“To pray is to think about the meaning of life.”
Journal entry (11 June 1916), p. 72e and 73e
1910s, Notebooks 1914-1916
Context: What do I know about God and the purpose of life?
I know that this world exists.
That I am placed in it like my eye in its visual field.
That something about it is problematic, which we call its meaning.
This meaning does not lie in it but outside of it.
That life is the world.
That my will penetrates the world.
That my will is good or evil.
Therefore that good and evil are somehow connected with the meaning of the world.
The meaning of life, i. e. the meaning of the world, we can call God.
And connect with this the comparison of God to a father.
To pray is to think about the meaning of life.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Ludwig Wittgenstein228
Austrian-British philosopher 1889–1951Related quotes
“When I told you that I’d pray for you, what did you think I was talking about?”
Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember
Source: A Walk to Remember
Dean Koontz book One Door Away from Heaven
Geneva Davis; chapter 1, p. 8
Source: One Door Away from Heaven (2001)
Context: Change isn't easy, Micky. Changing the way you live means changing the way you think. Changing the way you think means changing what you believe about life. That's hard, sweetie. When we make our own misery, we sometimes cling to it even when we want so bad to change, because the misery is something we know. The misery is comfortable.
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
“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.
Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) German visual artist
1970's, Every Man an Artist: Talks at Documenta 5', 1972