*It is in the faculty of noble, disinterested, unselfish love that lies the true gift and power of womanhood,--a power which makes us, not the equal of men (I never care to claim such equality), but their equivalents in a moral sense. Frances Power Cobbe.

*The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something; the strongest, by dispensing his over many, may fail to accomplish anything. The drop, by continually falling, bores its passage through the hardest rock. The hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar, and leaves no trace behind. Carlyle.

*I will tell you where there is power: where the dew lies upon the hills, and the rain has moistened the roots of various plants; where the sunshine pours steadily; where the brook runs babbling along, there is a beneficent power. Chapin.

*There is no surer mark of a low and unregenerate nature than this tendency of power to loudness and wantonness instead of quietness and reverence. James Martineau.

*Theory looks well on paper, but does not amount to anything without practice. H.W. Shaw.

*The sweetest of all sounds is praise. Xenophon.

*A little praise is good for a shy temper; it teaches it to rely on the kindness of others. Landor.

*Praise is the best auxiliary to prayer; and he who most bears in mind what has been done for him by God will be most emboldened to supplicate fresh gifts from above. Henry Melville.

*Speak not in high commendation of any man to his face, nor censure any man behind his back; but if thou knowest any good of him, tell it unto others; if anything ill, tell it privately and prudently to himself. Burkitt.

*Praise consists in the love of God, in wonder at the goodness of God, in recognition of the gifts of God, in seeing God in all things He gives us, ay, and even in the things that He refuses to us; so as to see our whole life in the light of God; and seeing this, to bless Him, adore Him, and glorify Him. Manning.

*To be forward to praise others implies either great eminence, that can afford to part with applause; or great quickness of discernment, with confidence in our own judgments; for great sincerity and love of truth, getting the better of our self-love. Hazlitt.

*Our prayers are the shadows of mercy. Spurgeon.

*Solicitude is the audience-chamber of God. Landor.

*It lightens the stroke to draw near to Him who handles the rod. Washington Irving.

*In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. Bunyan.

*Embark in no enterprise which you cannot submit to the test of prayer. Hosea Ballou.

*Prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan. Bunyan.

*Affliction teacheth a wicked person some time to pray; prosperity, never. Ben Jonson.

*Religion is no more possible without prayer than poetry without language, or music without atmosphere. James Martineau.

*A Christian will find his parenthesis for prayer, even through his busiest hours. Cecil.

*Let prayer be the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening. Matthew Henry.

*A single grateful thought towards heaven is the most complete prayer. Lessing.

*The simple heart that freely asks in love, obtains. Whittier.

*Expect an answer. If no answer is desired, why pray? True prayer has in it a strong element of expectancy. R.M. Offord.

*Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer. Bunyan.

*If He prayed who was without sin, how much more it becometh a sinner to pray! St. Cyprian.

*Pray not too often for great favors for we stand most in need of small ones. J.L. Basford.

*All places are the temple of God, for it is the mind that prays to him. Menander.

*Prayer is not conquering God's reluctance, but taking hold of God's willingness. Phillips Brooks.

*It is so natural for a man to pray that no theory can prevent him from doing it. James Freeman Clarke.

*Prayer is so mighty an instrument that no one ever thoroughly mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale of man's wants and God's goodness. Hugh Miller.

*Our prayers and God's mercy are like two buckets in a well; while the one ascends, the other descends. Bishop Hopkins.

*Prayer is so necessary, and the source of so many blessings, that he who has discovered the treasure cannot be prevented from having recourse to it, whenever he has an opportunity. Fenelon.

*I am sure I shall receive either what I ask for or what I should ask. Bishop Hall.

*For the most part, we should pray rather in aspiration than petition, rather by hoping than requesting. Leigh Hunt.

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

*The habit of prayer communicates a penetrating sweetness to the glance, the voice, the smile, the tears,--to all one says, or does, or writes. Joseph Roux.

*When we pray for any virtue, we should cultivate the virtue as well as pray for it; the form of your prayers should be the rule of your life; every petition to God is a precept to man. Jeremy Taylor.

*To pray together, in whatever tongue or ritual, is the most tender brotherhood of hope and sympathy that man can contract in this life. Mme. de Stael.

*No man can ask honestly and hopefully to be delivered from temptation, unless he has himself honestly and firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out of it. John Ruskin.

*Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but compunction of soul. Hannah More.

*No man can hinder our private addresses to God; every man can build a chapel in his breast, himself the priest, his heart the sacrifice, and the earth he treads on the altar. Jeremy Taylor.

*The best and sweetest flowers of Paradise God gives to his people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven, or key to let us in to Paradise. Rev. T. Brooks.

*He prays best who, not asking God to do man's work, prays penitence, prays resolutions, then prays deeds--thus supplicating with heart and head and hands. Theodore Parker.

*There is no burden of the spirit but is lightened by kneeling under it. Little by little, the bitterest feelings are sweetened by the mention of them in prayer. And agony itself stops swelling, if we can only cry sincerely, "My God, my God!" Wm. Mountford.

*Prayer to God doth not change him, but fits us to receive the things prayed for. Stillingfleet.

*Pray God to bless thy project; if thou canst make that prayer, accomplish thy work. Leopold Schefer.

*We pray for trifles without so much as a thought of the greatest blessings; and we are not ashamed, many times, to ask God for that which we should blush to own to our neighbor. Seneca.

*Prayer pulls the rope below, and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly; others give but an occasional pluck at the rope; but the one who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously, with all his might. Spurgeon.

*Accustom yourself gradually to carry prayer into all your daily occupations. Speak, move, work, in peace, as if you were in prayer, as indeed you ought to be. Do everything without excitement, by the spirit of grace. Fenelon.

*O, when the heart is full, when bitter thoughts come crowding thickly up for utterance, and the poor common words of courtesy are such a very mockery, how much the bursting heart may pour itself in prayer! Willis.

*No large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often and long alone with God. Austin Phelps.

*That prayer which does not succeed in moderating our wishes--in changing the passionate desire into still submission--the anxious, tumultuous expectation into silent surrender--is no true prayer, and proves that we have not the spirit of true prayer. F.W. Robertson.

*The weak theology that professes to believe that prayer has merely a subjective benefit is infinitely less scientific than the action of a child who confidently appeals to a Father in heaven. Prof. Dawson.

*Prayer sends the soul aloft; lifts it above the clouds in which our selfishness and egotism befog us, and gives us a chance to see which way to steer. Spurgeon.

*The true prayer is that of the heart, and the heart prays only for what it desires. To pray, then, is to desire--but to desire what God would have us desire. Fenelon.

*Prayer, with our Lord, was a refuge from the storm; almost every word He uttered during that last tremendous scene was prayer; prayer the most earnest, the most urgent, repeated, continued, proceeding from the recesses of the soul, private, solitary; prayer for deliverance, prayer for strength; above everything, prayer for resignation. William Paley.

*Prayer is the peace of our spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the seat of meditation, the rest of our cares and the calm of our tempest; prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts; it is the daughter of charity and the sister of meekness. Jeremy Taylor.

*Ever desire to approach your Creator, and you will never cease to pray. Do not think it is necessary to pronounce many words. Fenelon.

*Prayer is...the pulse of the believing soul...T. Scott.

*Prayer is intended to increase the devotion of the individual...Real inward devotion knows no prayer but that arising from the depths of its own feelings. Wilhelm von Humboldt.

*From the violence and rule of passion, from a servile will, and a commanding lust, from pride and vanity, from false opinion and ignorant confidence; from improvidence and prodigality, from envy and the spirit of slander; from sensuality, from presumption and from despair; from a state of temptation and a hardened spirit; from delaying of repentance and persevering in sin; from unthankfulness and irreligion, and from seducing others; from all infatuation of soul, folly and madness; from willfulness, self-love and vain ambition; from a vicious life and an unprovided death, good Lord, deliver us. Jeremy Taylor.

*Worship is the earthly act by which we most distinctly recognize our personal immortality; men who think that they will be extinct a few years hence do not pray. In worship we spread out our insignificant life, which yet is the work of the Creator's hands, and the purchase of the Redeemer's blood, before the Eternal and All-Merciful, that we may learn the manners of a higher sphere, and fit ourselves for companionship with saints and angels, and for the everlasting sight of the face of God. H.P. Liddon.

*As in poetry, so in prayer, the whole subject matter should be furnished by the heart, and the understanding should be allowed only to shape and arrange the effusions of the heart in the manner best adapted to answer the end designed. From the fullness of heart overflowing with holy affections, as from a copious fountain, we should pour forth a torrent of pious, humble and ardently affectionate feelings; while our understandings only shape the channel and teach the gushing streams of devotion where to flow, and when to stop. Edward Payson.

*If we are instant in prayer, every little circumstance awakens the disposition to pray, and desire and words are always ready...Felix Neff.

*The world looks at ministers out of the pulpit to know what they mean when in it. Cecil.

*Pulpit discourses have insensibly dwindled from speaking to reading; a practice of itself sufficient to stifle every germ of eloquence. Sydney Smith.

*Some plague the people with too long sermons: for the faculty of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and satiated. Luther.

*Always carry with you into the pulpit a sense of the immense consequences which may depend on your full and faithful presentation of the truth. R.S. Storrs.

*To endeavor to move by the same discourse hearers who differ in age, sex, position and education, is to attempt to open all locks with the same key. J. Petit-Senn.

*All things with which we deal preach to us. What is a farm but a mute gospel? The chaff and the wheat, weeds and plants, blight, rain, insects, sun,--it is a sacred emblem from the first furrow of spring to the last stack which the snow of winter overtakes the fields. Emerson.

*Settle in your mind, that no sermon is worth much in which the Lord is not the principal speaker... John Hall.

*The most intelligent hearers are those who enjoy most heartily the simplest preaching...Daniel Webster used to complain of some of the preaching to which he listened. "In the house of God" he wanted to meditate "upon the simple varieties [verities], and the undoubted facts of religion;" not upon the mysteries and abstractions. Austin Phelps.