Inspirational Quotes for Thanksgiving ~ Gratitude
At this time of year we reflect on the things we are thankful and ideally share those thoughts with friends and family. It is sometimes difficult to express our ideas and feelings when it comes to gratitude, so we can turn to others that have been able to put into words, both simple and eloquent, what it means to be grateful.
My favorite quotes on gratitude:
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget
that the highest appreciation is not to utter words,
but to live by them.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
We should all be thankful for
those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
Albert Schweitzer
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought,
and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
G. K. Chesterton
- Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.
These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
Joseph Addison
Some people are always grumbling
because roses have thorns;
I am thankful
that thorns have roses.
Alphonse Karr
You cannot do a kindness too soon
because you never know how soon it will be too late.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let us rise up and be thankful,
for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little,
and if we didn't learn a little,
at least we didn't get sick,
and if we got sick, at least we didn't die;
so, let us all be thankful.
- The Buddha
No one is useless in this world
who lightens the burden of another.
Charles Dickens
The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies;
but let the thankful heart
sweep through the day and,
as the magnet finds the iron,
so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!
Henry Ward Beecher
To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude
means to take nothing for granted,
but to always seek out and value
the kind that will stand behind the action.
Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course.
Everything originates in a will for the good,
which is directed at you.
Train yourself never to put off
the word or action for the expression of gratitude.
Albert Schweitzer
When I started counting my blessings,
my whole life turned around.
Willie Nelson
If you haven’t all the things you want,
be grateful for the things you don’t have
that you wouldn’t want.
Unknown
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
He is a wise man who does not grieve
for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for those which he has.
Epictetus
Blessed are those that can give without remembering
and receive without forgetting.
Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.
Jacques Maritain (1882 - 1973)
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues,
but the parent of all the others.
Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed
in the same moment.
Naomi Williams
If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation,
you will discover that your life will
suddenly be filled with gratitude,
a feeling that nurtures the soul.
Rabbi Harold Kushner
Make it a habit to tell people thank you.
To express your appreciation,
sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return.
Truly appreciate those around you,
and you'll soon find many others around you.
Truly appreciate life, and you'll find that you have more of it.
Ralph Marston
Gratitude is the moral memory of mankind.
Georg Simmel (1858-1918)
A noble person is mindful and thankful for the favors
he receives from others.
the Buddha
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.
These are but trifles, to be sure;
but, scattered along life's pathway,
the good they do is inconceivable.
Joseph Addison
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners
who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust
Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.
G. B. Stern
To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude,
when it is not in our power to repay it.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
One can never pay in gratitude;
one can only pay "in kind" somewhere else in life . . .
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
To live a life of gratitude
is to open our eyes to the countless ways
in which we are supported by the world around us.
Such a life provides less space for our suffering
because our attention is more balanced.
We are more often occupied
with noticing what we are given,
thanking those who have helped us,
and repaying the world in some concrete way
for what we are receiving.
Gregg Krech
Gratitude is something of which
none of us can give too much.
For on the smiles, the thanks we give,
our little gestures of appreciation,
our neighbors build their philosophy of life.
A. J. Cronin
There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.
Ralph H. Blum
People who live the most fulfilling lives
are the ones who are always rejoicing at what they have.
Richard Carlson, PhD
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,
Things turn out best for people who make the best
of the way things turn out.
John Wooden
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Gandhi
People usually consider walking on water
or in thin air a miracle.
But I think the real miracle
is not to walk either on water or in thin air,
but to walk on earth.
Every day we are engaged in a miracle
which we don't even recognize:
a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves,
the black, curious eyes of a child--
our own two eyes.
All is a miracle."
Thich Nhat Hanh
To be happy at home
is the ultimate result of all ambition.
Samuel Johnson
Live all you can. It's a mistake not to.
It doesn't much matter what you do in particular,
so much as you LIVE while you're doing it.
Henry James
How easily we can forget how precious life is!
So long as we can remember, we've just been here, being alive.
Unlike other things for which we have a good comparison--
black to white, day to night, good to bad--
we are so immersed in life that we can see it
only in the context of itself.
We don't see life as compared to anything,
to not-being, for example, to never having been born.
Life just is. But life itself is a gift.
It's a compliment just being born:
to feel, breathe, think, play, dance, sing,
work, make love, for this particular lifetime.
Today, let's give thanks for life.
For life itself. For simply being born!
Daphne Rose Kingma
... success or failure, the truth of a life really has little
to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion,
always, to the capacity for delight.
The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.
Julia Cameron
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs.
He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
Phillip James Bailey
The best and most beautiful things in this world
cannot be seen or even heard,
but must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
Let us be kinder to one another.
Aldous Huxley, on his deathbed
