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Quotations about Prayer Related Quotes God Faith Soltidue Silence Soul
Pythagoras said that the time when men are honestest, is when they present themselves before the gods. If we can overhear the prayer, we shall know the man. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Prayers," in The Dial, July 1842 Prayers not felt by us are seldom heard by God. ~Philip Henry Let your prayers be humble, short, but energick. ~Countess Dowager of Carlisle, Thoughts in the Form of Maxims addressed to Young Ladies, on their First Establishment in the World, 1790 [Isabella Howard (1721–1795) The trouble with our praying is, we just do it as a means of last resort. ~Will Rogers To be present is to be prayerful. ~Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh I tried to sweat my life into beauty, and then one day I thought I would sit me down in the furrows. I would stop the wheels long enough to enlist God. I would stop the mad rush that hour, that moment, and sit me down and pray. I would come with tranquility, with repose of the flesh, with the institution of easement and peace.... I would lift with my yearning that which I could not lift with my arms. The potency of my prayer would be mightier than brawn and swifter than feet. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: XXVI," A Soul's Faring, 1921 When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart. ~John Bunyan And help us, this and every day, to live more nearly as we pray. ~John Keble I believe in God, and that there are pieces of him, called love and goodness, in everyone. I also believe in prayer, not the memorized type mumbled in church but the spontaneous kind spoken, ironically, in the last breath of the day, when the lamp has been dimmed and the bedspread drawn down, and it's just you and those pieces of God in you, alone.... I suspect that when a man grows too big to kneel, then he is destined to fall. ~Joe Kita, "God," Wisdom of Our Fathers, 1999 I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven. ~Josephine Baker In times of steady calm and extraordinary change alike, Americans of all walks of life have long turned to prayer to seek refuge, demonstrate gratitude, and discover peace. Sustaining us through great uncertainty and moments of sorrow, prayer allows us an outlet for introspection, and for expressing our hopes, desires, and fears. ~Barack Obama, 2016 May 4th, of National Day of Prayer Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence. ~Oscar Wilde Saying one's prayers isn't exactly the same thing as praying.... ~L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed; The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast. ~James Montgomery, What is Prayer? Prayer is communication with the Divine. It can be whispered or chanted or written or expressed in the work you do. However it is expressed, it is never in vain. ~Donna Wilk Cardillo It is not well for a man to pray cream and live skim milk. ~Henry Ward Beecher Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. ~Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, 1862 I cannot pray!— My soul is at war with God! ~Edgar A. Poe, Politian, 1835 (Lalage) Complaint is the largest tribute heaven receives and the sincerest part of our devotion. ~Jonathan Swift I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. ~Abraham Lincoln It 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, "Prayer," Practical Piety God can pick sense out of a confused prayer. ~Richard Sibbes Prayer is the coin paid to Gratitude. ~Terri Guillemets 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 I often pray, though I'm not really sure Anyone's listening; and I phrase it carefully, just in case He's literary. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966 Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. ~Adam Clarke when it's a glorious day I pray and it's a glorious day when I pray ~Terri Guillemets God answers first the prayers we should have prayed. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com My father prayed because he had a good Friend with whom to share the problems of the day. ~Corrie Ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook When we pray, our hearts glow a glorious joy that lights our souls and all the world around us. ~Terri Guillemets God always answers our prayers, but sometimes the answer is no. ~Author Unknown God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer. ~Mother Teresa It is of course possible to dance a prayer. ~Terri Guillemets Have I the courage of my prayers? I pray for a thing, but if it came, am I sure I should have the fortitude to accept it? Have I the capacity to accept truth? We pray, and have not the courage to accept the answer to our prayers — and still we pray. We invite a thing to depart, and then nail it down for fear it will. We pray for our misery to go, and when it gets up to do so, we go over and lock the door. We cry for freedom, and we cry harder when we get it. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: LXXVII," A Soul's Faring, 1921 Prayer is a triumph, in whatever form. ~Terri Guillemets There come times when I have nothing more to tell God. If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said. At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in Thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence." ~O. Hallesby Divine Protector! let my prayer Be wafted on the morning air, Bright as the bird that soars on high, Light as the breeze which fans the sky, Swift as the light'ning through the air... All nature flows in rapturous lay, Life beams in one eternal ray... The prayer of soul—the soul of prayer, How unrestrained upon the air, As perfume from the beauteous flower Is breathed in sweetness more than power, So let our incense fill the air With deep humility and prayer. ~"The Prayer of Soul," written from impression by the spirit of Mrs. Hemans, by Mrs. H.A. Adams (medium), in The Sacred Circle, Volume I, edited by Judge Edmonds, Dr. Dexter, and O.G. Warren, 1855 When prayers go up, blessings come down. ~Author unknown When you bow deeply to the universe, it bows back; when you call out the name of God, it echoes inside you. ~Morihei Ueshiba Our prayers make beggars of us all. We pray for blessings, when they can only be evolved; for peace when it is a result; and for grace when it is a growth. We ask as alms that which is ours by divine diligence. We pray for things to be bestowed that have their origin only in us, and for things to be given that are already in our possession. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: LXXXVII," A Soul's Faring, 1921 Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this: "Great God, grant that twice two be not four." ~Ivan Turgenev Some days my prayer is a rainfall of tears, other days the sunshine of joy, and sometimes it's a sheltering umbrella — but no matter what I'm weathering in my life, my prayer is first and always the infinite horizon of gratitude. ~Terri Guillemets Most people do not pray; they only beg. ~George Bernard Shaw Prayer is glue for broken souls. ~Terri Guillemets Sometimes the answer to our prayers is to become the answer to someone else's prayers. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com Prayer draws us near to our own souls. ~Herman Melville, Mardi and A Voyage Thither, 1849 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. ~Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein 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 What we usually pray to God is not that His will be done, but that He approve ours. ~Helga Bergold Gross 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. ~Margaret Gibb We cannot ask in behalf of Christ what Christ would not ask Himself if He were praying. ~A.B. Simpson Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us. ~Socrates Just pray for a tough hide and a tender heart. ~Ruth Graham God tells us to burden him with whatever burdens us. ~Author Unknown You know I ain't never prayed before 'Cause it always seemed to me That prayin's the same as beggin' Lord, I don't take no charity. ~Steve Earle, "Tom Ames' Prayer," 1994 Before we can pray, "Lord, Thy Kingdom come," we must be willing to pray, "My Kingdom go." ~Alan Redpath 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 Prayer is the balloon of faith by which the soul rises heavenward. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Seven Seventy Seven Sensations, 1897 Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered. ~George Meredith Pray on the shadowy hillside of hardship and on the sunny hillside of happiness. ~Terri Guillemets God has editing rights over our prayers. He will... edit them, correct them, bring them in line with His will and then hand them back to us to be resubmitted. ~Stephen Crotts Be thankful that God's answers are wiser than your answers. ~William Culbertson Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. ~E.M. Bounds Oh! none are so absorb'd, as not to feel Sweet thoughts like music coming o'er the mind: When prayer, the purest incense of a soul, Hath risen to the throne of heaven, the heart Is mellow'd, and the shadows that becloud Our state of darken'd being, glide away;... ~Robert Montgomery, "Beautiful Influences," A Universal Prayer; Death; A Vision of Heaven; and A Vision of Hell; &c. &c., 1829 Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God. ~Edwin Keith When you are unwell, you must cough, sneeze, and ache prayer. ~Terri Guillemets Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth. ~Philip James Bailey The Lord longs to hear all of our concerns — any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. ~Corrie Ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook Call on God, but row away from the rocks. ~Indian Proverb
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