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Pray to be perfect, though material leaven
Forbid the spirit so on earth to be;
But if for any wish thou darest not pray,
Then pray to God to cast that wish away.

— Hartley Coleridge

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Prayer

More quotes by Hartley Coleridge

The soul of man is larger than the sky,
Deeper than ocean, or the abysmal dark
Of the unfathomed center.

Poems (1851)

Rising now, anon descending,
Swift and bright as shooting stars,
Thus we travel glad and free.

Poems (1851)

He grew, and grew,
A star-bright sign of fated empery;
And all conspiring omens led him on
To lofty purpose and pre-eminence.

Poems (1851)

Jove is not one half so merciless
As thou art to thyself. But fare thee well;
Our love is all as stubborn as thy pride,
And swift as firm.

Poems (1851)

The glad sons of the deliver'd earth
Shall yearly raise their multitudinous voice,
Hymning great Jove, the God of Liberty!

Poems (1851)

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