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
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“It suits your purpose, no doubt, to delude the unwary by false colors; as the devil, when he commences innkeeper, hangs out an angel for his sign. The real meaning, however, is that you '--set down ALL in malice.' Shakspears morality, in the hands of a Reviewer, is to be read backward, like a witch's prayer.”
Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In four centuries of taking wealth and comfort from the body of the Earth, modern science has not troubled to produce a single rite or ritual, not even a minor prayer, that asks pardon or gives thanks. But then what sense would it make to ask anything of a dead body?”
Theodore Roszak (scholar) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For an instant a half-formed prayer struggled into Havor’s mouth. But he could not utter it. Not for himself. For him those words were already drowned by the noise the thong-whip had made, or the sounds of children crying out of hunger or the cold or sheer misery in that grey house of orphans in the far North, eight years ago.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I raised my arms as if in prayer and heard the mutter of response behind me. Then I scattered the dried grains, red and brown and black, and studied the patterns they formed on the stone ledge before Sibbos. This is not such a mystic thing. You see what it is sensible to see, or else you interpret what you see so that the meaning comes out as you want it.”
Tanith Lee (1947–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sweetness of prayer is one thing,”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On pure prayer:”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Therefore, as I have said, one must not call this gift and grace spiritual prayer,”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hence He continually separated Himself for prayer, and not indiscriminately, but He chose the night for this, and as a place, the desert. Hereby [He taught] us to withdraw from all clamor and tumult, so that we could pray in stillness, as is proper.”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer does not consist only of the repeating ,”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let the following prayer not cease from your heart night or day:”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That the intellect should standing during the office or in prayer continually, again and again,”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When it sometimes happens that a person is held worthy of prayer of fervour as a result of the surging of grace,”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When he is held worthy of the prayer of understanding,”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Or maybe there is someone who imagines that the level and the stirring of spiritual prayer consists in one of these things.”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By prayer I do not mean only the fixed Hours, the Hullale of the psalter and the liturgical hymns.”
Isaac of Nineveh (640–700) said by 700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't think that you are carrying the whole world; make it easy. Make it play, make it a prayer.”
Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A society run by reasonable, rational, educated, objective, skeptical people who know that actions work and prayer doesn’t –would tend to be atheist. We’ve already seen the world run by Christians. Whenever religion has had rule over law, the result has historically always been an automatic violation of human rights and an attack on factual education. So yeah, any Utopia would have to be humanist.”
“Star of my heart, I follow from afar. Sweet Love on high, lead on where shepherds are, Where Time is not, and only dreamers are. Star from of old, the Magi-Kings are dead And a foolish Saxon seeks the manger-bed. O lead me to Jehovah's child Across this dreamland lone and wild, Then will I speak this prayer unsaid, And kiss his little haloed head— "My star and I, we love thee, little child.”
Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Build it and they will come” is not a strategy; it’s a prayer.”
Steve Blank (born 1953) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Forbes "How To Test The Assumption That People Actually Want Your Product". June 14, 2016.
“On the day / While closing my eyes in the mist of the sacred temple / I suddenly heard / The true world of your prayer”
He Xuntian (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Messenger of Allah commanded that places of prayer be established in villages, and that they be purified and perfumed.”
Aisha (614–678) said by 678 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’ve lived here for 20 years and I have been a citizen for 10 years. I hope I am a good one. I know I don’t take it for granted. I feel I am an awfully lucky person to be an American and I think that every naturalized American and every person born in this land should kneel on his knees every morning and utter a prayer for being an American.”
Bela Lugosi (1882–1956) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview for the Broadway Newsreel (April 5, 1939)
“It's organized chaos. Everything is different. You have a sound check—a very thorough sound check—to make sure that everything is worked out so smoothly and then you're in glam, and then you have a small prayer before you hit the stage and it's it's a lot of fun. That's what it's all about. You want to come together and be thankful for having the privilege of getting to do what you love for work.”
Erika Jayne (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing.”
Liam Neeson (born 1952) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Liam Neeson confirms ‘I am not converting to Islam’", Al Arabiya, 13 January, 2015.
“Grudge no expense — yield to no opposition — forget fatigue — till, by the strength of prayer and sacrifice, the spirit of love have overcome.”
Maria Weston Chapman (1806–1885) first seen 1836 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Liberator, August 13, 1836, as quoted in
“He and I have been playing phone tag actually in the last couple of days, I’d invite everyone to say a prayer if that’s what you do for his well-being and health right now.”
Kamala Harris (born 1964) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In AP interview, Harris says Democrats ‘are standing up for working people’ in government shutdown AP News (October 18, 2025).
“‘147. May the country properly known as Hindusthan be again united and be one and may the people be taught to discard the defeatist mentality leading them to submit to the aggressors. This is my last wish and prayer to the Almighty.’”
Nathuram Godse (1910–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A religion of life had come to replace a religion of penance and emaciation, of fasting and prayer. The crucified body had risen in its turn and was no longer abashed Man had reached a harmonious unity: he had discovered that he is a single being not made, like a pendulum, of two different metals,= that check each other; he realised that the foe in his members had ceased to exist.”
Alexander Herzen (1812–1870) said by 1870 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Out of the years of the past comes a message from one who towered among us a generation ago—a message voicing in all its fervency the prayer and hope of Humanity: "Young man, young woman, join yourself in your youth with some unpopular cause and grow up loyal in its service.”
J. Howard Moore (1862–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The soul that reduces prayer to the minimum remains asphyxiated; if it excludes all invocation, it is slowly strangled.”
Gianfranco Ravasi (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here is a prayer: As you gain power, may you never forget what it’s like to not have power.”
Celeste Ng (born 1980) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter post December 31, 2018
“Really, all poetry is a prayer, you have to go to the center place, inside you, to write poetry. (1994”
“Persevere in prayer without ceasing.. to understand and live according to his will, not to change it.”
Charbel Makhlouf (1828–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As every minister knows, a prayer is a superb device for airing an opinion.”
Marion L. Starkey (1901–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I pray for the forgiveness of everyone at the end of every prayer. If you keep your faith in Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him), you will receive my prayers in your graves.”
Uwais al-Qarani (594–657) said by 657 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Owais Qarni and his love for Prophet, by Abu Tariq Hijazi, Arab News, (28 May 2016)
“When the same [person] had retired into the solitary life he prayed again, offering the same prayer, and he heard a voice saying to him: “Arsenius, take flight, keep silent and maintain hesychia, for these are the roots of sinlessness.”
Arsenius the Great (354–449) said by 449 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The intellect cannot be still unless the body is still also: and the wall between them cannot be demolished without stillness and prayer.”
Marcus Eremita (360–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer is called a virtue, but in reality it is the mother of the virtues: for it gives birth to them through union with Christ.”
Marcus Eremita (360–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is all I can report. The Old, Established Way is not enough. Or as I say, perhaps I am not qualified. Worse still, it may be that my prayer training was insufficient or improper. At any rate, it didn't work for me.”
Robert Monroe (1915–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ajit Singh… sent a message humbly asking that Khan Zaman and the Kaziu’I-Kuzat might come into Jodhpur, to rebuild the mosques, destroy idol-temples, enforce the provisions of the law about the summons to prayer and the killing of cows, to appoint magistrates and to commission officers to collect the jizya. His submission was graciously accepted, and his requests granted…”
Khafi Khan (1664–1732) first seen 1707 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ajit Singh's message. During reign of Shah ‘Alam Bahadur Shah Padshah Ghazi (AD 1707-1712) at Jodhpur (Rajasthan), in Muntikhabu’l-Lubab in Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own historians,, Vol. VII, p…
Also quoted by: Ajit Singh of Marwar
“It was very obvious that Vice President Biden cared, as he extended to Jacob Jr. a sense of humanity, treating him as a person worthy of consideration and prayer”
Benjamin Crump (born 1969) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 3 September 2020 about Joe Biden's feelings for Jacob Blake
“...a process, a journey into deeper and deeper prayer.”
Immaculée Ilibagiza (born 1972) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On forgiving the killers of her family. A Survivor's Story: Immaculée Ilibagiza's passage to forgiveness America Magazine (November 23, 2009)
“Forgiving the men who killed my parents and brother was a process, a journey into deeper and deeper prayer.”
Immaculée Ilibagiza (born 1972) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Survivors Story: Immacule Ilibagiza's passage to forgiveness (November 23, 2009)
“Reading seeks for the sweetness of a blessed life, meditation perceives it, prayer asks for it, contemplation tastes it.”
Guigo II (1114–1193) said by 1193 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prayer has this wonderful quality of conveying a sense of security in the mystery, in the face of mystery: “I don’t need to see everything in the future. I just need enough light to take the next step.”
Carol Zaleski first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Carol and Philip Zaleski on Prayer During War (April 11, 2003)
“We don’t know what the earliest religion was like, but certainly it involved some sort of ritual. As far as we know, ritual never exists without prayer of some kind, so we can assume they came about simultaneously, and both seem immensely old.”
Philip Zaleski wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whenever you face any difficulty, grief or concern you should bow down in prayer before Allah the Almighty alone.”
Mirza Masroor Ahmad (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With tears we sow seeds of prayer in the earth of the heart, hoping to reap the harvest in joy.”
Diadochos of Photiki (400–486) said by 486 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A candy-colored clown they call the sandman Tiptoes to my room every night Just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper "Go to sleep. Everything is all right."I close my eyes, then I drift away. Into the magic night, I softly say A silent prayer like dreamers do. Then I fall asleep to dreams, my dreams of you.”
Roy Orbison (1936–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There were frequent prayer meetings and great nocturnal feasts. When I was a child I played with my cousins outside... where the lamplight fell upon the ground and the singing of the old people rose up around us and carried away into the darkness. ...And afterwards, ...I lay down with my grandmother and could hear the frogs away by the river and feel the motion of the air.”
N. Scott Momaday (1934–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source