quotations about gratitude
Gratitude is the memory of the heart.
GUILLAUME MASSIEU
attributed, Day's Collacon
And because gratitude is a form of joy, certainly we can give God not only our gratitude but also our praise, that his glory should be sufficient for our life and our joy.
ARTHUR C. MCGILL
Dying Unto Life
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.
THICH NHAT HANH
Peace Is Every Step
Thanks are justly due for things got without purchase.
OVID
Amorum
No metaphysician ever felt the deficiency of language so much as the grateful.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
The grateful heart will always find opportunities to show its gratitude.
AESOP
"The Ant and the Dove", Aesop's Fables
Gratitude is a right estimate of our relationship to God, to others, and to life itself, because gratitude is the recognition that no one is a solitary achiever, no one has accumulated success or wealth unaided. Every human being is a debtor.
J. ELLSWORTH KALAS
Longing to Pray
Gratitude is a motivator of altruistic action, according to Aquinas, because it entails thanking one's benefactors and generating a fitting and appropriate response.
ROBERT A. EMMONS
introduction, The Psychology of Gratitude
He who does not reflect his life back to God in gratitude does not know himself.
ALBERT SCHWEITZER
Reverence for Life
It seems somewhat odd, though, to suggest that gratitude is a moral duty because it appears to be of a different category than, say, the moral duty to tell the truth. Truth telling is an action originating in the speaker. Like gratitude, it requires another person (unless we think of telling oneself the truth as a moral duty). But unlike truth telling, gratitude involves not an overt but merely a subjective disposition. One can be grateful and do nothing (although gratitude can and often does imply some notion of reciprocity).
MARK T. MITCHELL
The Politics of Gratitude: Scale, Place & Community in a Global Age
As gratitude is a necessary, and a glorious virtue, so also it is an obvious, a cheap, and an easy one; so obvious that wherever there is life there is a place for it; so cheap, that the covetous man may be gratified without expense, and so easy that the sluggard may be so likewise without labor.
SENECA
Morals
Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.
C. S. LEWIS
The Screwtape Letters
Gratitude always comes into play; research shows that people are happier if they are grateful for the positive things in their lives, rather than worrying about what might be missing.
DAN BUETTNER
Thrive
Grateful persons resemble fertile fields, which always repay more than they receive.
JAMES CORNWELL
The Young Composer
A grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharg'd.
JOHN MILTON
Paradise Lost
Gratitude is a painful pleasure, felt and expressed by none but noble souls.
L. C. JUDSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
To receive honestly is the best thanks for a good thing.
GEORGE MACDONALD
Mary Marston
Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer.
MAYA ANGELOU
Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer
The gratitude of most men is only a secret desire to receive more favours.
FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
Moral Maxims
That man is most blessed, who receives his daily bread with gratitude and thankfulness from the hand of God; and he who does so, experiences a pleasure that exceeds description.
DAVID KALAKAUA
attributed, Day's Collacon