"A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he realized prayer is listening" or "that prayer is listening."
As widely (but somewhat erroneously?) attributed to Kierkegaard. Richard Foster quotes Kierkegaard precisely thus (except with a "that" before that second "prayer") and cites Christian discourses, trans. Lowrie (1940), p. 324 (Celebration of discipline, 20th anniversary ed. (1998), pp. 39 and 212n7), where a reference to true prayer as "silence" (rather than "listening") does indeed occur. On p. 323, by contrast, there is this (plus more in context, yet still not the ipsissima verba above):
He had supposed that to pray is to speak; he learnt that to pray is not merely to be silent but to hear.
According to Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter, this was originally
Han meente at det at bede er at tale; han lærte at det at bede ikke blot er at tie, men er at høre.
(*I have not yet searched exhaustively, however*; just followed the citation at a point where Foster reproduces the wording given above, and where the idea, but not, despite the clear reference to Lowrie, this translation, is present.)
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