Gratitude is something that is easy to feel and think about around Thanksgiving—after all, that is what the holiday is all about. It’s a little difficult other times of the year, after the holidays have faded away and we have acclimated back into our day-to-day routines. But gratitude is an important and rewarding part of life and these quotes can help us reflect on gratitude all year round.
1. “The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.”
–Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld
2. “Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.”
–Samuel Johnson
3. "When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? No—here's to the pilot that weathered the storm."
–George Canning
4. “What soon grows old? Gratitude.”
–Aristotle
5. “Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,
The bee's collected treasures sweet,
Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet
The still small voice of gratitude.”
–Thomas Gray
6. “My life has crept so long on a broken wing
Thro’ cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear,
That I come to be grateful at last for a little thing.”
–Alfred Lord Tennyson
7. “One single grateful thought towards heaven, is the most perfect prayer.”
–Minna von Barnhelm
8. “Give up wanting to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking anybody can be grateful.”
–Catullus
9. “Friendships begin with liking or gratitude—roots that can be pulled up.”
–George Eliot
10. “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 for them, but because obligation is a pain.”
–Samuel Johnson
11. “A man's indebtedness is not virtue; his repayment is. Virtue begins when he dedicates himself actively to the job of gratitude.”
–Ruth Benedict
12. “Alas, how quickly the gratitude owed to the dead flows off, how quick to be proved a deceiver.”
–Sophocles
13. “Ambition breaks the ties of blood, and forgets the obligations of gratitude.”
–Sallust
14. “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
15. “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”
–Brian Tracy
16. “Friendship based solely upon gratitude is like a photograph; with time it fades.”
–Carmen Sylva
17. “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
–William Arthur Ward
18. “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”
–John Milton
19. “Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.”
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer
20. “Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect.”
–Jean Jacques Rousseau
Sources:
Bartlett, John. (2002). Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature. Little, Brown and Company.
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Oxford University Press.
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