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

Often attributed to Augustine, this maxim expresses a classic Christian tension between divine grace and human responsibility. It counsels an interior posture of radical dependence—prayer that acknowledges God as the ultimate source of help—paired with an exterior posture of full exertion, as if one’s own diligence were decisive. The force of the saying lies in refusing two extremes: quietism (doing nothing because God will act) and self-sufficiency (acting as if God is irrelevant). In spiritual practice it functions as a rule of life: align the will with God through prayer, then pursue one’s duties with disciplined effort, trusting that grace and labor are meant to cooperate rather than compete.