Quotations about Prayer

I pray on the principle that wine knocks the cork out of a bottle. There is an inward fermentation, and there must be a vent. ~Henry Ward Beecher


God punishes us mildly by ignoring our prayers and severely by answering them. ~Richard J. Needham


When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing - nothing. ~Saint Francis of Assisi


"Give us this day our daily bread" is probably the most perfectly constructed and useful sentence ever set down in the English language. ~P.J. Wingate


Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. ~Søren Kierkegaard


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


Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble. ~Philip Melanchthen


Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~Satchel Paige, 1974


The value of consistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will hear Him. ~William McGill


Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things. ~Samuel M. Shoemaker


Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer. ~Author Unknown


Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish. ~Author Unknown


I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. ~Frederick Douglass, escaped slave


Practical prayer is harder on the soles of your shoes than on the knees of your trousers. ~Austin O'Malley


As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools. ~Author Unknown


When we talk to God, we're praying. When God talks to us, we're schizophrenic. ~Jane Wagner, In Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, 1985, performed by Lily Tomlin


We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties. ~Oswald Chambers


When at night you cannot sleep, talk to the Shepherd and stop counting sheep. ~Author Unknown


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. ~Oswald Chambers


Many people pray as if God were a big aspirin pill; they come only when they hurt. ~B. Graham Dienert


Some have been to the mountain. I have been to my knees by the side of my bed. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com


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. ~Terri Guillemets


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


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 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?


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


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


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 answers first the prayers we should have prayed. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com


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


When you bow deeply to the universe, it bows back; when you call out the name of God, it echoes inside you. ~Morihei Ueshiba


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


Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. ~E.M. Bounds


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


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


Call on God, but row away from the rocks. ~Indian Proverb