Quotes about prayer
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“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”

John Bunyan (1628–1688) English Christian writer and preacher

“I don't pray because it doesn't work. Prayer doesn't fix anything. Bad things happen anyway.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Source: Three Weeks With My Brother

“You said their prayer - is this the religion you believe in, then?"
"I believe in them all."
Vin frowned. "None of them contradict each other?"
Sazed smiled. "Oh, often and frequently they do. But, I respect the truths behind them all.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Truth, Religion, Smile

“Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His.
If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

God, Way

“The gods' most savage curses come upon us as answers to our own prayers, you know.”

Lois McMaster Bujold The Curse of Chalion

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Curse of Chalion (2000), p. 94

God

“Taylor Markham," said Raffaela, "I'm going to say a prayer for you." And although I wanted to mock her and explain I didn't believe in anything or anyone, I realised that no one had ever prayed for me before. So I let her.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“You are the answer to every prayer I've offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don't know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have. I love you, Aliie, more than you can ever imagine. I always have, and I always will.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Love, Dreams, Imagination

“This wasn't prayer anyway, it was just argument with the gods.
Prayer, he suspected as he hoisted himself up and turned for the door, was putting one foot in front of the other. Moving all the same.”

Lois McMaster Bujold The Curse of Chalion

Source: The Curse of Chalion

God

“If the only prayer you say throughout your life is "Thank You," then that will be enough.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Life

“Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Variant: Prayer begins where our power ends.

“As for methods of prayer, all are good, as long as they are sincere.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Sincerity

“seven wonders of the world
and I have to ask for an eighth
fill a bottle with some prayers
and spend them on hope
create an easy route
just so I can complicate
send my heart down that
slippery slope”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

World, Hope, Heart

“They did not hear Grimble, as he lay dying, chant in the true voice of the Boreal Owl, in tones like chimes in the night, an ancient owl prayer”

Kathryn Lasky (1944) American children's writer

Source: The Capture

Night

“You've done so many things and read so many books. Do you still believe in happy endings?"
"Oh my Lord, yes." Bernadette's hands were pressed against each other like a book, like a prayer. "I guess I would. I've had about a hundred of them.”

Karen Joy Fowler The Jane Austen Book Club

Source: The Jane Austen Book Club

Happiness, Books, Reading

“Whether we write lyrics or craft legislation, sell homes or teach classes, design spaces or open franchises, prayer is a critical part of the creative process. Don’t just brainstorm; praystorm.”

Mark Batterson (1969) American pastor and writer

Source: Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge

Home, Parting

“When you have a good romance, find ways to make their lives miserable and hellish… Do you think 'Titanic' would have been so popular if they had both lived? Not a prayer.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Way, Thinking

“The advantage to being a wicked bastard is that everyone pesters the Lord on your behalf; if volume of prayers from my saintly enemies means anything, I'll be saved when the Archbishop of Canterbury is damned. It's a comforting thought.”

George MacDonald Fraser Flashman at the Charge

Source: Flashman at the Charge

“Courage is fear that has said its prayers.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Fear, Courage

“Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Variant: There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.

Soul

“Prayers are to men as dolls are to children.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Men, Children

“Prayer without study would be empty. Study without prayer would be blind.”

Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Protestant theologian

Source: Evangelical Theology: An Introduction

Study

“The Yogic scriptures say that God responds to the sacred prayers and efforts of human beings in any way whatsoever that mortals choose to worship - just so long as those prayers are sincere.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

God, Way, Effort, Sincerity

“These things you did were like prayers; you did them and you hoped they would save you. And for the most part they did. Or something did; you could tell by the fact that you were still alive.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Hope, Parting

“Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live.”

Jacqueline Winspear (1955) English writer

Way

“Prayers are answered in one of four ways,” she said. “Yes. No. I have
something else in mind. And…”
She paused long enough for my impatience to show. “And what’s the
fourth answer?”
“Wait,” she said.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Bumped

Way, Waiting

“Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Source: A Call to Prayer

Heart

“Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord's Prayer is about.”

N.T. Wright (1948) Anglican bishop

Source: Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

Life, God, People

“Your prayer for someone may or may not change them, but it always changes YOU.”

Craig Groeschel (1967) American priest

Change

“To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.”

Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Protestant theologian

World

“Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.”

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)

Independence Day address (1821)
Context: America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet on her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world; she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.... Her glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

Search, Freedom, Heart

“Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”

Simone Weil book Gravity and Grace

Source: Gravity and Grace

“Jane," I said quietly.
She opened her eyes, she had been far away in prayer.
"Yes, Mary? Forgive me, I was praying."
"If you go on flirting with the king with those sickly little smiles, one of us Boleyns is going to scratch your eyes out.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Smile, Forgiveness

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘Thank you,’ it will be enough.” —Meister Eckhart”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Source: What I Know For Sure

Life, Happy

“You are the answer to every prayer I've offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don't know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Dreams

“No amount of prayer or meditation can do what helping others can do.”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

Help

“Your Father in heaven knows your name and knows your circumstance. He hears your prayers. He knows your hopes and dreams, including your fears and frustrations. And He knows what you can become through faith in Him.”

Jeffrey R. Holland (1940) Mormon leader

Source: Created for Greater Things

Fear, Faith, Dreams, Hope

“If you want your prayers answered, get up off your knees and do something about them.”

Wally Lamb book She's Come Undone

Source: She's Come Undone

“The only difference between a wish and a prayer is that you're at the mercy of the universe for the first, and you've got some help with the second.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

Universe, Help

“Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.”

Kathleen Norris (1880–1966) American writer

Way, Imagination, Thinking, Change

“Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.”

Dean Koontz book False Memory

Source: False Memory

Dogs, Soul, Heart

“Memories are small prayers to God, if we believed in that sort of thing.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

God, Memory

“A nun I know once told me she kept begging God to take her character defects away from her. After years of this prayer, God finally got back to her: I'm not going to take anything away from you, you have to give it to Me.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

God

“But she stepped forward and placed a finger to his lips and there it was before him. The greatest prayer to the gods he could muster with a heart so broken.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Quintana of Charyn

God, Heart

“A prayer couched in the words of the soul, is far more powerful than any ritual.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Soul

“A gentle breeze catches in the branches then and I hear it, soft and low, a murmured prayer--Gem-ma, Gem-ma--and then the leaves bend down and trail delicate fingers across my cold cheeks.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

“Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

“Look to your heart
that flutters in and out like a moth.
God is not indifferent to your need.
You have a thousand prayers
but God has one.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

God, Heart, Indifference

“may I be I is the only prayer--not may I be great or good or beautiful or wise or strong.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Beauty, Strong

“A Time For Prayer

"In times of war and not before,
God and the soldier we adore.
But in times of peace and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."

-Rudyard Kipling”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

God, War, Peace, Time

“Remember: He WANTS your fellowship, and He has done everything possible to make it a reality. He has forgiven your sins, at the cost of His own dear Son. He has given you His Word, and the priceless privilege of prayer and worship.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Source: Hope for Each Day: Words of Wisdom and Faith

Reality

“He was very religious; he believed that he had a secret pact with God which exempted him from doing good in exchange for prayers and piety.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Source: The Aleph and Other Stories

God, Secret

“God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as he always has. But he can't if you don't pray, and he can't if you don't dream. In short, he can't if you don't believe.”

Jeffrey R. Holland (1940) Mormon leader

God, Dreams, Chance, Waiting

“We must remember that the test of our religious principles lies not just in what we say, not only in our prayers, not even in living blameless lives - but in what we do for others”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

God, Nature, Change, Faith

“Courage is fear that has said its prayers and decided to go forward anyway.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: I Dare You: Embrace Life with Passion

Fear, Courage

“I know what it is to hope and pray so hard that you're sure God will answer your prayer just so you'll stop asking.”

Karen White (1964) American writer

Source: The Beach Trees

God, Hope

“I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.”

Terry Tempest Williams book Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

Source: Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

Love, Fear, Bird

“A Poem from Edna St. Vincent Millay:

Grown-up

Was it for this I uttered prayers,
And sobbed and cursed and kicked the stairs,
That now, domestic as a plate,
I should retire at half-past eight?”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Source: The Selected Poetry

Past

“Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Love, Learning, Heart

“Quiet Prayer:
As long as the sun shall rise goes the old lovers vow. But we are children of a scientific age & have no time for poetry. Still, I offer a quiet prayer of thanks for the sunlight each time I see your face.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Children, Age, Lovers, Time

“Writing is prayer.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.”

Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) Jewish diarist

“Sweetheart," Bill said formally, "I have always loved you, and I will be proud to die in your service. When I'm gone, say a prayer for me in a real church.”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

Love

“Don’t leave your relationships to chance. Pray for godly people to come into your life with whom you can connect. Don’t force relationships to happen. Pray for them to happen. Then when they do, nurture them with prayer.”

Stormie Omartian (1942) American writer

Source: The Power of a Praying® Woman

Life, People, Chance

“But they wanted you. Time is not something you give back. The very next moment may be answer to your prayer. To deny that is to deny the most important part of the future.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Time, Future, Parting

“My prayers, my God, flow from what I am not;
I think thy answers make me what I am.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Source: The Diary of an Old Soul & the White Page Poems

God, Thinking

“Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and all of life is a test… You will be tested by major changes, delayed promises, impossible problems, unanswered prayers, undeserved criticism, and even senseless tragedies.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Life, Problem, Change

“Prayer is a declaration of dependence upon God.”

Philip Yancey (1949) American writer

God, Dependency

“Anything big enough to occupy our minds is big enough to hang a prayer on.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

“Bear in mind, children, that they listen to you because you are kids—not because you are right. That's how our Father listens to us … We never understand what we're praying, and God, in His mercy, does not answer our prayers according to our understanding, but according to His wisdom.”

Rich Mullins (1955–1997) American christian musician

Lufkin, Texas http://www.kidbrothers.net/words/concert-transcripts/lufkin-texas-jul1997-full.html (July 19, 1997) <br class="br">In Concert

Wisdom, God, Children, Understanding

“Ah, the prayers of the millions, how they must fight and destroy each other on their way to the throne of God.”

John Steinbeck book Tortilla Flat

Source: Tortilla Flat

God, Way, Fight

“I am my best work - a series of road maps, reports, recipes, doodles, and prayers from the front lines.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

“Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

Garth Brooks (1962) American country music artist

Unanswered Prayers, written by Pat Alger, Larry Bastian, and G. Brooks.
Song lyrics, No Fences (1990)
Context: Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs,
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care.
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

God

“Something has got to hold it together. I'm saying my prayers to Elmer, the Greek god of glue.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Still Life with Woodpecker (1980)

God

“Sometimes the best answers to prayer are the ones God doesn't answer.”

Robin Jones Gunn (1955) American writer

Source: Surprise Endings

God

“It's exactly at these moments, when all hope has vanished, that prayer has dominion.”

Junot Díaz book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Hope

“Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

God, Exercises, Drawing

“The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Life, World, Grass

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

“My prayer is simple my dear one, my dear one. May you never need understand. My prayer is for peacetime, my child, my child. Live it well and this life can be grand.”

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Hawksong

Source: Hawksong

Life, Understanding

“The angel said, "I like black-and-white films more than color because they're more artificial. You have to work harder to overcome your disbelief. It's sort of like prayer.”

Jonathan Carroll (1949) novelist, short story writer

Source: The Ghost in Love

Angels, Color

“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

God, Friendship, Faith

“Everybody around us was weeping. Someone began to recite Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I don't know whether, during the history of the Jewish people, men have ever before recited Kaddish for themselves.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

Men, People, History, Dead

“I am unable to believe in a God susceptible to prayer. I simply haven't the nerve to imagine a being, a force, a cause which keeps the planets revolving in their orbits, and then suddenly stops in order to give me a bicycle with three speeds.”

Quentin Crisp (1908–1999) writer, Actor

God, Imagination, Speed

“For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

God, Happiness

“A growing community must integrate three elements: a life of silent prayer, a life of service and above all of listening to the poor, and a community life through which all its members can grow in their own gift.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Source: Community And Growth

Life, Communication

“Go where your best prayers take you.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Source: Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer

Faith, Evil, Gratitude, Birthday

“She knew that was not an honest prayer, and she did not linger over it. The right prayer would have been, Lord… I am miserable and bitter at heart, and old fears are rising up in me so that everything I do makes everything worse.”

Marilynne Robinson Home

Source: Home

Fear, Heart

“Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.”

John Bunyan (1628–1688) English Christian writer and preacher

God, Soul

“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

“… the goodness of God is the highest object of prayer and it reaches down to our lowest need.”

Julian of Norwich book Revelations of Divine Love

Source: Revelations of Divine Love

God

“From every place below the skies
The grateful song, the fervent prayer,—
The incense of the heart, —may rise
To heaven, and find acceptance there.”

John Pierpont (1785–1866) American writer

Every Place a Temple, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "This is that incense of the heart / Whose fragrance smells to heaven" Nathaniel Cotton, The Fireside, stanza 11.

Heart

“The Hindus and idol-worshippers had agreed to pay the money for toleration (zar-i zimmiya) and had consented to the poll-tax (jizya) in return for which they and their families enjoyed security. These people now erected new idol-temples in the city and the environs in opposition to the Law of the Prophet which declares that such temples are not to be tolerated. Under divine guidance I destroyed these edifices and I killed those leaders of infidelity who seduced others into error, and the lower orders I subjected to stripes and chastisement, until this abuse was entirely abolished. The following is an instance:- In the village of Maluh there is a tank which they call kund (tank). Here they had built idol-temples and on certain days the Hindus were accustomed to proceed thither on horseback, and wearing arms. Their women and children also went out in palankins and carts. There they assembled in thousands and performed idol-worship' When intelligence of this came to my ears my religious feelings prompted me at once to put a stop to this scandal and offence to the religion of Islam. On the day of the assembly I went there in person and I ordered that the leaders of these people and the promoters of this abomination should be put to death. I forbade the infliction of any severe punishments on Hindus in general, but I destroyed their idol-temples, and instead thereof raised mosques. I founded two flourishing towns (kasba), one called Tughlikpur, the other Salarpur. Where infidels and idolaters worshipped idols, Musulmans now, by God's mercy, perform their devotions to the true God. Praises of God and the summons to prayer are now heard there, and that place which was formerly the home of infidels has become the habitation of the faithful, who there repeat their creed and offer up their praises to God…..'Information was brought to me that some Hindus had erected a new idol temple in the village of Salihpur, and were performing worship to their idols. I sent some persons there to destroy the idol temple, and put a stop to their pernicious incitements to error.”

Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1309–1388) Tughluq sultan

Delhi and Environs , Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. Elliot and Dowson. Vol. III, p. 380-81
Quotes from the Futuhat-i-Firuz Shahi

Death, Women, Money, God

“He gave me no sign. I was never the sort to receive portents, or to delude myself that I had. Silence was always my portion, in return for my prayers.”

Lois McMaster Bujold (1949) Science Fiction and fantasy author from the USA

Source: World of the Five Gods series, Paladin of Souls (2003), p. 295

Silence