Thanksgiving and gratitude quotes | The World of English

Thanksgiving and gratitude quotes, a collection of aphorisms for Thanksgiving Day to remind us the true and powerful effect of a genuine spirit of thankfulness.

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
Henry Van Dyke

Thanksgiving is the holiday that encompasses all others. All of them, from Martin Luther King Day to Arbor Day to Christmas to Valentine’s Day, are in one way or another about being thankful.
Jonathan Safran Foer

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanksgiving reminds us that no matter what befalls us in life, we can take the charred remnants, and we can reconstruct a life unimaginably richer than that from which the shards and pieces fell.
Craig D. Lounsbrough

Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have.
Catherine Pulsifer

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.
Aesop

There is nothing that can have a more powerful effect on your mental health than the spirit of thankfulness.
George E. Vandeman

Love is the true means by which the world is enjoyed: our love to others, and others love to us.
Thomas Traherne

In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Nothing more detestable does the earth produce than an ungrateful man.
Decimus Magnus Ausonius

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
G.K. Chesterton

We can no other answer make but thinks, and thanks and ever thanks.
William Shakespeare

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are.
Joyce Giraud

Forever on Thanksgiving Day the heart will find the pathway home.
Wilbur D. Nesbit

There is no better excess in the world than the excess of gratitude.
Jean de La Bruyère

Hope my relatives are getting along with the professional line sitter I hired to hold my place at the front of the Thanksgiving food line.
John Lyon

The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.
Norman Vincent Peale

If you can’t be thankful for what you receive, be thankful for what you escape.
Anonymous

Thanksgiving … that is all about overeating. One of the main dishes is actually called ‘stuffing.’ Stuffing? What names did they turn down? ‘Cram-it-in?’ ‘Eat-till-you-can’t-breathe?’
Jim Gaffigan

What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it ‘Thanksgiving?’
Erma Bombeck

I love spending Thanksgiving surrounded by all these great friends I met in the Best Buy parking lot.
John Lyon

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie

Gratitude is a humble emotion. It expresses itself… not for the gifts of this day only, but for the day itself; not for what we believe will be ours in the future, but for the bounty of the past
Faith Baldwin

Our Father, let the spirit of gratitude so prevail in our hearts that we may manifest thy Spirit in our lives.
W.B. Slack

You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.
Jay Leno

On Thanksgiving Day, we acknowledge our dependence.
William Jennings Bryan

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens

Simple blessings are all around us. Once we receive them with thanksgiving and appreciation, we experience true joy.
Krystal Kuehn

Let us thank God heartily as often as we pray that we have His Spirit in us to teach us to pray. Thanksgiving will draw our hearts out to God and keep us engaged with Him; it will take our attention from ourselves and give the Spirit room in our hearts.
Andrew Murray

Ingratitude is treason to mankind.
James Thomson

Fear of trouble, present and future, often blinds us to the numerous small blessings we enjoy, silencing our prayers of praise and thanksgiving.
Anonymous

What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?
Erma Bombeck

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving.
The Holy Bible

Even though we’re a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Richard Roeper

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.
William A. Ward

Every Thanksgiving I bring the champagne, because in my family we all know what our strengths are.
Gloria Fallon

A person doesn’t know how much he has to be thankful for until he has to pay taxes on it.
Anonymous

Swift gratitude is the sweetest.
Greek Proverb

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’m from Canada, so Thanksgiving to me is just Thursday with more food. And I’m thankful for that.
Howie Mandel

It is when we stop thinking about what we don’t have or what we lack, and become grateful for who we are, that we can gain access to true unlimited inspiration.
Frank Arrigazzi

A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen.
Kin Hubbard

One ungrateful man does an injury to all who stand in need of aid.
Publilius Syrus

Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare. They are consumed in 12 minutes. Halftimes take 12 minutes. This is not a coincidence.
Erma Bombeck

We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.
H.A. Ironside

On Thanksgiving Day, all over America, families sit down to dinner at the same moment – half-time.
Anonymous

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
Oprah Winfrey

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.
Ernest Hemingway

If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken.
Ina Garten

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season, and represents food, family and moments of sharing and professing gratitude. Best restaurants near me
Sarah Moore

The gratitude of most men is nothing more than a secret desire of receiving even greater benefits.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

He who thanks but with the lips thanks but in part; the full, the true Thanksgiving comes from the heart.
J.A. Shedd

Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain.
Alexander Pope

I can’t cook a Thanksgiving dinner. All I can make is cold cereal and maybe toast.
Charlie Brown

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our Thanksgiving.
W.T. Purkiser

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.
Henry Ward Beecher

Thanksgiving is a time to give, a time to love, and a time to reflect on the things that matter most in life.
Danielle Duckery

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.
Henry David Thoreau

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Thanksgiving day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.
E.P. Powell

What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?
Erma Bombeck

My mom makes something called green pie, which I thought was a delicacy that many people only had at Thanksgiving, but it turns out it was just Jello with whipped cream on it. And it’s delicious.
Bobby Moynihan

Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.
Amy Grant

Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.
Willard Scott

Coexistence: What the farmer does with the turkeyuntil Thanksgiving.
Mike Connolly

He is not rich that possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is not poor that enjoys little, but he that wants too much.
Francis Beaumont

A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
Henry Ward Beecher

Grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years — a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds.
Stephen Vincent Benet

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that thankfulness is indeed a virtue.
William John Bennett

Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart — a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water — I accept with joy.
Bhagavad Gita

You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.
William Blake

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.
Ralph H. Blum

Be glad today. Tomorrow may bring tears. Be brave today. The darkest night will pass. And golden rays will usher in the dawn.
Sarah Knowles Bolton

Next to ingratitude the most painful thing to bear is gratitude.
Henry Ward Beecher

It is only when the whole heart is gripped with the passion of prayer that the life-giving fire descends, for none but the earnest man gets access to the ear of God.
E.M. Bounds

Grace is available for each of us every day – our spiritual daily bread – but we’ve got to remember to ask for it with a grateful heart and not worry about whether there will be enough for tomorrow.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers.
Thomas B. Brooks

Look, as a painted man is no man, and as painted fire is no fire, so a cold prayer is no prayer.
Thomas B. Brooks

If you want an accounting of your worth, count your friends.
Merry Browne

This race is never grateful: from the first, One fills their cup at supper with pure wine, Which back they give at cross-time on a sponge, In bitter vinegar.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Gratitude to benefactors is a well-recognized virtue, and to express it in some form or other, however imperfectly, is a duty to ourselves as well as to those who have helped us.
Frederick Douglass

Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings you and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.
Eileen Caddy

Remember that not to be happy is not to be grateful.
Elizabeth Carter

Leave off wishing to deserve any thanks from anyone, thinking that anyone can ever become grateful.
Galius Valerius Catullus

He who receives a good turn should never forget it; he who does one should never remember it. He who receives a benefit should never forget it; he who bestows it should never remember it.
Pierre Cbarron

Non-cooks think it’s silly to invest two hours’ work in two minutes’ enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet.
Julia Child

Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.
Northrup Christiane

There is no quality I would rather have, and be thought to have, than gratitude. For it is not only the greatest virtue, but is the mother of all the rest.
Marcus T. Cicero

If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.
Frank A. Clark

Let’s choose today to quench our thirst for the “good life” we thinks others lead by acknowledging the good that already exists in our lives. We can then offer the universe the gift of our grateful hearts.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

All good things of this world are no further good than as they are of use; and whatever we may heap up to give others, we enjoy only as much as we can make useful to ourselves and others, and no more.
Daniel Defoe

To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach.
Demosthenes

Thanksgiving: when the people who are the most thankful are the ones who didn’t have to cook.
Melanie White

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens

Glee! The great storm is over!
Emily Dickinson

Deficiency motivation doesn’t work. It will lead to a lifelong pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are.
Wayne Dyer

Gratitude is a twofold love – love coming to visit us, and love running out to greet a welcome guest.
Henry Van Dyke

Just because you like my stuff doesn’t mean I owe you anything.
Bob Dylan

If the only prayer you say in your whole life is “Thank you,” that would suffice.
Meister Eckhart

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sufficiency’s enough for men of sense.
Euripides

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
Epicurus

Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude constantly is having to accept it.
William Faulkner

Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep.
Felix Frankfurter

Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones — with ingratitude.
Benjamin Franklin

When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.
Benjamin Franklin

Eaten bread is soon forgotten.
Thomas Fuller

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.
Johannes A. Gaertner

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.
Edward Gibbon

That’s the trouble with directors. Always biting the hand that lays the golden egg.
Samuel Goldwyn

Every dog has its day, but it’s not every dog that knows when he’s having it.
Winifred Gordon

Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.
Baltasar Gracian

For today and its blessings, I owe the world an attitude of gratitude.
Clarence E. Hodges

Of all the people in the world, those who want the most are those who have the most.
David Grayson

After my mother’s death, I began to see her as she had really been…. It was less like losing someone than discovering someone.
Nancy Hale

Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be bought. It must be born with men, or else all the obligations in the world will not create it.
Edward F. Halifax

How few are our real wants, and how easy is it to satisfy them! Our imaginary ones are boundless and insatiable.
Julius Charles Hare

The public have neither shame or gratitude.
William Hazlitt

The past with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be.
Lillian Hellman

True thanksgiving means that we need to thank God for what He has done for us, and not to tell Him what we have done for Him.
George R. Hendrick

Thou who has given so much to me, give one thing more: a grateful heart.
George Herbert

Who covets more is evermore a slave.
Robert Herrick

Enough is as good as a feast.
John Heywood

There is satiety in all things, in sleep, and love-making, in the loveliness of singing and the innocent dance.
Homer

Let him who has enough wish for nothing more.
Horace

To stand on one leg and prove God’s existence is a very different thing from going down on one’s knees and thanking him.
Soren Kierkegaard

Every professional athlete owes a debt of gratitude to the fans and management, and pays an installment every time he plays. He should never miss a payment.
Bobby Hull

The average man is rich enough when he has a little more than he has got.
Dean William R. Inge

There must be fired affections before our prayers will go up.
William Jenkyn

A harbor, even if it is a little harbor, is a good thing…. It takes something from the world, and has something to give in return.
Sarah Orne Jewett

Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
Samuel Johnson

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.
Samuel Johnson

So much has been given to me; I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.
Helen Keller

I’ve had an exciting life; I married for love and got a little money along with it.
Rose F. Kennedy

Gratitude is a useless word. You will find it in a dictionary but not in life.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Do you realize what this means? The fact of being alive… I still find it staggering that I am here at all.
Christopher Leach

There is a certain kind of lively gratitude that not only releases us fro benefits we received, but also becomes a return payment to our friend that makes them become indebted to us.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Too great a hurry to discharge an obligation is a kind of ingratitude.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

We find very few ungrateful people when we are able to confer favors.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean.
Anne Lamott

Man needs so little… yet he begins wanting so much.
Louis L’Amour

We think that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.
Walter Savage Landor

Too much is unwholesome.
Georg C. Lichtenberg

One can get just as much exultation in losing oneself in a little thing as in a big thing. It is nice to think how one can be recklessly lost in a daisy.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay “in kind” somewhere else in life.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day, which must be done, whether you like it or not.
James Russell Lowell

Were a man to order his life by the rules of true reason, a frugal substance joined to a contented mind is for him great riches.
Lucretius

Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.
Jacques Maritain

Let me burn out for God… prayer is the great thing. Oh, that I may be a man of prayer!
Henry Martyn

What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want.
Mignon McLaughlin

Fortunate are the people whose roots are deep.
Agnes Meyer

Nothing purchased can come close to the renewed sense of gratitude for having family and friends.
Courtland Milloy

There is so much in the world for us all if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful.
Lucy Maud Montgomery

I look back on my life like a good day’s work; it was done and I am satisfied with it.
Grandma Moses

When you consider everything we have is a gift from God, it’s amazing how little gratitude we show. Giving to others is such a small way to say thank you.
Charles L. Overby

Gratitude – the meanest and most sniveling attribute in the world.
Dorothy Parker

The good Lord has been good to me, and I am trying to return the favor. I just want to do as much good in the world as I can.
Milton Petrie

We may as well not pray at all as offer our prayers in a lifeless manner.
William S. Plumer

When I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generosity if he were rich.
Alexander Pope

Half a loaf is better than none.
Australian Proverb

We never know the worth of water until the well is dry.
English Proverb

Ingratitude is a kind of weakness; the clever are never ungrateful.
French Proverb

A hungry ass keeps her kicking end down.
Irish Proverb

Get down on your knees and thank God you’re still on your feet.
Irish Proverb

Better a mouse in the pot than no stew at all.
Italian Proverb

I might have lost my ring, but I still have my fingers!
Italian Proverb

Man never has what he wants, because what he wants is everything.
C.F. Ramuz