Quotes to inspire and reflect

As in political so in literary action a man wins Iriends for himself mostly by the passion of his prejudices and by the consistent narrowness of his outlook.

Prejudice is never easy unless it can pass itself off for reason.

There are as many preferences as there are men.

I don’t care anything about reasons, but I know what I like.

There is no banquet but some dislike something in it.

The preaching of divines helps to preserve well- inclined men in the course of virtue, but seldom or never reclaims the vicious.

Go into one of our cool churches, and begin to count the words that might be spared, and in most places the entire sermon will go.

The sermon which I write inquisitive of truth is good a year after, but that which is written because a sermon must be writ is musty the next day.

We offer up prayers to God only because we have made Him after our own image. We treat Him like a pasha, or a sultan, who is capable of being exasperated and appeased.

Among provocatives, the next best thing to good preaching is bad preaching.

Complaint is the largest tribute Heaven receives, and the sincerest part of our devotion.

Prayer, among sane people, has never superseded practical efforts to secure the desired end.

Night after night I prayed, with a fervour never previously attained in my prayers, ‘‘Please God, do not let me wet my bed! Oh, please God, do not let me wet my bed!”

There are few men who durst publish to the world the prayers they make to Almighty God.

How ready is heaven to those that pray!

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.

Affliction teacheth a wicked person sometime to pray; prosperity never.

Men have prayed in prison, men have prayed in slums and concentration camps. It's only the middle class who demand to pray in suitable surroundings.

Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood arid applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.

None can pray well but he that lives well.

Prayer as a means to effect a private end is theft and meanness.

Prayer is the little implement / Through which Men reach / Where Presence—is denied them.

A prayer may chance to rise / From one whose heart lives in the grace of God. / A prayer from any other is unheeded.

I have had prayers answered—most strangely so sometimes—but I think our heavenly Father’s lovingkindness has been even more evident in what He has refused me.

Prayers are to men as dolls are to children. They are not without use and comfort, but it is not easy to take them very seriously.

The wish to pray is a prayer in itself.

Mankind are tolerant of the praises of others so long as each hearer thinks he can do as well or nearly well himself.

We begin to praise when we begin to see a thing needs our assistance.

Praise shames me, for I secretly beg for it.

All panegyrics are mingled with an infusion of poppy.

True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.

Every artist loves applause. The praise of his contemporaries is the most valuable part of his recompense.

Better to be despised, then, than to be ignored; or damned with condescending praise.

Envy bestrides praise.

Praise is more obtrusive than a reproach.

Praise is always pleasing, let it come from whom, or upon what account it will.

The safest kind of praise is to foretell that another will become great in some particular way. It has the greatest show of magnanimity, and the least of it in reality.

Praises from wicked men are reproaches.

Praise makes good men better and bad men worse.

Praises from an enemy imply real merit.

Practice is nine-tenths.

Praise to the undeserving is severe satire.

A mariner must have his eye upon rocks and sands, as well as upon the North Star.

The Arab who built himself a hut with marbles from the temple of Palmyra is more philosophical than all the curators of the museums of London, Paris and Munich.

I like a man who likes to see a fine barn as well as a good tragedy.

There is no need to fear the strong. All one needs is to know the method of overcoming them. There is a special jujitsu for every strong man.