"One hour's reflection is preferable to seventy years of pious worship"

The wine of renunciation must needs be quaffed, the lofty heights of detachment must needs be attained, and the meditation referred to in the words "One hour's reflection is preferable to seventy years of pious worship" must needs be observed, so that the secret of the wretched behaviour of the people might be discovered, those people who, despite the love and yearning for truth which they profess, curse the followers of Truth when once He hath been made manifest.... 

- Baha’u’llah  (‘Kitab-i-Iqan’; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, The Importance of Prayer, Meditation, and the Devotional Attitude)