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
“The prayer of a person is (in reality) a light in his heart, so whoever desires, can illuminate his heart (by means of prayers).”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The prayer is one of the (primary) dictates of religion, in it lies the pleasure of the Lord, the Mighty and the Glorious, and it is the conduct of the Prophets.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The prayer is the standard of Islam. Whosoever loves prayers, and observes their limits, timings and methods, is a true believer.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whenever the time of each prayer arrives, an Angel announces to the people: (O’ People!) Stand up and extinguish, with prayers, the fire which you have set alight for yourselves.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a person abandons his prayer such that he neither desires its rewards nor fears its chastisement, for such a person I do not care if he dies a Jew, a Christian or a Magian.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The good deeds of one who, without any appropriate excuse does not offer his prayer until its time passes away, are annulled." He then said: "The divide between a believer and disbelief is the abandonment of prayers.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The name of one who forsakes his prayer intentionally is written upon The door of Hell from which he shall (eventually) enter.”
Muhammad (571–632) said by 632 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perhaps you have noticed that even in the slightest breeze you can hear the voice of the cottonwood tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in different ways.”
Black Elk (1863–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I pray — for word is out And prayer comes round again — That I may seem, though I die old, A foolish, passionate man.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Also to prayer belongeth thanking. Thanking is a true inward knowing, with great reverence and lovely dread turning ourselves with all our mights unto the working that our good Lord stirreth us to, enjoying and thanking inwardly.”
Julian of Norwich (1342–1500) said by 1500 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh thou that bowest Thy ecstatic face Thy perfect sorrows Are the world's to keep Wherefore onto thy knees Come we With a prayer”
“I spent a night of watchfulness unto prayer, like Jacob, wrestling the whole night for the Lord's blessing, and towards morning the light of His countenance did very graciously arise upon me. My trust and confidence are renewed in Him, blessed and praised be His adorable name!”
Stephen Grellet (1772–1855) said by 1855 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Stephen Grellet (1880) by Rev. William Guest, p. 146
“Even if you went out and searched the whole world for a master — some guru, some holy man — to tell you how to say your Jesus Prayer properly, what good would it do you? How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose? Can you tell me that?”
J. D. Salinger (1919–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I still hope for change, and believe work and prayer can produce results. I have a button that says Picket and Pray. There's still a chance to turn things around. Glasnost and Perestroika are what we need in the USA, just as much as in the Soviet Union-especially Perestroika! (1988)”
Denise Levertov (1923–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon.”
André Gide (1869–1951) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Entry for January 21, 1929
“The very One who makes your heart heavy and sorrowful is the same One who makes you flourish, fresh, and rose-colored. The very One who moves you to pray is the same One who grants the reward of prayer.”
Rumi (1207–1273) said by 1273 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A fool there was and he made his prayer (Even as you and I!) To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair We called her the woman who did not care), But the fool he called her his lady fair (Even as you and I!)”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Take of English earth as much As either hand may rightly clutch. In the taking of it breathe Prayer for all who lie beneath.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then, without toil, by vale and mountain side, Men found their few and simple wants supplied; Plenty, like dew, dropped subtle from the air, And Earth's fair gifts rose prodigal as prayer. Love, with no charms except its own to lure, Was swiftly answered by a love as pure. No need for wealth; each glittering fruit and flower, Each star, each streamlet, made the maiden's dower.”
Alfred Austin (1835–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh! hear a pensive captive's prayer, For liberty that sighs; And never let thine heart be shut Against the prisoner's cries.”
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825) said by 1825 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand. Anyone may gather it and no limit is set. Everyone can reach this love through meditation, spirit of prayer, and sacrifice, by an intense inner life.”
Mother Teresa (1910–1997) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Love, A Fruit Always In Season : Daily Meditations from the Words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1987) edited by Dorothy S. Hunt
“...and Britain was saved, because of a national day of prayer. Ladies and gentlemen, we desperately need our own Miracle of Dunkirk today.”
James Dobson (1936–2025) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Response" prayer rally, 2011-08-06, quoted in {{citation
“I look upon prayer-meetings as the most profitable exercises (excepting the public preaching) in which Christians can engage. They have a direct tendency to kill a worldly, trifling spirit, and to draw down a Divine blessing upon all our concerns, compose differences, and enkindle (at least maintain) the flames of Divine love amongst brethren.”
John Newton (1725–1807) said by 1807 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A well-practiced prayer that he knew how to do. So he did, whispering the words aloud. In all, he was relieved that no one answered.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Towards the end of his life, Fischer became interested in Catholicism. He bought his friend Garðar Sverrisson a copy of "Basic Catechism: Creed, Sacraments, Morality, Prayer" so Garðar could explain the religion better to him. According to Garðar, Fischer talked to him about transformation of society through creation of harmony and that "The only hope for the world is through Catholicism.”
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Brady, Frank (2011). Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall – from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness (1st ed.). Crown. ISBN 978-0-307-46390-6.
“My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy; yet I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Blue Moon, You knew just what I was there for, You heard me saying a prayer for, Someone I really could care for.”
Lorenz Hart (1895–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of my earliest loves was the Book of Common Prayer. I was seduced by it, by its beautiful words and the sense of history.”
P. D. James (1920–2014) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Victoria McKee, quoted in Victoria McKee, 'P.D. James', The Times Magazine (22 May 1993), p. 43
“We also had the inestimable advantage of beginning each school day with an act of worship which included a reading from the King James Bible which, with the Book of Common Prayer, has had more influence on our language, literature, history and culture than any other book, but which today a majority of our children will never encounter.”
P. D. James (1920–2014) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'English must be saved', The Times (14 June 1993), p. 14
“All my life I've prayed the Lord's Prayer, but I've never prayed, "Give me this day my daily bread." It is always, "Give us this day our daily bread." Bread and life are shared realities. They do not happen in isolation. Civilization is an unnatural act. We have to make it happen, you and I, together with all the other strangers.”
Bill Moyers (1934–2025) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pass the Bread", baccalaureate address at Hamilton College (20 May 2006), as quoted in Moyers on Democracy (2008), p. 385
“Around her gulps of water, she repeated her prayer, until the monotony and futility silenced her.”
Greg Bear (1951–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My mouth ain't no prayer book.”
Zell Miller (1932–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn't burn up any fossil fuel, doesn't pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.”
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Margaret Mead: A Life (1984) by Jane Howard; cited in Journey Through Womanhood : Meditations from Our Collective Soul (2002) by Tian Dayton, p. 46
“I believe there is no liturgy in the World, either in ancient or modern language, which breathes more of a solid, scriptural, rational Piety, than the Common Prayer of the Church of England. And though the main of it was compiled considerably more than two hundred years ago, yet is the language of it, not only pure, but strong and elegant in the highest degree.”
John Wesley (1703–1791) first seen 1788 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sunday Service of the Methodists; With Other Occasional Services (1788), p. 3
“Sit and be still until in the time of no rain you hear beneath the dry wind's commotion in the trees the sound of flowing water among the rocks, a stream unheard before, and you are where breathing is prayer.”
Wendell Berry (1934–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the prayer of my innermost being To realize my supreme identity In the liberated play of consciousness, The Vast Expanse. Now is the moment, Here is the place of Liberation.”
“Making their lives a prayer.”
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) said by 1892 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To A. K. On receiving a Basket of Sea-Mosses, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Also quoted by: John G. Whittier
“Speak straight and clear! I only hear that manly prayer which like a huge fist breaks my head against the stones.”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hello my Country I once came to tell everyone your story Your passion was my poetry And your past my most potent glory Your promise was my prayer Your hypocrisy my nightmare And your problems fill my present Are we both going somewhere?”
Harry Chapin (1942–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On this hallowed ground, heroic deeds were performed and eloquent words were spoken a century ago. We, the living, have not forgotten–and the world will never forget–the deeds or the words of Gettysburg. We honor them now as we join on this Memorial Day of 1963 in a prayer for permanent peace of the world and fulfillment of our hopes for universal freedom and justice.”
Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I prayed all night long for my master. Till the first of March; and all the time he was bringing people to look at me, and trying to sell me. I changed my prayer. First of March I began to pray, 'Oh Lord, if you ain't never going to change that man's heart, kill him, Lord, and take him out of the way'.”
Harriet Tubman (1820–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman (1971), by Sarah Hopkins Bradford, Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, pp. 14-15.
“We do not step out of the world when we pray; we merely see the world in a different setting. The self is not the hub but the spoke of the revolving wheel. It is precisely the function of prayer to shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Man's Quest For God: Studies In Prayer And Symbolism (1954), p. 7; Heschel would later use this analogy in several minor variations in other writings.
“To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain the sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live. Who is worthy to be present at the constant unfolding of time?”
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The House of Commons starts its proceedings with a prayer. The chaplain looks at the assembled members with their varied intelligence and then prays for the country.”
Alfred Denning, Baron Denning (1899–1999) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Daily Telegraph (12 October 1989)
“Beloved, we need much care, much watchfulness, to be able to look into the depth of the Divine Scriptures. For it is not possible to discover their meaning in a careless way, or while we are asleep, but there needs close search, and there needs earnest prayer, that we may be enabled to see some little way into the secrets of the divine oracles.”
John Chrysostom (349–407) said by 407 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Young people of every continent, do not be afraid to be the saints of the new millennium! Be contemplative, love prayer; be coherent with your faith and generous in the service of your brothers and sisters, be active members of the Church and builders of peace.”
Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Message of the Holy Father to the Youth of the World on the Occasion of the 15th World Youth Day, From the Vatican, 1999
“Whoever flees prayer flees all that is good.”
John of the Cross (1542–1591) said by 1591 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are called to exercise the Spirit's gifts amidst the ups and downs of your daily life. Let your faith mature through your studies, work, sports, music and art. Let it be sustained by prayer and nurtured by the sacraments.”
Pope Benedict XVI (1927–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A Prayer for the Wild at Heart That Are Kept in Cages”
Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source