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. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
God
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“How would you feel if your prayer requests were made public, displayed on a billboard or marquee? "Dear Lord, make me famous. Make me rich.”
Bill Hybels (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One reason we stop praying or let our prayer lives fade is that we are too comfortable.”
Bill Hybels (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If your life is rushing in many directions at once, you are incapable of the kind of deep, unhurried prayer that is vital to the Christian walk.”
Bill Hybels (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The alternative to prefabricated-experience spirituality is what has been practiced by Christians for centuries: prayer.”
Skye Jethani (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are already scientists-- respected scientists in this country who do experiments on things that most people consider supernatural, such as prayer. When Newton proposed the theory of gravitation it was dismissed as supernaturalism because it was action at a distance. What constitutes supernaturalism in today's science may very well not be supernatural in tomorrow's science.”
Jonathan Wells (1942–2024) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Wells testimony, Kansas evolution hearings, 2005.
“Prayer is the act by which man, detaching himself from the embarrassments of sense and nature, ascends to the true level of his destiny.”
Henry Liddon (1829–1890) first seen 1872 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sermon VII: "The Life of Faith and the Athanasian Creed" (October 20, 1872), p. 99.
“Give me a baptism of glowing love, Thy power and presence wheresoe'er I rove; And my last prayer, all other prayers above — Oh, give to me More of Thyself, Lord Jesus: more of Thee!”
Anna Shipton (1815–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer is the breath of a new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it.”
Rowland Hill (preacher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man is not to be comprehended as a starting-point, or progress as a goal, without those two great forces, Faith and Love. Prayer is sublime.”
Albert Pike (1809–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes in the ignorance I feel the meaning Invincible invisible wisdom, And I commune with intuitive instinct With the force that made life be And since it made life be It is greater than life And since it let extinction be It is greater than extinction. I commune with feelings more than prayer”
Sun Ra (1914–1993) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Differences" (1970), p. 132
“I believe that the want of our age is not more "free" handling of the Bible, but more "reverent" handling, more humility, more patient study, and more prayer.”
J. C. Ryle (1816–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lord! till I reach yon blissful shore, No privilege so dear shall be, As thus my inmost soul to pour In prayer to Thee.”
Charlotte Elliott (1789–1871) said by 1871 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul; and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of the spiritual life.”
Octavius Winslow (1808–1878) said by 1878 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That holy, humble, meek, modest, retiring Form, sometimes called the Spirit of Prayer, has been dragged from the closet, and so rudely handled by some of her professed friends, that she has not only lost all her wonted loveliness, but is now stalking the street, in some places, stark mad.”
Asahel Nettleton (1783–1844) said by 1844 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. 193.
“I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Count Erskyll said nothing for a moment. He was opposed to the use of force. Force, he believed, was the last resort of incompetence; he had said so frequently enough since this operation had begun. Of course, he was absolutely right, though not in the way he meant. Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything, even prayer.”
H. Beam Piper (1904–1964) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Slave is a Slave (1962)
“He awoke. He was alive. He wasted no time on prayer or thanks but continued the business of survival.”
Alfred Bester (1913–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The village muezzin called the faithful to prayer. Diane ignored the sound.”
Robert Charles Wilson (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We took the Bible and prayer out of public schools. Now we're having weekly shootings. We had the '60s sexual revolution, and now people are dying of AIDS.”
Christine O'Donnell (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Eric Nies: You're going to stop the whole country from having sex? Christine O'Donnell: Yeah. Yeah! Eric Nies: You're living on a prayer if you think that's going to happen. Christine O'Donnell: That's not true. I'm a young woman in my thirties and I remain chaste.”
Christine O'Donnell (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel it is through prayer, meditation, and dedicated service that world peace can take place. Each individual has to try to make others happy, for it is only through happiness that we can have peace.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most glorious works of grace that have ever took place, have been in answer to prayer; and it is in this way, we have the greatest reason to suppose, that the glorious out-pouring of the Spirit, which we expect at last, will be bestowed.”
William Carey (missionary) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To talk of prayer after admitting he professed no faith was, in my opinion, a breach of common courtesy. In this sense, he did make a social blunder, for which I think he well deserved some minor castigation.”
Kenzaburō Ōe (1935–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh; Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear; To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh; Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.”
George Croly (1780–1860) said by 1860 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. 444.
“As regards the Sādōcaeans and Boēthosians, they are the sectarians who are anathemised in our prayer. The followers of Jesus are "the Baptists" who adopted the doctrine of baptism, being baptized in the Jordan.”
Judah Halevi (1075–1141) said by 1141 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our prayer must be, “Father, I’m waiting for You because I know You are good in what You do and in when you do it.”
James MacDonald (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not by prayer and humility that you cause things to go as you wish, but by acquiring a knowledge of natural laws.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, goddammit, we forgot the silent prayer.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark at a cabinet meeting, as quoted in Since 1945 : Politics and Diplomacy in Recent American History (1979) by Robert A. Divine, p. 55
“Thank you all. I want you all to know; it can't go any louder. I want you all to know that America today, America today is on bended knee. In prayer for people whose lives were lost here, for the workers who work here. for the families who mourn. This nation stands with the good people of New York City and New Jersey and Connecticut as we mourn the loss of thousands of our citizens.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combatting the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: alt.fan.pratchett (30 May 1998)
“My last vestige of "hands-off religion" respect disappeared in the smoke and choking dust of September 11, 2001, followed by the "National Day of Prayer", when prelates and pastors did their tremulous Martin Luther King impersonation and urged people of mutually incompatible faiths to hold hands, united in homage to the very force that caused the problem in the first place.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beneath this sod A poet lies, or that which once seemed he — Oh, lift a thought in prayer for S.T.C! That he, who many a year, with toil of breath, Found death in life, may here find life in death.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) first seen 1833 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epitaph", written for himself (1833)
“O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee, Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in prayer, I worshipped the Invisible alone.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O Bells of San Blas in vain Ye call back the Past again; The Past is deaf to your prayer! Out of the shadows of night The world rolls into light; It is daybreak everywhere.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) first seen 1882 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Bells of San Blas, st. 11 (March 15, 1882).
“The prayer of Ajax was for light.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Henry W. Longfellow
“Farewell! if ever fondest prayer For other's weal avail'd on high, Mine will not all be lost in air, But waft thy name beyond the sky.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) first seen 1808 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Farewell! if ever fondest Prayer (1808).
“What is good for a bootless bene?" With these dark words begins my tale; And their meaning is, Whence can comfort spring When prayer is of no avail?”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any heart turned Godward feels more joy In one short hour of prayer, than e'er was raised By all the feasts of earth since its foundation.”
Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth.”
Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the fifth day of the moon, which, according to the custom of my forefathers, I always keep holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdad, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I came to the conclusion long ago ... that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu ... But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (19 January 1928)
“A memory of yesterday’s pleasures, a fear of tomorrow’s dangers, a straw under my knee, a noise in mine ear, a light in mine eye, an anything, a nothing, a fancy, a chimera in my brain, troubles me in my prayer. So certainly is there nothing, nothing in spiritual things, perfect in this world.”
John Donne (1572–1631) first seen 1626 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 80, preached at the funeral of Sir William Cokayne, 12 December 1626
“The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme, The young men's vision, and the old men's dream!”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Despair weeps not. Her lip moved as in prayer Unconsciously ; as if prayers had been there, And they moved now from custom.”
Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) said by 1838 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him.”
“Don't even hear the murmur of a prayer. It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.”
“Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Someone who strives on behalf of widows and the poor is like someone who fights in the way of Allah." I think that he also said, "And like someone who continually stands at night in prayer and like someone who continually fasts.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Narrated 'Ali: When it was the day of the battle of Al-Ahzab (i.e. the clans), Allah's Apostle said, "O Allah! Fill their (i.e. the infidels') houses and graves with fire as they busied us so much that we did not perform the prayer (i.e. 'Asr) till the sun set.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Islam has been built on five [pillars]: testifying that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, establishing the salah (prayer), paying the zakat (obligatory charity), making the hajj (pilgrimage) to the House, and fasting in Ramadhan.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source