Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Rather, praying with modesty and humility we will commend our prayers to God all the better, not even raising our hands too high, but lifting them in moderation and propriety, not even setting our faces in a bold stare. For that tax collector too, who prayed humbled not only in speech but in countenance, cast down, went away more justified than the brazen Pharisee. We ought to be restrained in the sound of our voice as well — or else what great lungs we would need, if we were to be heard for our volume! God is not a listener to the voice but to the heart, just as he is its watcher. The demon of the Pythian oracle says, I understand even the mute, and hear even the one who does not speak. Do God's ears wait for a sound? How else could Jonah's prayer, from the very belly of the whale, through the innards of so vast a beast, from the depths of the sea itself, through such a mass of ocean, have made its way up to heaven? What more do those who pray more loudly achieve, except to disturb their neighbors? Indeed, by broadcasting their petitions, what less do they do than if they prayed in the public square?