An Attitude of Gratitude: 32 Quotes About Being Thankful
The importance of gratitude is one of the few things in life that almost everyone can agree on. We drill it into our kids. We preach it in our places of worship. We even have a major holiday devoted to it.
The only thing we don’t do very often is talk about why thankfulness is so important. Some might say that it’s a core value and leave it at that. However, others might argue that if we had a better understanding of gratitude, we might be more mindful of practicing it on a daily basis.
Thankfully, gratitude isn’t something we have to figure out on our own. It’s been the subject of many wise words over the years. The following list includes many of history’s best and most powerful quotes about being thankful.
- “O Lord that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.”
William Shakespeare
- “Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayer and worn with thanks.”
Thomas Goodwin
- “When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.”
Tecumseh
- “The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
William Blake
- “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
G.K. Chesterton
- “The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.”
Henry Ward Beecher
- “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
- “An attitude of gratitude brings great things.”
Yogi Bhajan
- “Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
Winnie-the-Pooh (A.A. Milne)
- “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”
John F. Kennedy
- “Give thanks for a little, and you will find a lot.”
Hausa Proverb
- “Rest and be thankful.”
William Wordsworth
- “Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.”
Margaret Cousins
- “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”
W.T. Purkiser
- “Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid but which none have a right to expect.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- “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
- “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.”
Henry David Thoreau
- “The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.”
Dalai Lama
- “Best of all is it to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song.”
Conrad Gessner
- “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
Thornton Wilder
- “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
William Arthur Ward
- “If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.”
W. Clement Stone
- “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”
James Allen
- “Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.”
Native American Saying
- “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
Cicero
- “For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee.”Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “Thank you is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.”
Alice Walker
- “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
Epictetus
- “Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live.”
Jacqueline Winspear
- “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorns have roses.”
Alphonse Karr
- “Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”
Maya Angelou
- “Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you liked these quotes about gratitude, be sure to share them with others – on Thanksgiving or any other time of year. We’re pretty sure people will thank you.
