"Prayer: the key of the day and the lock of the night"
About this Quote
The line’s elegance is in its symmetry. “Key” suggests access, agency, and permission: prayer opens the day, sets it in motion, grants entry to whatever comes next. “Lock” shifts the mood to protection and accountability: prayer closes the day, seals it, keeps out what you fear might enter in the dark - anxiety, temptation, guilt, the sense that you’ve left something undone. Fuller’s subtext is pastoral and quietly disciplinary: don’t treat devotion as a Sunday performance. Make it bookends. Make it habit. If you can remember to secure your door, you can remember to secure your soul.
Context matters: Fuller lived through England’s religious and political upheavals (civil war, contested authority, frayed communal trust). In that world, the appeal of a daily ritual that promises order is obvious. The quote sells prayer as spiritual hygiene, a stabilizing mechanism when the larger “house” of society won’t stay latched.
Quote Details
| Topic | Prayer |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Fuller, Thomas. (2026, January 15). Prayer: the key of the day and the lock of the night. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/prayer-the-key-of-the-day-and-the-lock-of-the-10332/
Chicago Style
Fuller, Thomas. "Prayer: the key of the day and the lock of the night." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/prayer-the-key-of-the-day-and-the-lock-of-the-10332/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Prayer: the key of the day and the lock of the night." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/prayer-the-key-of-the-day-and-the-lock-of-the-10332/. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.






