Ray Charles Quotes

It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.

Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.

God can only do for you what He can do through you.

It's really difficult for fanatic churchgoers to understand God can't help me. I'm the only one who can help me.

Not one person can make or break what I'm doing, except me or God.

Prayer is often a temptation to bank on a miracle of God instead of on a moral issue, i.e., it is much easier to ask God to do my work than it is to do it myself. Until we are disciplined properly, we will always be inclined to bank on God's miracles and refuse to do the moral thing ourselves. It is our job, and it will never be done unless we do it.

But remember this: in the final analysis, you can believe in your dream, you can be taught, supported, motivated, and loved by others, but ultimately, your success depends on you. You must take responsibility for your body, your mind, and for your character.

My father taught that the only helping hand you're ever going to be able to rely on is the one at the end of your sleeve.

It is vain to ask of the gods what man is capable of supplying for himself.

A man must rise by his own efforts and walk by faith.

Buddah says once you understand that you are lost and you have to find your own way and there is no help coming, you become responsible. Prayer is irresponsible. To pray is just to avoid responsibility, to pray is to be lazy. To pray is just an escape. Buddha says effort is needed. It is an insult to pray.

Pray as if all depended on God and work as if all depended upon you.

If I stay. If I live. It’s up to me. All this business about medically induced comas is just doctor talk. It’s not up to the doctors. It’s not up to the absentee angels. It’s not even up to God who, if He exists, is nowhere around right now. It’s up to me.

I do not pray. . . . I do not expect God to single me out and grant me advantages over my fellow men. . . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility.

If I had a prayer, it would be this: "God, spare me from the desire for love, approval, or appreciation. Amen."

Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, Which we ascribe to Heaven.

Never will I pray for the material things of the world. I am not calling to a servant to bring me food. I am not ordering an innkeeper to provide me with room. Never will I seek delivery of gold, love, good health, petty victories, fame, success, or happiness. Only for guidance will I pray, that I may be shown the way to acquire these things, and my prayer will always be answered.

One must pray first, but afterwards one must help oneself. God does not care for cowards.

The great lesson that nature seems to teach us at all ages is self-dependence, self-protection, self-support. In the hours of our keenest sufferings all are thrown wholly on themselves for consolation.

Truly God was good, to make man so blind.

In the moral world there is nothing impossible if we can bring a thorough will to it. Man can do everything with himself, but he must not attempt to do too much with others.

If the whole responsibility is thrown upon our own shoulders, we shall be at our highest and best; when we have nobody to grope towards, no devil to lay our blame upon, no Personal God to carry our burdens, when we are alone responsible, then we shall rise to our highest and best. I am responsible for my fate, I am the bringer of good unto myself, I am the bringer of evil.

Without your own effort it is impossible for blessings to come.