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PRACTICALITY --- PRAIRIE --- PRAISE
PRANKS --- PRAYER

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PRACTICALITY

So I really think American gentlemen are the best after all,
because kissing your hand may make you feel very very
good but a diamond and safire bracelet lasts forever.
--Anita Loos (1893—1981)
American novelist and Hollywood screenwriter.
_Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_ [1925]

Be nice to people on your way up because
you'll meet 'em on your way down.
--Wilson Mizner (1876—1933)
American playwright.
In Alva Johnston _The Legendary Mizners_ [1953].

-----

quixotic (adj.)
1. Tending to take a romanticized view of life
2. Motivated by an idealism that overlooks practical considerations




PRAIRIE

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see: "COWBOYS"
see: "FARMING"
see: WEST (THE WILD/OLD)
see: "NATURE" for other related links


I long for scenes, where man hath never trod, a place
where woman never smiled or wept — there to abide
with my creator, God, and sleep as I in childhood
sweetly slept, untroubling, and untroubled where I
lie, the grass below — above, the vaulted sky.
--John Clare

-

There's not a log to make a seat
Along the River Platte,
So when you eat you've got to stand
Or sit down square and flat.

It's fun to play with buffalo chips,
Take one that's newly born.
If I knew once what I know now,
I'd have gone around the Horn.

--anon. Forty-Niner on the way to California
in Alistair Cooke
[Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcaster and journalist.
_America_ [1973]


By this time they had been together for
three or four months. It was August and
normally one hundred or one hundred and
ten degrees in any discoverable shade,
and the nerves began to snap. People went
mad: one man shot his brother because he
could no longer stand the sound of his
voice, another man tried to strangle a
partner for the crime of twirling a luxuriant
mustache. This was, they thought at the
time, the nadir of the trek. Certainly,
brotherly love gave out.
--Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcater and journalist.
_America_ [1973]
(Forty-Niners crossing the prairie.)

-

To live and work in this kind of open country, with
its hundred-mile views, is to lose the distinction
between background and foreground. When I asked
an older ranch hand to describe Wyoming's openness,
he said, 'It's all a bunch of nothing — wind and
rattlesnakes — and so much of it you can't tell where
you're going or where you've been and it don't make
much difference.'
--Gretel Ehrlich

'Tis wonderful how soon a piano gets into a
log hut on the frontier. You would think they
found it under a pine stump.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
"Civilization" _Society and Solitude_ [1870]

Oklahoma,
Where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain,
And the wavin' wheat
Can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
--Oscar Hammerstein II (1895—1960)
American songwriter.
"Oklahoma" song from the 1943 musical "Oklahoma".

It's been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone, my
home town, out here on the edge of the prairie.
--Garrison Keillor (1942— )
American writer and radio host.

I ascended to the top of a cut bluff this morning,
from whence I had a most delightful view of the
country, the whole of which except the valley
formed by the Missouri is void of timber or
underbrush, exposing to the first glance of the
spectator immence herds of Buffaloe, Elk, deer
and Antelopes feeding in one common and boundless
pasture.
--Meriwether Lewis (1774—1809)
American explorer.
In eastern Montana [22 April 1805].

...meandering across an immense prairie whose vegetation
is better supplied and more varied and where the land
seems disposed to provide all the agricultural needs for
a civilized society. But the mosquitoes are there, in
myriads on each square foot! For several days we hardly
suspected their existence on the high, sterile plains.
Today the suffering they made us endure in the midst
of the fertility raises the question where on the earth is
man well off?
--Joseph Nicollet (1786—1843)
French geographer and mathematician.
(In a 1838 journal of his expedition through what is
now southern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota.)

I am here when the cities are gone. I am here before
the cities come. I nourished the lonely men on horses.
I will keep the laughing men who ride iron. I am dust
of men. . . . Have you seen a red sunset drip over one
of my cornfields, the shore of night stars, the wave
lines of dawn up a wheat valley? . . . I am the prairie,
mother of men, waiting. They are mine, the threshing
crews eating beefsteak, the farmboys driving steers to
the railroad cattle pens.
--Carl Sandburg (1878—1967)
American poet.

We were at sea — there is no other adequate expression
— on the plains of Nebraska. ... It was a world almost
without a feature, an empty sky, an empty earth; front
and back, the line of railway stretched from horizon to
horizon, like a cue across a billiard-board; on either
hand, the green plain ran till it touched the skirts of
heaven.
--Robert Louis Stevenson (1850—1894)
Scottish essayist, poet, and novelist.
_Across the Plains_ [1892]

We cross the prairie as of old
The pilgrims crossed the sea,
To make the West, as they the East,
The homestead of the free!
--John Greenleaf Whittier (1807—1892)
American poet.
"The Kansas Emigrants" [1854]

My baggage was lost; it had not come on my train;
it was adrift somewhere back in the two thousand
miles that lay behind me. And by way of comfort,
the baggage-man remarked that passengers often
got astray from their trunks, but the trunks mostly
found them after a while. Having offered me this
encouragement, he turned whistling to his affairs
and left me planted in the baggage-room at Medicine
Bow. I stood deserted among crates and boxes,
blankly holding my check, fungus and forlorn. I
stared out through the door at the sky and the plains;
but I did not see the antelope shining among the sage-
brush, nor the great sunset light of Wyoming.
Annoyance blinded my eyes to all things save my
grievance: I saw only a lost trunk.
--Owen Wister (1860—1938)
American writer of western novels.
"The Virginian"

--

Two buffaloes were grazing contentedly on the open prairie when a
cowboy rode up. Looking the animals over, he shook his head and
said, "You two are the ugliest buffaloes I ever saw. Look at you —
your fur is tangled, you have humps on your backs and you slobber
all over the place." As the cowboy rode off, the first buffalo
remarked to the second, "I think I just heard a discouraging word."



PRAISE

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see: "ADMIRATION"
see: "APPLAUSE"
see: "COMPLIMENTS"
see: "FLATTERY"
see: "POPULARITY"
see: "RECOGNITION"
see: "COMMUNICATION" for other related links
see: "KINDNESS" for other related links


Carve not upon a stone when I am dead,
The praises which remorseful mourners give;
To women's graves — a tardy recompense,
But speak them while I live.
--Elizabeth Akers Allen (1832—1911)
American poet.
"Until Death", (pub. as anon.) in William Cullen Bryant
(ed.) _A New Library of Poetry and Song_ [1876].

There is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good wit
and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.
--Roger Ascham (1515—1568)
English scholar, writer, and courtier,
_The Schoolmaster_ [1570]

Praise from the common people is generally false,
and rather follows vain persons than virtuous ones.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
Quoted in Watson Adams _The Rule of Life;
Or a Collection of Select Moral Sentences_ [1834].

Be quick to praise people. People like to praise
those who praise them.
--Bernard Baruch (1870—1965)
American financier.

Let another man praise thee,
and not thine own mouth.
--Bible
"Proverbs" 27:2

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
--James Boswell (1740—1795)
Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author.
In _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791] (footnote 30 March 1778].

Words of praise, indeed, are almost as necessary to warm a child
into a genial life as acts of kindness and affection. Judicious praise
is to children what the sun is to flowers.
--Christian Nestell Bovee (1820—1904)
American writer.
_Intuitions and Summaries of Thought_ [2 vols. 1862]

If with pleasure you are viewing,
Any work a man is doing,
If you like him or love him, tell him now.
Do not wait till life is over,
And he's underneath the clover,
For he cannot read his tombstone when he's dead.
--Berton Braley (1882—1966)
American poet.
_Do It Now_

-

Praise in public.
--H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (b. 1940)
American author.
_Life's Little Instruction Book_ [1991], Maxim #223


Criticize in private.
--H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (b. 1940)
American author.
_Life's Little Instruction Book_ [1991], Maxim #224

-

Watch how a man takes praise, and
there you have the measure of him.
--Thomas Burke (1886—1945)
British author.

Self-laudation abounds among the unpolished; but
nothing can stamp a man more sharply as ill-bred.
--Charles Buxton (1823—1871)
English author.
_Notes of Thought_ [1873]

Modesty is the only sure bait when you are fishing for praise.
--attributed to Lord Byron and G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

I praise loudly. I blame softly.
--Catherine the Great (1729—1796)
Empress of Russia fron 1762—1796.

Modesty is the only sure bait when you are fishing for praise.
--attributed to Lord Byron and G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

If you mean to profit, learn to praise.
--Charles Churchill (1731—1764)
English poet.
"Gotham" Bk. II [1764]

The praise of the envious is far less creditable
than their censure; they praise only that which
they can surpass, but that which surpasses
them— they censure.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.
_Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, DLXXIII [1824 ed.]

It would be nice if sometimes the kind things I say were
considered worthy of quotation. It isn't difficult, you
know, to be witty or amusing when one has something to
say that is destructive, but damned hard to be clever
and quotable when you are singing someone's praises.
--Noλl Coward (1899—1973)
English playwright, actor, and composer.
In William Marchant _The Pleasure of His Company_ [1981].

Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise
As praises from the men, whom all men praise.
--Abraham Cowley (1618—1667)
English poet and essayist.
"Ode upon a Copy of Verses of My Lord Broghill's" [1663]

It's pleasant to hear these nice words while I'm still
alive. I'd rather have the taffy than the epitaphy.
--Chauncey Depew (1834—1928)
American orator, politician, and railroad president.

-

The slander of some people is as great a
recommendation as the praise of others.
--Henry Fielding (1707—1754)
English novelist and dramatist.
_The Temple Beau_ I, i [1729]


We should not be too hasty in bestowing either our praise or censure
on mankind, since we shall often find such a mixture of good and evil
in the same character, that it may require a very accurate judgment
and a very elaborate inquiry to determine on which side the balance
turns.
--Henry Fielding (1707—1754)
English novelist and dramatist.
Quoted in Mathew Carey (ed.)
_The School of Wisdom, or, American Monitor_ p.59 [2nd ed. 1803].

-

Blame-all and Praise-all are two blockheads.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [February 1734]

Praise makes good men better and bad men worse.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732]

Praising all alike, is praising none.
--John Gay (1685—1732)
English poet and dramatist.
_Epistles On Several Occasions_ "To a Lady"

My soul preached to me and said, 'Do not
be delighted because of praise, and do not
be distressed because of blame.'
--Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931)
Lebanese poet.

Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own.
--W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911)
English writer of comic and satirical verse.
_The Mikado_, act I [1885]

What a person praises is perhaps a surer standard,
even than what he condemns, of his own character,
information and abilities.
--Augustus William Hare (1792—1834)
English biographer and compiler of travel books.
Attributed in Louis Klopsch _Many Thoughts of Many Minds_, p. 223 [1896].

He only profits from praise who values criticism.
--attributed to Heinrich Heine (1797—1856)
German poet.

There is no friend like an old friend
Who has shared our morning days,
No greeting like his welcome,
No homage like his praise.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
"No Time Like The Old Time"

The way of this world is to praise dead
saints and persecute living ones.
--Nathaniel Howe (1764—1837)
American minister.

-

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes
its value only to its scarcity.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Rambler_ [6 June 1751]


Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Rambler_ (English twice-weekly journal 1750—1752),
No. 155 [10 September 1751]

-

Never praise a sister to a sister, in the hope of
your compliments reaching the proper ears.
--Rudyard Kipling (1865—1936)
English writer and poet.
_Plain Tales From The Hills_ [1888], "False Dawn"

-

The refusal of praise is a desire to be praised twice.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_ [1665], Maxim 149


The praise we give to new comers into the world arises
from the envy we bear to those who are established.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_, # 280 [1678]

-

Trust him little who praises all, him less who censures
all and him least who is indifferent about all.
--Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741—1801)
Swiss writer, Protestant pastor, and founder of physiognomics.
Quoted in _The Pocket Magazine of Classics and Polite Literature_, vol. 2 [1818].

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you
censure, what you do not understand.
--Leonardo da Vinci (1452—1519)
Florentine painter, sculptor, musician, and scientist.
Attributed in Stephen Whitman _Children of Hope_ [1915]
published in "The Century" [February 1916].

He who praises you for what you have not,
wishes to take from you what you have.
--Don Juan Manuel (1282—1349)
Spanish author & nobleman.
_El Conde Lucanor_

Once in a century a man may be ruined or made
insufferable by praise. But surely once in a
minute something generous dies for want of it.
--John Masefield (1878—1967)
English novelist, poet, and playwright.

-

Praise is always pleasing, let it come from
whom, or upon what account it will.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
"Of vanity", _Essays_ [1588]


When all is summed up, a man never speaks of
himself without loss; his accusations of himself
are always believed, his praises never.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_ [10th ed. 1884].

-

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever
is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence, if there is anything
worthy of praise, think about these things.
--Saint Paul (c. 5— c. 67)
"Epistle to the Philippians," Chapter 4, Verses 4-8

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather
be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
--Norman Vincent Peale (1898—1993)
American preacher and author.
Quoted in Alfred Armand Montapert _Distilled Wisdom_ [1964].

-

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
"An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" [1735]


Be thou the first true merit to befriend;
His praise is lost who waits till all commend.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
Quoted in Henry G. Bohn _A Dictionary of Quotations From the English Poets_ [1867].

-

A little praise is not only merest justice
but is beyond the purse of no one.
--Emily Post (1873—1960)
American authority on social behavior.
_Etiquette_ [1922]

We bestow on others praise in which we do not
believe, on condition that in return they bestow
upon us praise in which we do.
--Jean Rostand (1894—1977)
French biologist and philosopher.
_De La Vanite_ [1925]

We measure the excellency of other men by some
excellency we conceive to be in ourselves.
--John Selden (1584—1654)
English historian.
_Table Talk_ [1689]

You can tell the character of every man when
you see how he gives and receives praise.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.—65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.
_Epistulae morales ad Lucilium_, Letter LII

-

Praising what is lost
Makes the remembrance dear.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_All's Well That Ends Well_, act V, sc. iii [1602—1604]


There is not one wise man in twenty that will praise himself.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
Attributed in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 139 [1891].

-

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so;
it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of
sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of
fools.
--Sir Richard Steele (1672—1729)
Irish-born essayist and dramatist.
_The Guardian_ #24 [8 April 1713]

I don't mind a little praise — as long as it's fulsome.
--Adlai E. Stevenson (1900—1965)
American Democratic politician.
Attributed in Jon Winokur _True Confessions _[1993].

Try praising your wife, even if it does frighten her at first.
--Billy Sunday [William Ashley Sunday] (1862—1935)
American evangelist.
Quoted in "The Independent" [28 April 1917].

-

I've noticed that when a fellow dies, no matter what he's been—
A saintly chap or one whose life's been deeply steeped in sin—
His friends forget the bitter words they spoke but yesterday,
And try to find a multitude of pretty things to say.

I fancy when I go to rest some-one will bring to light
Some kindly word or goodly act long buried out of sight;
But if it's all the same to you, just give to me, instead
The bouquets while I'm living and the knocking when I'm dead.

--Louis Edwin Thayer (1878—1956)
"Of Post-Mortem Praises," st. 1 & 2,
in "Masonic Voice Review" [Chicago, Ill., January 1909].

-

The Americans, in their intercourse with strangers,
appear impatient of the smallest censure and
insatiable of praise.
--Alexis de Tocqueville (1805—1859)
French historian and politician.
_Democracy in America_, pt. II, bk. III ch. 16 [1840]

Neither human applause nor human censure is to be taken
as the test of truth. ... but either the one or the other should
set us upon careful self-examination.
--Richard Whately (1787—1863)
English philosopher and theologian.
"Discourse on the Treason of Judas Iscariot" in
_Essays On Some Of The Dangers To Christian Faith_ [1839]

I'm sick of praise. I want money.
--Thomas Wolfe (1900—1938)
American novelist.
In John Skally Terry (ed.)
_Thomas Wolfe's Letters to His Mother_ [1943].

-----

apotheosis (noun) [κ-pah-thee-'o-sis]
Elevation to divine status, to the position
of a god; an absolutely perfect example.

approbation [ap-ruh-BAY-shuhn], noun:
1. The act of approving; formal or official approval.
2. Praise; commendation.

encomium [en-KOH-mee-uhm], noun;
plural encomiums or encomia -mee-uh:
An often formal expression of warm or
high praise.

exalt [ig-ZOLT], verb:
1. To praise, glorify, or honor.
2. To heighten or intensify.

extol [ik-STOHL], transitive verb:
To praise highly; to glorify; to exalt.
Ex.: Let your deeds themselves praise you,
for here I leave them in all their glory,
lacking words to extol them.
--Cervantes,
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_

laudable [LAW-duh-bul], adjective:
Worthy of praise; commendable.

panegyrize [PAN-i-juh-rahyz], verb:
1. To eulogize; to deliver or write a panegyric about.
2. To indulge in panegyric; bestow praises.




PRANKS

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.

see: "DECEPTION" for related links


[James Thurber] had an affair with a New Yorker secretary but his
blindness made for tactical problems. He had to rely on one of the
magazine's office boys to lead him about; as his run of bad luck
would have it, the office boy assigned to him was 18 year old Truman
Capote. "I worked as a boy in the Art Department then", Capote
recalled, "and one of my jobs was to take Thurber to his girlfriend's
apartment. She was as ugly as sin, so it served him right. I would have
to wait for him at the apartment till he was finished, and then I'd dress
him. He could undress by himself, but he couldn't dress himself. Now
since Helen Thurber would dress him in the morning, she knew how
he looked. Well, one time I put his socks on wrong side out, and when
he got home, I gather Helen asked him a lot of questions. The next
day, Thurber was furious at me — he said I did it on purpose. But I
was still assigned to lead him to the girl's apartment — back and forth,
back and forth."
--Burton Bernstein Staff writer for "The New Yorker" [1957—1992].
_Thurber_ [1975]

Some malicious person or persons in the ship took
advantage of his [a crew member] being drunk and
cut all the clothes from off his back; not being satisfied
with this, they some time after went into his cabin and
cut off part of both his ears as he lay asleep in his bed.
--James Cook (1728—1779)
British naval captain, navigator, and explorer.

-

This e-mail has been printed on paper treated with a deadly Chinese
poison — using herbs so deadly that it will do you no good to wash
your hands. As soon as you opened this e-mail you became infected.
Unless you take the special antidote, you will die a horrible and
lingering death within five hours. Said antidote will be e-mailed
to you upon my receiving $50,000 in wired funds. Hurry!

-----

shenanigan (noun) [shκ-'nζn-κ-gκn]
A playful or mischievous act; a prank.




PRAYER

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.

see: "RELIGION" for related links


Tho' there's one motor gone, we can still carry on,
Comin' in on a wing a pray'r.
--Harold Adamson (1906—1980)
American songwriter.
"Comin' In On a Wing and a Prayer" [1943 song];
(Music by Jimmy McHugh.)

Prayer begins where human capacity ends.
--Marian Anderson (1897—1993)
American singer.
Quoting her mother in a 1981 article in "Guideposts" magazine.

Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe
be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner
confessedly unworthy.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Devil's Dictionary_ [1911]

O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger
men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.
Pray for powers equal to your tasks.
--Phillips Brooks (1835—1893)
American religious leader.
_Going Up to Jerusalem_ [1886]

Pray not for things, but for wisdom and courage.
--H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940— )
American author.
_Life's Little Instruction Book_ [1991], Maxim #158

And lips say, 'God be pitiful,'
Who ne'er said, 'God be praised.'
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806—1861)
English poet.
"The Cry of the Human" [1844]

-

Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin
will entice a man to cease from prayer.
--John Bunyan (1628—1688)
English writer and allegorist.


In prayer, it is better to have a heart
without words than words without a heart.
--John Bunyan (1628—1688)
English writer and allegorist.

-

I used to pray that God would do this or that. Now
I pray that God will make His will known to me.
--Madame Chiang Kai-Shek [Soong Mei-ling]
(1898—2003)

He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834)
English poet, critic, and philosopher.
_The Rime of the Ancient Mariner_ [1798]

I have found the greatest power in the world in the
power of prayer. There is no shadow of doubt of
that. I speak from my own experience.
--Cecil B. DeMille (1881—1959)
American filmmaker.

There can be prayers without words
just as well as songs, I suppose.
--George Busson du Maurier (1834—1896)
British artist and writer.

The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for
safety from danger, but deliverance from fear.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Journals_ [1833]

If the gods listened to the prayers of men, all men
would quickly have perished: for they are always
praying for evil against one another.
--Epicurus (341—270 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

The pious ones of Plymouth, who, reaching the Rock,
fell first upon their knees and then upon the aborigines.
--William M. Evarts (1818—1901)
American politician.
Quoted in "Louisville Courier-Journal" [4 July 1913].

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single
act is better than a thousand heads bowing
in prayer.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic
movement against British rule.
In Ronni Lundy
_Crafts for the Spirit: 30 Beautiful Projects to
Enhance Your Personal Journey_, p. 39 [2003].

The creator who could put a cancer in a believer's
stomach is above being interfered with by prayers.
--[Francis] Bret Harte (1836—1902)
American author.
Quoted in Rufus K. Noyes _Views of Religion_ p. 134 [1906].

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is
that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes,
wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by
their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery.
Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays
all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in
all history.
--Robert Heinlein (1907—1988)
American science-fiction writer.
_Time Enough for Love_ "Intermission" [1973]

Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the
gods a man should himself lend a hand.
--Hippocrates (c. 460—377 BC)
Greek physician.
_Regimen_, bk. IV, sec. 87

Those who always pray are necessary to
those who never pray.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.

To prevent famine, one plow is worth a million sermons, and even
patent medicines will cure more diseases than all the prayers uttered
since the beginning of the world.
--Robert Green Ingersoll (1833—1899)
American politician and orator know as "The Great Agnostic."
"The Gods" [1872]

Religion's in the heart, not in the knees.
--Douglas Jerrold (1803—1857)
English playwright and journalist.

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.
--Sφren Kierkegaard (1813—1855)
Danish philosopher.
In Robert Andrews
_The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 207 [1987].

People who pray for miracles usually don't get miracles
...But people who pray for courage, for strength to bear
the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they
have left instead of what they have lost, very often find
their prayers answered. Their prayers helped them tap
hidden reserves of faith and courage that were not
available to them before.
--Harold S. Kushner
Conservative rabbi.

A single grateful thought towards
heaven is the most perfect prayer.
--Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729—1781)
German dramatist.
_Minna von Barnhelm_, act II, sc. 7 [1767]

Often when I pray I wonder if I am not posting
letters to a non-existent address.
--C.S. [Clive Staples] Lewis (1898—1963)
British scholar and novelist.
Letter to Arthur Greeves [24 December 1930].

I have been driven many times to my knees by the
overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else
to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me,
seemed insufficient for the day.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].

I have so much to do today that I shall
spend the first three hours in prayer.
--Martin Luther (1483—1546)
German Protestant theologian.

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
--Henry Francis Lyte (1793—1847)
British hymnwriter.
"Abide With Me" l. 1 [1847]

-

This supposed ability to sidestep, to forgo, ritual comes from a
mistaken belief in one's own powers and a misapprehension of
personal grace. It is misplaced and it is sad, like the viewer at
a magic show who confides, 'You know, he really didn't make
that duck disappear.'

Now of course the magician didn't make that duck disappear. What
he did was something of much greater worth — he gave a moment
of joy and astonishment to some who were delighted by it.

In suspending their disbelief — in suspending their reason, if you
will — for a moment, the viewers were rewarded. They committed
an act of faith, or of submission. And like those who rise refreshed
from prayers, their prayers were answered. For the purpose of the
prayer was not, finally, to bring about intercession in the material
world, but to lay down, for the time of the prayer, one's confusion
and rage and sorrow at one's own powerlessness.

--David Mamet (1947— )
American playwright and screenwriter.
_Three Uses of the Knife_ [1998]

-

If you pray for bread and bring no basket to carry
it, you prove the doubting spirit which may be the
only hindrance to the gift you ask.
--Dwight Lyman Moody (1837—1899)
American evangelist and publisher.

To spend more time in learning is better
than spending more time in praying.
--Muhammad (A.D. 570?—632)
Prophet to whom the religion
of Islam was revealed.

God, give us the grace to accept with serenity
the things which cannot be changed, courage
to change the things which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the
other.
--Reinhold Niebuhr (1892—1971)
American theologian.
"The Serenity Prayer" [1934]
(authorship is questionable)

Don't pray when it rains if you
don't pray when the sun shines.
--Leroy "Satchel" Paige (1906—1982)
American baseball pitcher in both the Negro
Leagues and the Major League; inducted in
the Hall of Fame in 1971.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new
bike. Then I realized that The Lord doesn't work that
way, so I stole one and asked him to forgive me.
--Emo Phillips [Philip Soltanec] (1956— )
American comedian.

It is ridiculous to suppose that the great
head of things, whatever it be, pays any
regard to human affairs.
--Pliny the Elder [Gaius Plinius Secundus] (23—79)
Roman statesman and scholar.
_Natural History_, bk. VII, sec. 4 [77—79]

Teach me to feel another's Woe;
To hide the Fault I see;
That Mercy I to others show,
That Mercy show to me.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind
act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.
--Sa'di [Muslih-uddin] (c. 1184—1291?)
Iranian poet.
Attributed in _Catch Words of Cheer_,
compiled by Sara A. Hubbard [2nd ed., 1903].

If you talk to God, you are praying; if God
talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
--Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
American psychiatrist.
_The Second Sin_ "Schizophrenia" [1973]

I have never made but one prayer to God
a very short one: "O Lord, make my enemies
ridiculous." And God granted it.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
Letter to M. Damilaville [16 May 1767].

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
_An Ideal Husband_, act 2 [1895]

-

Now I lay me down to slumber.
I pray the Lord I hit the number.
If I should die before I wake.
Put a dime on 408.
--anon.

-

Old Irish Prayer

May those that love us, Love Us.
And those that don't love us
May God turn their hearts.
And if He can't turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles,
so we know them by their limp!

-

On Sunday, Lord, a Mrs. Drew
Is coming here the house to view,
Which is, of course, for sale.
Grant Thou, O Lord, that she forbear
From standing long upon the stair
That is, alas! too frail.

O do not let her hand draw back
The curtain and reveal the crack
Along the windowpane!
O guide her as she comes and goes,
So that no smell assails her nose
From the adjacent drain.

Let her not see the neighbouring slum
As she approaches. May she come
Along the better road,
And grant that she may, in a trice,
Agree to the inflated price
We ask for our abode.

And grant, O Lord, to us who plead,
These favours that we may succeed
In what we now devise,
And through Thine all-embracing love
Be made eternal tenants of.

--unknown


TOPICAL

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.

For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.

We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.

We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.

It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!

Amen

--anon.

-----

supplicate [UP-luh-kayt], intransitive verb:
1. To make a humble and earnest petition; to pray humbly.
transitive verb:
1. To seek or ask for humbly and earnestly.
2. To make a humble petition to; to beseech.

tallith (noun)
A shawl with a ritually knotted fringe at each corner;
worn by Jews at morning prayer.
Synonyms: prayer shawl, tallis


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