Quotes about blessing
page 2

Socrates photo
Hayao Miyazaki photo

“Children understand intuitively that the world they have been born into is not a blessed world.”

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka

At the New York Film Festival http://www.slate.com/id/43805/

Joan Baez photo

“Blessed are the persecuted
And blessed are the pure in heart
Blessed are the merciful
And blessed are the ones who mourn”

Joan Baez (1941) American singer

"The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti, Part One"
Sacco e Vanzetti (1971)

George Washington photo

“The General is sorry to be informed —, that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American army, is growing into a fashion; — he hopes the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by impiety and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Extract from the Orderly Book of the army under command of Washington, dated at Head Quarters, in the city of New York (3 August 1770); reported in American Masonic Register and Literary Companion, Volume 1 https://www.thefederalistpapers.org/founders/washington/george-washington-the-foolish-and-wicked-practice-of-profane-cursing-and-swearing (1829), p. 163
1770s

Lewis Carroll photo
Malcolm X photo

“Allah has blessed us. He has destroyed twenty-two of our enemies.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Quoted in Julius Lester, "Look Out, Whitey!" New York: Dial Press, 1968. p. 138.
Attributed

Muhammad photo
Muhammad photo

“'Amr ibn Shu'ayb's grandfather said, "The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Anyone who does not show mercy to our young people nor honour our old people is not one of us."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 3, hadith number 355
Sunni Hadith

Muhammad photo

“Ibn 'Umar said, "The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, took me by the shoulder and said, "Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveller on the road."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 574
Sunni Hadith

Muhammad photo
Muhammad photo
Muhammad photo

“'Adi ibn Hatim reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Protect yourselves from the Fire, even if with only half a date. If you cannot manage even that, then with a good word."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 693
Sunni Hadith

John Chrysostom photo
Isaac Newton photo

“We must believe in one God that we may love & fear him. We must believe that he is the father Almighty, or first author of all things by the almighty power of his will, that we may thank & worship him & him alone for our being and for all the blessings of this life < insertion from f 43v > We must believe that this is the God of moses & the Jews who created heaven & earth & the sea & all things therein as is expressed in the ten commandments, that we may not take his name in vain nor worship images or visible resemblances nor have (in our worship) any other God then him. For he is without similitude he is the invisible God whom no eye hath seen nor can see, & therefore is not to be worshipped in any visible shape. He is the only invisible God & the only God whom we are to worship & therefore we are not to worship any visible image picture likeness or form. We are not forbidden to give the name of Gods to Angels & Kings but we are forbidden to worship them as Gods. For tho there be that are called Gods whether in heaven or in earth (as there are Gods many & Lords many) yet to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things & we in him & our Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things & we in him, that is, but one God & one Lord in our worship: One God & one mediator between God & man the man Christ Jesus. We are forbidden to worship two Gods but we are not forbidden to worship one God, & one Lord: one God for creating all things & one Lord for redeeming us with his blood. We must not pray to two Gods, but we may pray to one God in the name of one Lord. We must believe therefore in one Lord Jesus Christ that we may behave our selves obediently towards him as subjects & keep his laws, & give him that honour & glory & worship which is due to him as our Lord & King or else we are not his people. We must believe that this Lord Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah the Prince predicted by Daniel, & we must worship him as the Messiah or else we are no Christians. The Jews who were taught to have but one God were also taught to expect a king, & the Christians are taught in their Creed to have the same God & to believe that Jesus is that King.”

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics

Drafts on the history of the Church (Section 3). Yahuda Ms. 15.3, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel. 2006 Online Version at Newton Project http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00220

Abraham Lincoln photo

“Some more in this convention came from Kentucky to Illinois (instead of going to Missouri), not only to better their conditions, but also to get away from slavery. They have said so to me, and it is understood among us Kentuckians that we don't like it one bit. Now, can we, mindful of the blessings of liberty which the early men of Illinois left to us, refuse a like privilege to the free men who seek to plant Freedom's banner on our Western outposts? Should we not stand by our neighbors who seek to better their conditions in Kansas and Nebraska? Can we as Christian men, and strong and free ourselves, wield the sledge or hold the iron which is to manacle anew an already oppressed race? "Woe unto them," it is written, "that decree unrighteous decrees and that write grievousness which they have prescribed."”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Can we afford to sin any more deeply against human liberty?
From the Speech Delivered Before the First Republican State Convention of Illinois, Held at Bloomington (1856); found in Speeches & Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865 (1894), J. M. Dent & Company, p. 56.
Also quoted by Ida Minerva Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln: Drawn from Original Sources and Containing Many Speeches, Letters, and Telegrams Hitherto Unpublished, and Illustrated with Many Reproductions from Original Paintings, Photographs, etc, Volume 4 (1902), Lincoln History Society http://lincolnhistoricalsociety.org/; and by William C. Whitney; in The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, v. 2' . (1905) Lapsley, Arthur Brooks, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons
1850s

Aurelius Augustinus photo
Sun Myung Moon photo
Rosa Parks photo

“Thank you very much. I honor my late husband Raymond Parks, other Freedom Fighters, men of goodwill who could not be here. I'm also honored by young men who respect me and have invited me as an elder. Raymond, or Parks as I called him, was an activist in the Scottsboro Boys case, voter registration, and a role model for youth. As a self-taught businessman, he provided for his family, and he loved and respected me. Parks would have stood proud and tall to see so many of our men uniting for our common man and committing their lives to a better future for themselves, their families, and this country. Although criticism and controversy has been focused on in the media instead of benefits for the one million men assembling peacefully for spiritual food and direction, it is a success. I pray that my multiracial and international friends will view this [some audio unclear] gathering as an opportunity for all men but primarily men of African heritage to make changes in their lives for the better. I am proud of all groups of people who feel connected with me in any way, and I will always work for human rights for all people. However, as an African American woman, I am proud, applaud, and support our men in this assembly. I would a lot like to have male students of the Pathways to Freedom to join me here and wave their hands, but I don't think they're here right now. But thank you all young men of the Pathways to Freedom. Thank you and God bless you all. Thank you.”

Rosa Parks (1913–2005) African-American civil rights activist

Rosa Park speech to social activists assembled in Washington, D.C. ( 1995) http://www.sweetspeeches.com/s/2316-rosa-parks-speech-at-the-million-man-march)

Isaac Newton photo
Alexander the Great photo
Angelus Silesius photo
Savitri Devi photo
Musa al-Kadhim photo

“The most reasonable way of blessings and honesties will be obtained through opposing sensuality.”

Musa al-Kadhim (745–799) Seventh of the Twelve Imams and regarded by Sunnis as a renowned scholar

Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 421.
Religious Wisdom

Livy photo

“Men are slower to recognise blessings than misfortunes.”

Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian

Book XXX, sec. 21
History of Rome

Mark Twain photo

“Why, it was like reading about France and the French, before the ever memorable and blessed Revolution, which swept a thousand years of such villany away in one swift tidal-wave of blood -- one: a settlement of that hoary debt in the proportion of half a drop of blood for each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow tortures out of that people in the weary stretch of ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery the like of which was not to be mated but in hell. There were two "Reigns of Terror," if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the "horrors" of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror -- that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.”

Ch. 13 http://www.literature.org/authors/twain-mark/connecticut/chapter-13.html
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)

Ozzy Osbourne photo

“We all must stand together now
A one by one we fall
For all these years you stood by me
God bless
I love you all”

Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter

I Love You All, written by Ozzy Osbourne, Kevin Churko and Adam Wakeman.
Song lyrics, Scream (2010)

Abraham Lincoln photo

“It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospital, and more prayers to Heaven than any. God bless the Methodist Church — bless all the churches — and blessed be to God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the churches.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

To the 1864 general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as quoted in Abraham Lincoln : A History Vol. 6 (1890) by John George Nicolay and John Hay, Ch. 15, p. 324
1860s

Henry Van Dyke photo
Thomas à Kempis photo

“For they truly know their Lord in the breaking of bread, whose heart within them so vehemently burneth, whilst Thou, O blessed Jesus, dost walk and converse with them.”

Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471) German canon regular

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 372.

Aldo Leopold photo
Catherine of Genoa photo
Al-Mutanabbi photo
Fanny Kemble photo
Friedrich Nietzsche photo
Marianne Moore photo

“Blessed the man whose faith is different
from possessiveness - of a kind not framed by 'things which do appear”

Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American poet and writer

Hebrews 11:3
Blessed be the Man
Poetry

Hilaire Belloc photo
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien photo

“Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
of things not found within recorded time.”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works

Mythopoeia (1931)

Napoleon I of France photo
Muhammad photo

“Jarir ibn 'Abdullah said, "I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, "Whoever is deprived of kindness is deprived of all good."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Riyadh-as-Saliheen by Imam Al-Nawawi, volume 4, hadith number 638
Sunni Hadith

Clive Staples Lewis photo
José Saramago photo

“Be content to bless each other, that is all the blessing you need, and how I wish that all blessings were so.”

Abençoem-se antes um ao outro, é quanto basta, pudessem ser todas as bênçãos como essa.
Source: Baltasar and Blimunda (1982), p. 175

Louis Riel photo
Humphry Davy photo
Osamu Tezuka photo
Pope Francis photo
Barack Obama photo

“I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Statement by the President on the Occasion of Ramadan (11 August 2010) http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/11/statement-president-occasion-ramadan
2010

Thomas Mann photo
Andrew Jackson photo

“But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.”

Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) American general and politician, 7th president of the United States

Farewell Address, (4 March 1837), recalling what, by then, had reached the status of a proverb.
1830s

Mohammad Mosaddegh photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
George Washington photo

“I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government; to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large; and, particularly, for their brethren who have served in the Geld; and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacifick temper of the mind, which were the characteristicks of the divine Author of our blessed religion; without an humble imitation of whose example, in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Circular Letter to the Governours of the several States (18 June 1783). Misreported as "I make it my constant prayer that God would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion; without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation", in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 315
1780s

Bertrand Russell photo
Henry Ford photo
Pope Leo XIII photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo
T. B. Joshua photo
Barack Obama photo
Solón photo
Mark Twain photo

“A baby is an inestimable blessing and bother.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Letter to Annie Moffett Webster (1 September 1876)

Lady Gaga photo

“God bless pop music and God bless MTV.”

Lady Gaga (1986) American singer, songwriter, and actress

MTV Video Music Awards 2010.

Stefan Zweig photo
John Locke photo
William Makepeace Thackeray photo
Julian of Norwich photo
Friedrich Schiller photo
Charles Spurgeon photo
Francis of Assisi photo
Rich Mullins photo
Billie Holiday photo

“Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own.”

Billie Holiday (1915–1959) American jazz singer and songwriter

God Bless The Child
Context: Them that's got shall get
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own.

Abraham Lincoln photo
Ronald Reagan photo
Origen photo
Thomas Berry photo
Menander photo

“Health and intellect are the two blessings of life.”

Menander (-342–-291 BC) Athenian playwright of New Comedy

Monosticha.

Lata Mangeshkar photo

“People should be blessed in life with friends who are both "Mirrors & Shadows"! Mirrors don't lie & shadows never leave.”

Lata Mangeshkar (1929) Indian singer

Quotes, 29 November 2013, The Sunday Indian http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/quote-of-the-day/,

Kurt Vonnegut photo
C.G. Jung photo
Barack Obama photo
Gordon B. Hinckley photo
Malala Yousafzai photo

“Education is one of the blessings of life — and one of its necessities.”

Malala Yousafzai (1997) Pakistani children's education activist

Nobel Peace Prize Lecture (December 10, 2014)

Thomas Hardy photo
Mark Twain photo
Menander photo
Sabine Baring-Gould photo

“Jesus, give the weary
Calm and sweet repose.
With Thy tend'rest blessing
May our eyelids close.”

Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) English hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 614.

Barack Obama photo
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach photo

“Blessed is trust, for it blesses both those who have it to give and those who receive it.”

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian writer

Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 29.

Ronald Reagan photo
Theodor W. Adorno photo

“The blessing that the market does not ask about birth is paid for in the exchange society by the fact that the possibilities conferred by birth are molded to fit the production of goods that can be bought on the market.”

Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society

E. Jephcott, trans., p. 9
Dialektik der Aufklärung [Dialectic of Enlightenment] (1944)

Bahá'u'lláh photo
Jonathan Sacks photo
Voltaire photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Isaac of Nineveh photo
Gu Hongming photo
Robert Browning photo
Louis Riel photo

“My father bless me, according to the views of thy Providence which are beautiful and without measure.”

Louis Riel (1844–1885) Canadian politician

Address to Grand Jury (1885)
Context: But last year, while I was yet in Montana, while I was passing before the catholic church, the priest, the Revd. Father Frederick Ebeville, curate of the church of the Immaculate Conception at Benton, said to me "I am glad to see you, is your family here?" I said yes; he said "Go and bring them to the altar, I want to bless you before you go away " and with Gabriel Dumont and my family we all went on our kness at the altar, the priest put on his surplice and he took holy water and was going to bless us. I said will you allow me to pronounce a prayer while you bless me; he said yes, I want to know what it is. I told him the prayer, it is speaking to God "My father bless me, according to the views of thy Providence which are beautiful and without measure." He said to me : "You can say that prayer while I bless you " Well he blessed me. I pronounced that prayer for myself, for my children and for Gabriel Dumont. When the glorious general Middleton fired on us during three days and on our families and when shells went and bullets went as thick as mosquitoes in the hot day of summer, when I saw my children, my wife, myself and Gabriel Dumont were escaping, I said that nothing but the blessing without measure of Father Frederick Ebeville could save me, and that can save me to-day from these charges.

Julian of Norwich photo

“What may make us more to enjoy in God than to see in Him that He enjoyeth in the highest of all His works? For I saw in the same Shewing that if the blessed Trinity might have made Man’s Soul any better, any fairer, any nobler than it was made, He should not have been full pleased with the making of Man’s Soul.”

Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) English theologian and anchoress

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 67
Context: What may make us more to enjoy in God than to see in Him that He enjoyeth in the highest of all His works? For I saw in the same Shewing that if the blessed Trinity might have made Man’s Soul any better, any fairer, any nobler than it was made, He should not have been full pleased with the making of Man’s Soul. And He willeth that our hearts be mightily raised above the deepness of the earth and all vain sorrows, and rejoice in Him.

Thucydides photo

“here we bless your simplicity but do not envy your folly.”

Book V, 5.105-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V