Quotations about Prayer
"Many people pray as if God were a big aspirin pill; they come only when they hurt."
(B. Graham Dienert)
"When it's a glorious day
I pray
and
it's a glorious day
when I pray
(Star Richés, "Every Day")
"Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God."
(Author Unknown)
"Prayer is not merely an occasional impulse to which we respond when we are in trouble: prayer is a life attitude."
(Walter A. Mueller)
"The Lord's Prayer may be committed to memory quickly, but it is slowly learnt by heart."
(Frederick Denison Maurice)
"Deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie - I found that out."
(Mark Twain)
"It is good for us to keep some account of our prayers, that we may not unsay them in our practice."
(Matthew Henry)
"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)
"Grow flowers of gratitude in the soil of prayer."
(Verbena Woods)
"Some stand on tiptoe trying to reach God to talk to him - you try too hard, friend - drop to your knees and listen to him, he'll hear you better that way."
(Ever Garrison)
"If we could all hear one another's prayers, God might be relieved of some of his burdens."
(Ashleigh Brilliant)
"Prayers not felt by us are seldom heard by God."
(Philip Henry)
"The trouble with our praying is, we just do it as a means of last resort."
(Will Rogers)
"Underneath prayer disappears adversity."
(Pepper Giardino)
"And help us, this and every day, to live more nearly as we pray."
(John Keble)
"Prayer is the coin paid to Gratitude."
(Jessi Lane Adams)
"I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven."
(Josephine Baker)
"Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence."
(Oscar Wilde)
"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?)
"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)
"Sunbeams out of the clouds
Faith out of all my doubt.
(Emme Woodhull-Bäche, "Prayer")
"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)
"Prayer is a triumph, in whatever form."
(Mirakel Reves)
"It is of course possible to dance a prayer."
(Glade Byron Addams)
"God can pick sense out of a confused prayer."
(Richard Sibbes)
"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)
"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)
"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)
"Your prayer can be poetry, and poetry can be your prayer."
(Noelani Day)
"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)
"Most people do not pray; they only beg."
(George Bernard Shaw)
"Prayer draws us near to our own souls."
(Herman Melville, Mardi and A Voyage Thither, 1849)
"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)
"Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered."
(George Meredith)
"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)