These Thanksgiving Quotes include thankful quotes to remind you what truly matters during this season. Thanksgiving is about showing gratitude and being thankful. Here are some quotes to remind you why you should feel thankfulness in your heart and soul.
Also, check out our Printable Thanksgiving Dinner Scavenger Hunt! Your kids will love it!
Thanksgiving Quotes
Thanksgiving is the beginning of the hustle and bustle season, especially for parents. There are so many things on our to-do lists that need to be done, shopped for, cooked, decorated, baked, made, and wrapped. Things get so hectic and chaotic that the true essence of the holidays can easily be forgotten.
Being thankful is an important characteristic to teach our children. Some of these quotes may help you articulate the importance of gratitude to them whilst also serving as an inspirational reminder to us.
Be sure to check out my Quotes About Loving Children as well!
Research On Gratitude + It’s Benefits
“Gratitude is a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives” (Harvard Health Publishing)
Gratitude is beneficial for anyone in the world. Research shows that having a sense of constant gratitude can increase happiness on a daily basis. Giving thanks can help anyone feel emotions that are positive, enjoy experiences, reduce stress, strengthen relationships and even improve health.
“Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” – Giving Thanks Can Make You Happier.
Being Grateful Quotes
1. “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.” – Tony Snow
2. “Gratitude opens the door, the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
3. “In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” – Willie Nelson
4. “When I started counting blessings, my whole world changed.” – Willie Nelson
5. “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
6. “Even in the trials of life, if we have eyes to see them, we can find good things everywhere we look.” – Joana Gaines
7. “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 Angelo
8. “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” – Ralph Waldo Emmerson
9. “Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” – Voltaire
10. “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.” – Unknown
11. “For my part, I am almost contented just now, and very thankful. Gratitude is a divine emotion: it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever.” – Charlotte Bronte
12. “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” – Unknown
13. “The heart that gives thanks is a happy one, for we cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time.” – Douglas Wood
14. “Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.” – Remi
15. “We are all more blind to what we have than to what we have not.” – Adre Lorde
16. “‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.” – Unknown
17. “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.” – Melodie Beatie
18. “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 Giruad
19. “When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup.” – Sam Lefkowitz
20. “When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton
21. “Let me encourage you to get up every day and focus on what you do have in life. Be thankful for the blessings of the little things, even when you don’t get what you expect.” – Victoria Osteen
22. “I’m thankful for every moment.” —Al Green
23. “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson.
24. “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
25. “If you think Independence Day is America’s defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands down.” —Tony Snow
26. “If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” —W. Clement Stone. Here are some key reasons to be grateful this Thanksgiving.
27. “Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.” —Amy Grant.
28. “Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it is important when you need it.” —Franz Grillparzer.
29. “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.
30. “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.
31. “We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” —Friedrich Koenig
32. “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” —Willie Nelson
33. “The more we express thanks, the more gratitude we feel. The more gratitude we feel, the more we express thanks. It’s circular and it leads to a happier life.” —Steve Goodier
34. “Reflect upon your present blessings.” —Charles Dickens.
35. “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” —Marcel Proust
36. “Thanksgiving creates abundance.” —Ann Voskamp
37. “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you‘?” —William Arthur Ward
38. “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.” —Melody Beattie.
39. “We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.” —Harry A. Ironside
40. “Thanks are the highest form of thought.” —Gilbert K. Chesterton
41. “Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.” —Nigel Hamilton
42. “No one has ever become poor by giving.” —Anne Frank
43. “Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last.” —Lawrence Welk
44. “There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.” —O. Henry
45. “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our Thanksgiving.” —W.T. Purkiser
46. “To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.” —Victor Hugo
47. “Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.” —Willard Scott
48. “Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast.” —Melody Beattie
49. “The thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.” —Henry Ward Beecher
50. “Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.” —Edwin Arlington Robinson
51. “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” —James Allen
52. “Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet. Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place. There is not, and there never has been, a better time or a better place to live in.” —Phillips Brooks
53. “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
54. “Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” —W.J. Camern
55. “Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” —Aesop
56. “Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.” —Seneca the Younger.
57. “Dear Lord, I’m so grateful I’m still loved.” —Vivien Leigh.
58. “Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” —Margaret Cousins
59. “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all the others.” —Marcus Tullius Cicero
60. “There’s no happier person than a truly thankful, content person.” —Joyce Meyer
61. “Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” —Maya Angelou.
Thanksgiving Dinner Quotes
62. “I’ve been giving back since I was a teen, handing out turkeys at Thanksgiving and handing out toys at toys drives for Christmas. It’s very important to give back as a youth. It’s as simple as helping an old lady across the street or giving up your seat on the bus for someone who is pregnant.” – Meghan Markle
63. “My parents came from little, so they made a choice to give a lot: buying turkeys for homeless shelters at Thanksgiving, delivering meals to people in hospices, giving spare change to those asking for it” – Brené Brown
64. “In many ways, September feels like the busiest time of the year: The kids go back to school, work piles up after the summer’s dog days, and Thanksgiving is suddenly upon us.” – Michael Symon
65. “My restaurants are never opened on Thanksgiving; I want my staff to spend time with their family if they can. My feeling is, if I can’t figure out how to make money the rest of the year so that my workers can enjoy the holidays, then I don’t deserve to be an owner.” – Beth Ditto
66. “As a kid, I was always mad — just noticing the women at Thanksgiving, running around the kitchen, while the men were watching football. For one, I don’t want to cook, and for two, I hate football. I was stuck in the middle.” – Marcus Samuelsson
67. “I love Thanksgiving because it’s a holiday that is centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.” – Debby Ryan
68. “Every Thanksgiving, we all write down three things we’re thankful for and put them in a hat. Then we pass the hat around the dinner table and everyone has to guess who wrote what!” – Tinashe
69. “The earliest you can play Christmas music is on Thanksgiving.” – Danny Meyer
70. “There are three things that people pick up on the instant they walk into your home on Thanksgiving. they will be able to feel the human energy. They’ll smell the food. And they will see, instantly, the table. – Guy Fieri
71. “We’re getting ready to sit down at the table and have Thanksgiving, and there’s people that are not with their families. There are people that are in dangerous areas, putting their lives on the line to keep our country free, and I think that’s something we should all celebrate every day.” – Joseph B. Wirthlin
72. “Some memories are unforgettable, remaining ever vivid and heartwarming!” – Emily Wickersham
73. “I’m not the best in the kitchen, but if someone gives me something to do, I can do it. I’m a good teammate. Come Thanksgiving time, I kind of just do what my mom tells me to.” – Daniel Humm
74. “What I love about Thanksgiving is that it’s purely about getting together with friends and family and enjoying food. It’s really for everybody, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from.” – Ted All
75. “What I love about Thanksgiving is that it’s purely about getting together with friends or family and enjoying food It’s really for everybody, and it doesn’t matter where you’re from.” —Daniel Humm
76. “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
77. “Every Thanksgiving I bring the champagne, because in my family we all know what our strengths are.” — Gloria Fallon
78. “I love spending Thanksgiving surrounded by all these great friends I met in the Best Buy parking lot.” — John Lyon
79. “Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! It’s the day you forget about all the fighting and division in the world and just focus on all the fighting and division in your family.” — Jimmy Fallon
80. “Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too much.” — Johnny Carson
81. “The average time for eating a Thanksgiving dinner is 12 minutes, which, incidentally, coincides with halftime.” — Erma Bombeck
82. “Thanksgiving. It’s like we didn’t even try to come up with a tradition. The tradition is, we overeat. ‘Hey, how about at Thanksgiving we just eat a lot?’ ‘But we do that everyday!’ ‘Oh. What if we eat a lot with people that annoy the hell out of us?’” — Jim Gaffigan
83. “Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.” — Kevin James
84. “I love Thanksgiving traditions: watching football, making pumpkin pie and saying the magic phrase that sends your aunt storming out of the dining room to sit in her car.” — Stephen Colbert
How To Add Gratitude To Each Day
If you want a reminder to spend some time being thankful for things around you, check out the Five Minute Journal.
