“It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.”
— Helen Keller
“I don’t think there’s a shortage of material in the world. Or in my head. I just pray for continued good health, because I’ve got other stories to tell.”
— Richard Russo
“I’m healthy as can be – not an ache or a pain. A lot of my prayer is thanking the Lord that I am healthy. I pray for long life and good health.”
— Joel Osteen
“Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.”
— Dag Hammarskjold
“I do get scared, but I think – like it says in another book I’ve read – feel the fear and do it anyway. I try to have courage, pray a little bit and work through it. I’d rather try, even if I fail.”
— Geri Halliwell
“Some people have a hard time getting rid of stuff. If that’s you, pray for God to give you the courage to get rid of things you don’t really need or things He wants you to give away. This will help keep your surroundings organized and clutter-free.”
— Joyce Meyer
“My longing for truth was a single prayer.”
— Edith Stein
“Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them.”
— Rabindranath Tagore
“Guantanamo Bay can be and has been visited repeatedly by the International Red Cross and other human-rights groups for observation in an open, regular, and transparent manner. Detainees receive the same medical care as the guard force and are able to participate in their daily prayer sessions.”
— Tom Cotton
“Whoever has not begun the practice of prayer, I beg for the love of the Lord not to go without so great a good. There is nothing here to fear but only something to desire.”
— Saint Teresa of Avila
“Experience teaches us that we do not always receive the blessings we ask for in prayer.”
— Mary Baker Eddy
“My prayer became ‘May I find peace… May I love this life no matter what.’ I was seeking an inner refuge, an experience of presence and wholeness that could carry me through whatever losses might come.”
— Tara Brach
“I deepen my experience of God through prayer, meditation, and forgiveness.”
— Marianne Williamson
“And I pray thee, loving Jesus, that as Thou hast graciously given me to drink in with delight the words of Thy knowledge, so Thou wouldst mercifully grant me to attain one day to Thee, the fountain of all wisdom and to appear forever before Thy face.”
— Venerable Bede
“It is clear that he does not pray, who, far from uplifting himself to God, requires that God shall lower Himself to him, and who resorts to prayer not to stir the man in us to will what God wills, but only to persuade God to will what the man in us wills.”
— Thomas Aquinas
“There were times, especially when I was traveling for ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ when, I swear to God, I would feel this weight of my female ancestors, all those Swedish farmwives from beyond the grave who were like, ‘Go! Go to Naples! Eat more pizza! Go to India, ride an elephant! Do it! Swim in the Indian Ocean. Read those books. Learn a language.’”
— Elizabeth Gilbert
“In the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.”
— Woodrow Wilson
“The limitless loving devotion to God, and the gift God makes of Himself to you, are the highest elevation of which the heart is capable; it is the highest degree of prayer. The souls that have reached this point are truly the heart of the Church.”
— Edith Stein
“God is looking for people to use, and if you can get usable, he will wear you out. The most dangerous prayer you can pray is this: ‘Use me.’”
— Rick Warren
“Great and glorious God, and Thou Lord Jesus, I pray you shed abroad your light in the darkness of my mind. Be found of me, Lord, so that in all things I may act only in accordance with Thy holy will.”
— Francis of Assisi
“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: ‘O Lord make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.”
— Voltaire
“Let God’s grace be the mosque, and devotion the prayer mat. Let the Quran be the good conduct.”
— Guru Nanak
“Through prayer, fasting, and studying, God will answer.”
— Monica Johnson
“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”
— Saint Teresa of Avila
“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’”
— Billy Graham
“Prayer doesn’t just change things – it changes us. If we are diligent in seeking God, slowly and surely we become better people.”
— Joyce Meyer
“If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.”
— Epicurus
“The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave – caring nothing whether the words are suitable or not, but simply saying the first thing that comes to mind from being learnt by rote by frequent repetition – cannot be called prayer: God grant that no Christian may address Him in this manner.”
— Saint Teresa of Avila
“I pray to God that I shall not live one hour after I have thought of using deception.”
— Elizabeth I
“I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”
— Martin Luther