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God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers,
And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face,
A gauntlet with a gift in't.

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning Aurora Leigh (1857)

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Prayer

More quotes by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb
The crowns o’ the world; oh, eyes sublime
With tears and laughter for all time!

Poems (1844)

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man.

Poems (1844)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

All Elizabeth Barrett Browning 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: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.