Faith & Spirit Quote by Norman Vincent Peale

Prayer, in Peale's hands, isn t just a hotline to God; it s a behavioral hack aimed back at the person doing the praying. "Tend to modify" is doing quiet work here: he avoids claiming miracles, promising instead a reliable psychological side effect. The sentence turns intercession into self-intervention. You re not changing them; you re changing the emotional weather you carry into the next conversation, the next judgment, the next memory.

That s classic mid-century Peale: a clergyman fluent in the language of uplift and self-management, preaching spirituality as practical technology. Written against a postwar backdrop obsessed with morale, mental hygiene, and the emerging authority of pop-psych, his intent isn t mystical so much as therapeutic. Prayer becomes a sanctioned way to rehearse empathy, to sand down resentments, to reduce the appetite for revenge while still feeling morally active.

The subtext is also mildly corrective: if you can t stop disliking someone, don t white-knuckle your way to virtue. Use a ritual that reroutes attention. Praying for an enemy forces you to articulate their humanity, imagine their needs, and, crucially, place them in a frame where you are not the sole judge. That shift often makes your hostility harder to maintain without contradicting your own performance of goodwill.

There s a gentle power dynamic too. Peale is offering an exit from social conflict that doesn t require confrontation or apology. It s private, controllable, and narratively noble. You can tell yourself you re doing something for them, even as the real beneficiary is your softened stance.