“Prayed for so oft, the dawn of fight is come.
No more entreat the gods: with sword in hand
Seize on our fates; and Caesar in your deeds
This day is great or little.”

— Marcus Annaeus Lucanus , book Pharsalia

Book VII, line 252 (tr. E. Ridley).
Pharsalia

Original

Nil opus est uotis, iam fatum accersite ferro. in manibus uestris, quantus sit Caesar, habetis.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Prayed for so oft, the dawn of fight is come. No more entreat the gods: with sword in hand Seize on our fates; and Ca…" by Marcus Annaeus Lucanus?

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus 58

Roman poet 39–65

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

A Prologue (1939) to Oliver Goldsmith's The Good Natur'd Man (1768).
Context: Our fate lies in your hands, to you we pray
For an indulgent hearing of our play;
Laugh if you can, or failing that, give vent
In hissing fury to your discontent;
Applause we crave, from scorn we take defence
But have no armour 'gainst indifference.

“The more we work the more we need to pray. In this day of activity there is great danger, not of doing too much, but of praying too little for so much work.”

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) British minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 368.

“The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,
And heavily in clouds brings on the day,
The great, the important day,
Big with the fate Of Cato, and of Rome.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

Act I, scene i.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

“The bright old day now dawns again; the cry runs through the land,
In England there shall be dear bread—in Ireland, sword and brand;
And poverty, and ignorance, shall swell the rich and grand,
So, rally round the rulers with the gentle iron hand,
Of the fine old English Tory days;
Hail to the coming time!”

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) English writer and social critic and a Journalist

The Fine Old English Gentleman (1841)

“To pray means to open your hands before God.”

Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) Dutch priest and writer

With Open Hands (1972)
Context: To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises and find hope for yourself, your neighbor and your world. In prayer, you encounter God not only in the small voice and the soft breeze, but also in the midst of the turmoil of the world, in the distress and joy of your neighbor and in the loneliness of your own heart.