator’s hands, and the purchase of the Redeemer’s blood, before the Eternal and All-Merciful, that we may learn the manners of a higher sphere, and fit ourselves for companionship with saints and angels, and for the everlasting sight of the face of God.
  • Henry Liddon, p. 457.

• Prayer is the act by which man, detaching himself from the embarrassments of sense and nature, ascends to the true level of his destiny.
  • Henry Liddon, p. 458.

• I have been driven many times to my knees, by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.
  • Abraham Lincoln, p. 468.

• The church converteth the whole world by blood and prayer.
  • Martin Luther, p. 468.

• Ah, what is it we send up thither, where our thoughts are either a dissonance or a sweetness and a grace?
  • George MacDonald, p. 461.

• O Lord, we rejoice that we are Thy making, though Thy handiwork is not very clear in our outer man as yet. We bless Thee that we feel Thy hand making us. What if it be in pain? Evermore we hear the voice of the potter above the hum and grind of His wheel. Father, Thou only knowest how we love Thee. Fashion the clay to Thy beautiful will.
  • George MacDonald, p. 464.

• If you are in the spirit of prayer, do not be long, because other people will not be able to keep pace with you in such unusual spirituality, and if you are not in the spirit of prayer, do not be long, because you will be sure to weary the listeners.
  • John Macdonald, p. 472.

• The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, even while in sorrow and sore need, will always end in thankfulness and triumph and praise.
  • Alexander Maclaren, p. 461.

• There is no such thing in the long history of God’s kingdom as an unanswered prayer. Every true desire from a child’s heart finds some true answer in the heart of God.
  • Norman MacLeod, p. 473.

• Whatever we are directed to pray for, we are also exhorted to work for; we are not permitted to mock Jehovah, asking that of Him which we deem not worth our pains to acquire.
  • Elias Lyman Magoon, p. 469.

• Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere.
  • James Martineau, p. 466.

• A house without family worship has neither foundation nor covering.
  • John Mitchell Mason, p. 471.

• Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer, and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble.
  • Philip Melanchthon, p. 466.

• Prayer is so mighty an instrument that no one ever thoroughly mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale of man’s wants and God’s goodness.
  • Hugh Miller, p. 458.

• O Thou by whom we come to God —
  The Life, the Truth, the Way;
  The path of prayer Thyself hast trod;
  Lord, teach us how to pray.
  • James Montgomery, p. 460.

• Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but compunction of soul.
  • Hannah More, p. 458.

• There is no burden of the spirit but is lightened by kneeling under it. Little by little, the bitterest feelings are sweetened by the mention of them in prayer. And agony itself stops swelling, if we can only cry sincerely, ” My God, my God!”
  • William Mountford, p. 466.

• Not every hour, nor every day, perhaps, can generous wishes ripen into kind actions; but there is not a moment that cannot be freighted with prayer.
  • William Mountford, p. 470.

• Then let us earnest be,
  And never faint in prayer;
  He loves our importunity,
  And makes our cause His care.
  • John Newton, p. 462.

• In presenting the Divine promises at the throne of grace, we present the best of names at a bank that is solvent. Let us, when we would pray, consider well whether we have a promise for our plea.
  • Robert M. Offord, p. 460.

• Expect an answer. If no answer is desired, why pray? True prayer has in it a strong element of expectancy.
  • Robert M. Offord, p. 462.

• Ask in simplicity. True need forgets to be formal. Its utterances fly from the heart as sparks from a blacksmith’s anvil. Set phrases, long sentences, polysyllabic words, find little favor with the soul that is athirst for God and His grace. How brief are the sentences of the immortal and immutable prayer, which Christ taught His disciples! Not a long word is there. Temptation is the longest, and the majority of the words are of one syllable. Do you essay to lead others in prayer? Utter no word that any that hear you cannot understand. Express their need as well as your own. Do not go to the mercy-seat on stilts.
  • Robert M. Offord, p. 471.

• Prayer, with our Lord, was a refuge from the storm; almost every word He uttered during that last tremendous scene was prayer; prayer the most earnest, the most urgent, repeated, continued, proceeding from the recesses of the soul, private, solitary; prayer for deliverance, prayer for strength; above every thing prayer for resignation.
  • William Paley, p. 467.

• As in poetry, so in prayer, the whole subject matter should be furnished by the heart, and the understanding should be allowed only to shape and arrange the effusions of the heart in the manner best adapted to answer the end designed. From the fullness of a heart overflowing with holy affections, as from a copious fountain, we should pour forth a torrent of pious, humble, and ardently affectionate feelings; while our understandings only shape the channel and teach the gushing streams of devotion where to flow, and when to stop.
  • Edward Payson, p. 464.

• I think that if we would, every evening, come to our Master’s feet, and tell Him where we have been, what we have done, what we have said, and what were the motives by which we have been actuated, it would have a salutary effect upon our whole conduct.
  • Edward Payson, p. 466.

• Our public prayers too often consist almost entirely of passages of Scripture—not always judiciously chosen or well arranged — and common-place phrases, which have been transmitted down for ages, from one generation to another, selected and put together just as we would compose a sermon or essay, while the heart is allowed no share in the performance; so that we may more properly be said to make a prayer than to pray.
  • Edward Payson, p. 472.

• We lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often and long alone with God. No otherwise can the great central idea of God enter into a man’s life, and dwell there supreme.
  • Austin Phelps, p. 459.

• Have you never observed how free the Lord’s Prayer is of any material that can tempt to subtle self-inspection in the art of devotion? It is full of an outflowing of thought and of emotion toward great objects of desire, great necessities, and great perils.
  • Austin Phelps, p. 465.

• I used to pray to recover you.”
  • Sylvia Plath, (1932-1963), U.S. poet. Daddy (l. 14).

• Patience and perseverance are never more thoroughly Christian graces than when features of prayer.
  • Samuel I. Prime, p. 461.

• Happy are they who freely mingle prayer and toil till God responds to the one and rewards the other.
  • Samuel I. Prime, p. 468.

• A life of prayer is a life whose litanies are ever fresh acts of self-devoting love.
  • Frederick William Robertson, p. 457.

• The Divine Wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it.
  • Frederick William Robertson, p. 468.

• Faithful prayer always implies correlative exertion; and no man can ask honestly and hopefully to be delivered from temptation, unless he has himself honestly and firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out of it.
  • John Ruskin, p. 469.

• When does the building of the Spirit really begin to appear in a man’s heart? It begins, so far as we can judge, when he first pours out his heart to God in prayer.
  • J. C. Ryle, p. 470.

• Are we silent to Jesus? Think! Have you nothing to ask Him? Nothing to thank Him for? Nothing to praise Him for? Nothing to confess? Oh, poor soul, go back to Bethlehem — to Gethsemane, to Calvary, and remember at what a cost the vail before the Holies was rent in twain that thou mightest enter it.
  • Anna Shipton, p. 474.

• Prayer pulls the rope below, and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly; others give but an occasional pluck at the rope; but he who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously, with all his might.
  • Charles Spurgeon, p. 460.

• Sometimes a fog will settle over a vessel’s deck and yet leave the topmast clear. Then a sailor goes up aloft and gets a lookout which the helmsman on deck cannot get. So prayer sends the soul aloft; lifts it above the clouds in which our selfishness and egotism befog us, and gives us a chance to see which way to steer.
  • Charles Spurgeon, p. 469.

• For spiritual blessings, let our prayers be importunate, perpetual, and persevering; for temporal blessings, let them be general, short, conditional, and modest.
  • Jeremy Taylor, p. 461.

• Easiness of desire is a great enemy to the success of a good man’s prayer. Our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg tamely for those things for which we ought to die; which are more precious than imperial sceptres, richer than the spoils of the sea or the treasures of Indian hills.
  • Jeremy Taylor, p. 462.

• There is something in every act of prayer that for a time stills the violence of passion, and elevates and purifies the affections.
  • Jeremy Taylor, p. 465.

• From the violence and rule of passion, from a servile will, and a commanding lust, from pride and vanity, from false opinion and ignorant confidence; from improvidence and prodigality, from envy and the spirit of slander; from sensuality, from presumption and from despair; from a state of temptation and a hardened spirit; from delaying of repentance and persevering in sin; from unthankfulness and irreligion, and from seducing others; from all infatuation of soul, folly, and madness; from willfulness, self-love, and vain ambition; from a vicious life and an unprovided death, good Lord, deliver us.
  • Jeremy Taylor, p. 468.

• When we pray for any virtue, we should cultivate the virtue as well as pray for it; the form of your prayers should be the rule of your life; every petition to God is a precept to man.
  • Jeremy Taylor, p. 469.

• Prayers born out of murmuring are always dangerous. When, therefore, we are in a discontented mood, let’us take care what we cry for, lest God give it to us, and thereby punish us.
  • William Mackergo Taylor, p. 465.

• They tell us of the fixed laws of nature! but who dares maintain that He who fixed these laws cannot use them for the purpose of answering His people’s prayers?
  • William Mackergo Taylor, p. 473.

• We kneel, how weak; we rise, how full of power!
  Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong,
  Or others — that we are not always strong,
  That we are ever overborne with care,
  That we should ever weak or heartless be,
  Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
  And joy and strength and courage are with Thee?
  • Richard Chenevix Trench, p. 467.

• Prayer moves the hand which moves the world.
  • John Aikman Wallace, p. 459.

• Prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul; and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of the spiritual life.
  • Octavius Winslow, p. 458.

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989)

• I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on All that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!
  • John Adams, letter to his wife Abigail, November 2, 1800, the day after he moved into the White House. Letters of John Adams Addressed to His Wife, ed. Charles Francis Adams, p. 267 (1841). President Franklin D. Roosevelt had this lettered in gold in the marble over the fireplace in the State Dining Room of the White House. The quotation above follows the capitalization used in the inscription.

• Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace—that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best not only in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march toward the clean world our hands can make.
  • Stephen Vincent Benét, Prayer, concluding sentences (1942). Archibald MacLeish, poet and Librarian of Congress, asked Benét to write “The United Nations Prayer” to be used in the celebration of Flag Day, 1942. President Franklin D. Roosevelt used it to close his radio address on Flag Day, June 14, 1942. Adlai E. Stevenson used this final section of the prayer on his Christmas cards in 1964.

• For Mercy has a human heart
  Pity, a human face:
  And Love, the human form divine,
  And Peace, the human dress.
  Then every man of every clime,
  That prays in his distress,
  Prays to the human form divine
  Love Mercy Pity Peace.
  • William Blake, “The Divine Image”, stanzas 3 and 4, lines 9–16, The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman (1982), p. 12–13. First published in 1789.

• “God bless us every one!” said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
  • Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1963), stave 3, p. 74. First published in 1843.

• Lord, make me a channel of your peace.
  Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
  Where there is offense, forgiveness.
  Where there is discord, reconciliation.
  Where there is doubt, faith.
  Where there is despair, hope.
  Where there is sadness, joy.
  Where there is darkness, your light.
  we give, we are made rich.
  If we forget ourselves, we find peace.
  If we forgive, we receive forgiveness.
  we die, we receive eternal resurrection.
  Give us peace, Lord.
  • Serenity Prayer Attributed to Francis of Assisi, in Auspicius van Corstanje, Francis: Bible of the Poor (1977), p. 203. “This prayer cannot be found in any of the early texts written by Francis. In its present form, it is probably not even a hundred years old. All the same, it clearly reflects the spirit of Francis. He could have written it, and that is why it is generally attributed to him” (p. 203). A slightly different version (“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace”) can be found in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, ed. James Dalton Morrison, p. 130 (1948).

• There is nothing I can give you which you have not got; but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No Heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it to-day. Take Heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see; and to see, we have only to look. Contessina I beseech you to look.Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the Angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty: believe me, that angel’s hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing Presence. Our joys, too: be not content with them as joys, they too conceal diviner gifts.Life is so full of meaning and of purpose, so full of beauty—beneath its covering—that you will find that earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage, then to claim it: that is all! But courage you have; and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you; not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem, and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
  • “Fra Giovanni”, A Letter to the Most Illustrious the Contessina Allagia Dela Aldobrandeschi, Written Christmas Eve Anno Domini 1513 (193?) The British Museum stated in 1970 that it had “proved impossible” to identify Fra Giovanni, the purported author of this letter. This was published, probably in the 1930s, “with Christmas Greetings” from Greville MacDonald, son of novelist George MacDonald, and Mary MacDonald.

• Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endure with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; Amen.
  • George L. Locke, prayer, c. 1880. President Franklin D. Roosevelt included it as “an old prayer” without attribution, in his final radio speech of the 1940 presidential campaign, November 4, 1940. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940, p. 557–58 (1941). Life magazine reproduced the prayer in its issue of November 18, 1940, and in a letter to the editor in the December 9 issue, p. 4, the Rev. Mr. Locke’s daughter wrote about his authorship and the circumstances of his composing the prayer.

• Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee—and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail. Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the meekness of true strength. Then, I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain”.
  • Douglas MacArthur, “A Father’s Prayer”. Courtney Whitney, MacArthur, His Rendevous with History (1956), p. 547. Written “during the early days of the desperate campaigns in the Far East in World War II”.

• Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of earth.
  • William McKinley, speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, September 5, 1901. Modern Eloquence, ed. Ashley H. Thorndike, rev. Adam Ward, vol. 11, p. 401 (1936). This was McKinley’s last speech, as he was mortally wounded the next day at the Exposition. He served in Congress 1877–1884 and 1885–1891.

• The things, good Lord, that I pray for, give me thy grace to labour for. Amen.
  • Thomas More, English Prayers and Treatise on the Holy Eucharist, ed. Philip E. Hallett, p. 20 (1938). His English works were published in 1557.

• God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed;
  Give me courage to change things which must be changed;
  And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.
  • Attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, The A.A. Grapevine, January 1950, p. 6–7; also June Bingham, Courage to Change, p. iii (1961), where the version differs somewhat: “O God, give us serenity to accept what cannot be changed, courage to change what should be changed, and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other”. Alcoholics Anonymous has used this prayer, with minor changes in wording, since about 1940. According to the first source, Dr. Niebuhr said, “It may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don’t think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself”. The Anglican publishing house, Mobray of London, for more than a century has identified it as a General or Common Prayer of fourteenth-century England, according to a reader of American Notes and Queries, June 1970, p. 154. He added that “Reinhold Niebuhr has acknowledged, more than once, both in seminar and publicly that he was not the original author of the Serenity Prayer”. In Ausblick von der Weibertreu by Christoph Duncker, p. 1 (1973), the following lines are attributed to a Johann Christoph Oetinger, deacon in Weinsberg from 1762 to 1769: “Gib mir Gelassenheit, Dinge hinzunehmen, die ich nicht ändern kann, Den Mut, Dinge zu ändern, die ich ändern kann, und die Weisheit, das eine vom andern zu untersheiden”, which can be translated as above. Another reader of American Notes and Queries, October 1969, p. 25, gives a nearly identical quotation and states that it can be traced to Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702–1782), German theologian and theosophist, without giving a source. Whatever the original source or wording, Niebuhr and A.A. have made the prayer well-known in the United States.

• Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish Thy justice among men and nations. Amen.
  • James H. O’Neill, prayer for good weather, December 1944. Ladislas Farago, Patton, Ordeal and Triumph (1964), chapter 36, p. 690. General George S. Patton, Jr., ordered Colonel O’Neill, chaplain of the Third Army, to produce this prayer.
• Stars above our cornfields,
  Morning-colored wind,
  Snow, and wood-fires burning
  On hearths we leave behind.
  (Shine for us, dear beacons.)
  God of the hidden purpose,
  Let our embarking be
  The prayer of proud men asking
  Not to be safe, but free.
  • Henry Morton Robinson, “Litany for D-Day: 1944”, stanzas 4 and 5, The Enchanted Grindstone and Other Poems (1952), p. 93.

• Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson, prayer “For Success”, Vailima Papers and a Footnote to History (1925), p. 7. This was used by Adlai E. Stevenson on his Christmas card in 1962.

• I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean [i.e., comport] ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.
  • George Washington, circular to the states, Newburgh, New York, June 8, 1783. The Writings of George Washington, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick (1938), vol. 26, p. 496.

• I asked God for strength, that I might achieve
  I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey …
  I asked for health, that I might do greater things
  I was given infirmity, that I might do better things …
  I asked for riches, that I might be happy
  I was given poverty, that I might be wise …
  I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men
  I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God …
  I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life
  I was given life that I might enjoy all things …
  I got nothing that I asked for—but everything I had hoped for
  Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
  I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
  • Author unknown. As “A Creed for Those Who Have Suffered”, this has been used by rehabilitation centers. Adlai E. Stevenson used these lines on his Christmas card, 1955.

• May the road rise to meet you.
  May the wind be ever at your back
  May the Good Lord keep you in the hollow of His hand.
  May your heart be as warm as your hearthstone.
  And when you come to die
  may the wail of the poor
  be the only sorrow
  you’ll leave behind.
  May God bless you always.
  • Author unknown, “An Irish Wish”. Ralph L. Woods, A Third Treasury of the Familiar (1970), p. 644. Another version of this popular Irish blessing: May the road rise to meet you,
    May the wind be always at your back,
    May the sun shine warm upon your face,
    May the rain fall soft upon your fields,
    And, until we meet again,
    May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

• O God, thy sea is so great, and my boat is so small.
  • Author unknown. Prayer of Breton fishermen. President John F. Kennedy had on his desk a plaque with these words, given to him by Admiral Hyman Rickover, who gave one like it to the commanding officer of each new Polaris submarine. Tazewell Taylor Shepard, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Man of the Sea (1965), p. 23.
• Slow me down, Lord! Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time. Give me, amidst the confusion of my day, the calmness of the everlasting hills. Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of singing streams that live in my memory. Teach me the art of taking minute vacations … of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to read a few lines from a good book. Remind me each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise, that I may know that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than measuring its speed. Let me look upward into the branches of the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well. Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.
  • Author unknown. Reported in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).