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For Adoration, incense comes
From bezoar, and Arabian gums,
And from the civet’s fur:
But as for prayer, or e’er it faints,
Far better is the breath of saints
Than galbanum or myrrh.

— Christopher Smart A Song to David (1763)

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Prayer

More quotes by Christopher Smart

Then comes rosy health from her cottage of thatch,
Where never physician hath lifted the latch.

Too hard for any frog's digestion,
To have his froghood call'd in question!

Fables (1750)

Behind him came Health from her cottage of thatch,
Where never physician had lifted the latch.

For flowers are peculiarly the poetry of Christ.

Jubilate Agno (1759)

Glorious the sun in mid-career;
Glorious th' assembled fires appear.

A Song to David (1763)

All Christopher Smart quotes →

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When the mind is not dissipated upon extraneous things, nor diffused over the world about us through the senses, it withdraws within itself, and of its own accord ascends to the contemplation of God.

Basil of Caesarea

Oh dear Pan and all the other Gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside.

Plato

To feel the supreme and moving beauty of the spectacle to which Nature invites her ephemeral guests! … that is what I call prayer.

Claude Debussy Claude Debussy: His Life and Works (1933)

"O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small."

John F. Kennedy

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Christopher Smart (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.