Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Max out on turkey (or tofurky!), sink into a great book, and remember these quotes about gratitude from the wise literary greats. In a scary post-election world, let these expressions of love and appreciation support and guide you. Happy holidays.
“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.” 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
“Gratitude is like the good faith of traders: it maintains commerce, and we often pay, not because it is just to discharge our debts, but that we may more readily find people to trust us.” François de La Rochefoucauld
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” Voltaire
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” Epicurus
“The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.” Thornton Wilder
“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
“The world is 3 days: As for yesterday, it has vanished along with all that was in it. As for tomorrow, you may never see it. As for today, it is yours, so work on it.” Hasan of Basra
“You may believe anything that is good of a grateful man.” Thomas Fuller
“‘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
“Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.” Marcus Aurelius
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” Cicero
“Gratitude is the fruit of cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson
“No man has ever lived that had enough of children’s gratitude or woman’s love.” William Butler Yeats
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” Oscar Wilde
“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” Guillaume Apollinaire
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” Mark Twain
“A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things.” Plato
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity; it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” William Faulkner