Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“Work is God's ordinance as truly as prayer.”
George Boardman the Younger (1828–1903) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 368.
“My God! is any hour so sweet, From blush of morn to evening-star, As that which calls me to Thy feet,— The hour of prayer?”
Charlotte Elliott (1789–1871) said by 1871 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]omorrow the proclamation of her sovereignty will command the loyalty of her native land and of all other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire. I, whose youth was passed in the august, unchallenged and tranquil glories of the Victorian Era, may well feel a thrill in invoking, once more, the prayer and the Anthem, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast upon the accession of Elizabeth II (7 February 1952) , quoted in Winston Churchill, Stemming the Tide: Speeches 1951 and 1952 (1953), p. 240
“To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention — on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol, or the True God — that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying. ... The primary task of the schoolteacher is to teach children, in a secular context, the technique of prayer.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many favors which God giveth us ravel out for want of hemming, through our own unthankfulness; for though prayer purchaseth blessings, giving praise doth keep the quiet possession of them.”
Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) said by 1661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 579
“Every wish Is like a prayer—with God.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) said by 1861 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer uniteth the soul to God.”
Julian of Norwich (1342–1500) said by 1500 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reading the morning newspaper is the realist's morning prayer. One orients one's attitude toward the world either by God or by what the world is. The former gives as much security as the latter, in that one knows how one stands.”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Miscellaneous writings of G.W.F. Hegel, translation by Jon Bartley Stewart, Northwestern University Press, 2002, page 247.
“God had answered her prayer, not with the thing she asked for, but rather the thing she wanted most in her heart.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know there is a hope in religion; I know there is faith and I know there is prayer about religion and necessary to it, but God is most glorified when there is peace on earth and good will towards men.”
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass (2009), by Maurice S. Lee, Cambridge University Press, p. 70
“Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.”
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Communication. This lack of word from the outside world might drive even him crazy shortly. It was as bad as prayer, talking to a god who never talked back.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No prayer addressed to my god ever returned any useful insight.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The believing man hath the Holy Ghost; and where the Holy Ghost dwelleth, He will not suffer a man to be idle, butstirreth him up to all exercises of piety and godliness, and of true religion, to the love of God, to the patient suffering of afflictions, to prayer, to thanksgiving, and the exercise of charity towards all men.”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) said by 1546 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1941–1942
“In an ebullient exchange with the Baghdadi singing-girl ‘Inan he wrote: "Gorgeous one! – God has made your face a qibla for me, /So allow me to pray toward your face, and lets have a kiss." Here "kiss" (qubla) and "the direction of prayer" (qibla) are made to rhyme, an almost inevitable rhyming couplet.”
Abu Nuwas (756–814) said by 814 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Philip F. Kennedy, Abu Nuwas: A Genius of Poetry (2005)
“I desired as many as could to join together in fasting and prayer, that God would restore the spirit of love and of a sound mind to the poor deluded rebels in America.”
John Wesley (1703–1791) first seen 1777 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Journal entry (1 August 1777), published in The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley (1827), p. 104
“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 (1856–1924) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in New York (23 May 1912)
“He placed in my hands an official report and told me that President Harding had just passed away. My wife and I at once dressed. Before leaving the room I knelt down and, with, the same prayer with which I have since approached the altar of the church, asked God to bless the American people and give me power to serve them.”
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remember that you are never alone, Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives! He has called you and chosen you to live in the freedom of the children of God. Turn to him in prayer and in love. Ask him to grant you the courage and strength to live in this freedom always. Walk with him who is "the Way, the Truth and the Life"!”
Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Baptismal Vigik with Young Peeple, Address of John Paul II at Longchamp Racecourse on 23 August 1997 during Apostolic Journey of His Holiness John Paul II to Paris on the Occasion of the 12th World Youth Day (August 21-…
“Walk in Christ's light daily through fidelity to personal and liturgical prayer, nourished by meditation on the inspired word of God.. Make the daily celebration of the Eucharist the center of your life.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How important, therefore, to learn before leaving England to move man through God by prayer alone.”
James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) said by 1905 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm not unmindful of man's seeming need for faith; I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniel's. But to me religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle.”
Frank Sinatra (1915–1998) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Also quoted in Frank Sinatra, My Father (1986) by Nancy Sinatra, p. 201.
“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 (1509–1564) said by 1564 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1509–1564) said by 1564 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In all these moments, we gradually make our lives more of a prayer and we open our hands to be led by God even to places we would rather not go.”
Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1843–1901) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
“Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The Devil always builds a chapel there; And 'twill be found, upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We two will stand beside that shrine, Occult, withheld, untrod, Whose lamps are stirr'd continually With prayer sent up to God; And see our old prayers, granted, melt Each like a little cloud.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not cease to gyue thankes, that it hathe pleased hys goodnes to vse me, as an instrument and to worke somwhat by me, so I truste, I am as ready to serue hym in my calling to my litel power, as ye ar preste, to wryght worse of me then ye owght to thinke. My prayer is, that God gyue me no longer lyfe, then I shall be gladde to vse myn office in edificatione, and not in destructione.”
Thomas Cromwell (1485–1540) first seen 1536 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Nicholas Shaxton (March 1538), quoted in Roger Bigelow Merriman, Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, Volume II: Letters from 1536, Notes, Index (1902), p. 129
“When I was a child, eight or ten years old, I made a solemn promise to God that, when I grew up, I would write him a hymn for the prayer-book. The vow has never been fulfilled. But I have painted a large number of pictures, and there must be more than thirty religious ones. I wonder if they will do instead.”
Emil Nolde (1867–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God, please make me a channel of your peace." The first line of the St. Francis prayer, popularized by Mother Teresa, bastardized by Margaret Thatcher, and cherished by those of us who have fallen through the cracks and floated ourselves back up with crack.”
Russell Brand (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every day before supper and before we went to services on Sundays my grandmother would read the Bible to me, and my grandfather would pray. We even had devotions before going to pick cotton in the fields. Prayer and the Bible, became a part of my everyday thoughts and beliefs. I learned to put my trust in God and to seek Him as my strength.”
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here then we see God’s way of success in our work, whatever it may be – a trinity of prayer, faith and patience.”
James O. Fraser (1886–1938) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 16 January 1916 Source: Geraldine Taylor. Behind the Ranges: The Life-changing Story of J.O. Fraser. Singapore: OMF International (IHQ) Ltd., 1998, 151.
“The aim of Satanic power is to cut off communication with God. To accomplish this aim he deludes the soul with a sense of defeat, covers him with a thick cloud of darkness, depresses and oppresses the spirit, which in turn hinders prayer and leads to unbelief – thus destroying all power.”
James O. Fraser (1886–1938) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 20 March 1916 Source: Geraldine Taylor. Behind the Ranges: The Life-changing Story of J.O. Fraser. Singapore: OMF International (IHQ) Ltd., 1998, 157.
“It’s all he can do to refrain from prayer. God probably doesn’t want to know what he’s doing here this morning, a borderline accomplice to evil in service to a greater cause.”
Charles Stross (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fair Elphin, cease your lament! Swearing profits no-one. It is not evil to hope Nor does any man see what supports him, Not an empty treasure is the prayer of Cynllo, Nor does God break his promise.”
Taliesin (518–599) said by 599 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like sacrifices, prayer is intended to change man, not God. Its purpose is to cultivate a contrite heart, to promote feelings of humility and inadequacy in man, whilst encouraging reliance on Divine assistance.”
Immanuel Jakobovits (1921–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God shapes the world by prayer.”
Edward McKendree Bounds (1835–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Purpose in Prayer (1920), p. 9.
“The uploads replicate and develop relationships. Most of them go very bad. You sometimes get an entire virtual planet of four billion people devoted to building prayer wheels in an attempt at a denial of service attack on God.”
Ken MacLeod (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Humor aside, I think the reason we sometimes have the false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left him.”
Ravi Zacharias (1946–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My religious training told me that in times of personal uncertainty one should seek God's direction through personal prayer and study of the Christian scriptures.”
Preston Manning (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“3. Prayer is a continual intercourse of the spirit with God. What state of soul then is required that the spirit might thus strain after its Master without wavering, living constantly with him without intermediary?”
Evagrius Ponticus (345–399) said by 399 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“35. Prayer is an ascent of the spirit to God.”
Evagrius Ponticus (345–399) said by 399 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“65. If you long to pray, then avoid all that is opposed to prayer. Then when God draws near, he has only to go along with you.”
Evagrius Ponticus (345–399) said by 399 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer must lead us beyond mind, words, and ideas to a more spacious place where God has a chance to get in.”
Richard Rohr (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So high above all things that be. Is God uplifted, man can dare. No utterance: he prayeth best. When Silence is his sum of prayer”
Angelus Silesius (1624–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a Jew who does not believe in God, but very strongly believes in Jewish peoplehood, the idea of a prayer or blessing does not resonate in a traditional sense. For me, a blessing is a statement of intention of purpose and an expression of gratitude.”
Edgar Bronfman Sr. (1929–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Praise be to God with all due praise, and a prayer for Muhammad His chosen servant and apostle. The purpose of this treatise is to examine, from the standpoint of the study of the Law, whether the study of philosophy and logic is allowed by the Law, or prohibited, or commanded either by way of recommendation or as obligatory.”
Averroes (1126–1198) said by 1198 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have been so persistently taught that prayer consists in asking God for some human need that we have lost sight of our spiritual identity and have become a race of praying beggars.”
Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source