Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth. –Phil James Bailey
Prayers plough not! Praises reap not! –William Blake
Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold of God’s willingness. –Phillips Brooks
Prayer, in its simplest definition, is merely a wish turned God-ward.
Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. –Adam Clarke
Prayer is conversation with God. –Clement of Alexandria
Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of himself. –Mother Teresa
Prayers are little messages sent up to God at night to get a cheaper rate. –A child
Prayer – the very highest energy of which the mind is capable. –Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Prayer is the pillow of religion. –Arab proverb
Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, for such things as God has promised. –John Bunyan
Prayer is and remains always a native and deepest impulse of the soul of man. –Thomas Carlyle
Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate. The influence of prayer on the human mind and body is as demonstrable as that of the secreting glands. Prayer is a force as real as terrestrial gravity. It supplies us with a flow of sustaining power in our daily lives. –Alexis Carrel
Prayer crowns God with the honor and glory due to His name, and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort. The most praying souls are the most assured souls.–Thomas B. Brooks
Prayer covers the whole of a man’s life. There is no thought, feeling, yearning or desire, however low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it, which, if it affects our real interest or happiness, we may not lay before God and be sure of sympathy. His nature is such that our often coming does not tire him. The whole burden of the whole life of every man may be rolled on to God and not weary him, though it has wearied the man. –Henry Ward Beecher
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A person without prayer is like a tree without roots. –Pope Pius XII
If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If we love, we will serve.
Seven days without prayer makes one weak. –Allen E Vartlett
The wings of prayer carry high and far. If you are swept off your feet, it’s time to get on your knees. –Fred Beck
It is not well for man to pray cream, and live skim milk. –Henry Ward Beecher
He who ceases to pray ceases to prosper. –William Gurney Benham
Pray devoutly, but hammer stoutly.
The greatest prayer is patience. –Gautama Buddha
They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright! –Robert Burns
The best prayers have often more groans than words.
To get nations back on their feet, we must get down on our knees first.
He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day. –John Bunyan
When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words than they words without heart.
O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.
If Christians spent as much time praying as they grumbling, they would soon have nothing to grumble about.
The only prayer which a well-meaning man can pray is : O ye gods, give mewhatever is fitting unto me! –Appollonius of Tyana
Our prayers must mean something to us if they are to mean anything to God. –Maltbie D. Babcock
Prayer is the spiritual gymnasium in which we exercise and practice Godliness. –VL Crawford
If you would have God hear you when you pray, you must hear Him when He speaks.
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
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.
The man who says his prayers in the evening is a captain posting his sentries. After that, he can sleep. –Charles Baudelaire
Know that you are freed from all desires when you have reached such a point that you pray to God for nothing except what you can pray for openly. –Athenodorus
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
Who so will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fast his soul, and make his body lean. –Geoffrey Chaucer
I used to pray that God would this or that. Now I pray that God will make His will known to me. –Mme. Chiang Kai-shek
Now, boys, remember one thing : do not make long prayers : always remember that the Lord knows something. –Anon
A man ought to know when to pray – it’s pretty late to pray for oars when the boat’s on the brink of the falls.
Let the Divine Mind flow through your own mind, and you will be happier. I have found the greatest power in the world in the power of prayer. There is no shadow of doubt of that. I speak from my own experience. –Cecil B. De Mille
The key to a Christian conception of studies is the realization that prayer consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable toward God. The quality of attention counts much in the quality of the prayer. Warmth of heart cannot make up for it. –Simone Well
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Prayer is naught else but a yearning of soul…when it is practiced with the whole heart, it has great power. –Mechthild of Magdeburg
God aspires us into Himself in contemplation, and then we must be wholly His; but afterwards the Spirit of God expires us without, for the practice of love and good works. –Jan Van Ruysbroek
Dog-tiredness is such a lovely prayer, really, if only we would recognize it as such. Sometimes I hear, “I’m so dog-tired when I get to chapel, I can’t pray.” But what does it matter? We don’t matter. Our Lord can pray just as well through a dog-tired body and mind as through a well-rested one, better perhaps. It is the same with pain and suffering of all kinds. –Mother Maribel of Wantage
To pray is to work, to work is to pray. –Ancient motto of the Benedictine Order
As for prayer, don’t burden yourself with making considerations; neither your mind or mine is good at that. Follow your own way of speaking to our Lord sincerely, lovingly, confidently and simply, as your heart dictates. –Jane de Chantal
If the only prayer you say in your whole life is “thank you,” that would suffice. –Meister Eckart
In this temple of God, in this divine dwelling place, God alone rejoices with the soul in the deepest silence. There is no reason for the intellect to stir or seek anything, for the Lord who created it wishes to give it repose here. –Teresa of Avila
Those who would storm the heavenly heights by fierceness and ascetic practices deceive themselves badly. Such people carry grim hearts within themselves; they lack true humility which alone leads to the soul of God. –Mechthild of Magdeburg
Therefore we pray to him urgently that he may do what is pleasing to him, as if he were to say: “How could you please me more than by entreating me, urgently, wisely and sincerely, to do the thing that I want to have done?” And so the soul by prayer is made of one accord with God. –Julian of Norwich
O God, Founder of the universe, help me that I may pray aright, that I may act as one worthy to be heard by you and, finally, set me free. –St. Augustine
Short prayer pierces heaven. –The Cloud of the Unknowing
I am never alone. Christ is always present, always praying in me and I pray in him. –Elizabeth of the Trinity
For me prayer is an upward leap of the heart, an untroubled glance toward heaven, a cry of gratitude and love which I utter from the depths of sorrow as well as from the heights of joy. It has a supernatural grandeur which expands the soul and unites it with God. –Therese of Lisieux
Our prayer brings great joy and gladness to the Lord. He wants it and awaits it. So He says this : “Pray inwardly, even though you find no joy in it. For it does good, though you feel nothing, see nothing, yes, even though you think you cannot pray. For when you are dry and empty, sick and weak, your prayers please me, though there be little enough to please you. All believing prayer is precious to me. –Julian of Norwich