Gratitude is more than just a simple “thank you;” it’s a transformative approach to life.
Maintaining a sense of thankfulness can shift our focus from what we lack to the abundance that already exists in our lives — creating a ripple effect of positivity.
Embracing gratitude can lead to greater happiness, better health, and stronger relationships. It’s backed by science and is a mindset that has been celebrated across cultures and philosophies for centuries.
Many wise individuals — from philosophers and spiritual leaders to activists and authors — have recognized the profound impact that gratitude can have on our well-being and overall life satisfaction.
Their words of wisdom serve as a source of inspiration for those of us looking to cultivate more gratitude in our daily lives.
Whether you’re well-practiced in the art of gratitude, celebrating Thanksgiving in November, or looking for ways to incorporate more gratitude into your daily life — these carefully curated quotes will help you recognize the good around you and inspire you to express thanks more often.
You might also like: The Ultimate List of Things To Be Grateful For
The Best Quotes About Gratitude
Famous Gratitude Quotes
“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.”
— Aesop
“Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration, moving you from negative energy to positive. It’s the quickest, easiest, most powerful way to effect change in your life — this I know for sure.”
— Oprah Winfrey, What I Know for Sure
“Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.”
— Rumi
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: It must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”
— William Faulkner
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. We must learn the lessons taught by the mistakes of others. We must recognize our own shortcomings.”
— John F. Kennedy
“Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.”
— C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before.”
— Maya Angelou
“Always have an attitude of gratitude.”
— Sterling K. Brown
“Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals. If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more.”
— Roy T. Bennett
“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
“I am happy because I’m grateful. I choose to be grateful. That gratitude allows me to be happy.”
— Will Arnett
“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 Brontë
“If you don’t think you have anything to be grateful for, keep looking. Because you don’t just receive optimism.
You can’t wait for things to be great and the be grateful for that. You’ve got to behave in a way that promotes that.”
— Michael J. Fox
Inspiring Quotes About Gratitude
“Gratitude is an antidote to negative emotions, a neutralizer of envy, hostility, worry, and irritation. It is savoring; it is not taking things for granted; it is present-oriented.”
— Sonja Lyubomirsky
“What an astonishment to breathe on this breathing planet. What a blessing to be Earth loving Earth.”
— John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed
“Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.”
— Henri Frederic Amiel
“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”
— Randy Pausch
“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written… Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”
— Oliver Sacks, Gratitude
“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
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
— Epictetus
“In your darkest hour, give thanks, for in due time, the morning will come. And it will come with a ray of sunshine.”
— Michael Bassey Johnson, Song of a Nature Lover
Kindness and Gratitude Quotes
“Each day brings new opportunities, allowing you to constantly live with love — be there for others — bring a little light into someone’s day. Be grateful and live each day to the fullest.”
— Kyo Maclear, Birds Art Life: A Year of Observation
“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
“No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.”
— Taylor Swift
“Gratitude is the sweetest thing in a seekers life — in all human life. If there is gratitude in your heart, then there will be tremendous sweetness in your eyes.”
— Sri Chinmoy
“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
— William Blake
“Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.”
— Barbara De Angelis
“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.”
— Buddha
“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.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
“Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the natural following of that impulse.”
— Henry Van Dyke
→ Read more quotes about kindness
For Kids
“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
— A.A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh
“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
— Maya Angelou
“Sometimes when you’re surrounded by dirt, CJ, you’re a better witness for what’s beautiful.”
— Matt de la Peña, Last Stop on Market Street
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
— William Arthur Ward
“Thank you for being there whenever I needed you.”
— Mo Willems, The Thank You Book
“The secret of saying thanks is this: there is always something to be thankful for.”
— Douglas Wood, The Secret of Saying Thanks
“Thank you, hands, for playing, for painting, for writing, and for giving a hand to someone who needs it.”
— Pat Mora, Gracias/Thanks
Gratitude Quotes for Life
“Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.”
— Eileen Caddy, Opening Doors Within
“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”
— G.K. Chesterton
“In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.”
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison
“It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.”
— Germany Kent
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
— Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
“I looked around and thought about my life. I felt grateful. I noticed every detail. That is the key to time travel. You can only move if you are actually in the moment. You have to be where you are to get where you need to go.”
— Amy Poehler
“Life is strange, beautiful, and terrifying…and I am thankful for every minute of it that I have had. I am thankful for every minute yet to come.”
— Benjamin W. Bass, Alone in the Light
→ Read more quotes about and for life
Gratitude Quotes for Friends
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
— Marcel Proust
“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Learn to remember you got great friends, don’t forget that and they will always care for you no matter what. Always remember to smile and look up at what you got in life.”
— Marilyn Monroe
“I think that real friendship always makes us feel such sweet gratitude, because the world almost always seems like a very hard desert, and the flowers that grow there seem to grow against such high odds.”
— Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”
— Albert Schweitzer
Self Gratitude Quotes
“Strive to find things to be thankful for, and just look for the good in who you are.”
— Bethany Hamilton
“Love is the miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives. I am not talking about vanity or arrogance… for that is not love. It is only fear. I am talking about having a great respect for ourselves and a gratitude for the miracle of our body and our mind.”
— Louise Hay
“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness — it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”
— Brené Brown
“My body is a garden rooted in gratitude. Thank you is the biggest poem I’ve got inside of me.”
— Sabrina Benaim, Depression & Other Magic Tricks
Short Gratitude Quotes
“Be grateful for each day, even the dark ones.”
— Pepper Winters, The Son & His Hope
“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.”
— Karl Barth
“What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.”
— Brené Brown
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”
— Willie Nelson
“Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.”
— Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.”
— Thornton Wilder
“Gratitude is the closest thing to beauty manifested in an emotion.”
— Mindy Kaling, Why Not Me
“Gratitude bestows reverence… changing forever how we experience life and the world.”
— John Milton
“The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.”
— Robert Holden
“Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning.”
— GZA
“Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.”
— Jacques Maritain
“So it is not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratefulness that makes us happy.”
— David Steindl-Rast, in a TED talk
“Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.”
— Gertrude Stein
“O Lord that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.”
— William Shakespeare
“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”
— Cynthia Ozick
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
— Voltaire
“The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see.”
— Mary Davis
“We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.”
— Neal A. Maxwell
“Gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things.”
— Rhonda Byrne
“The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.”
— William James
“We learned about gratitude and humility — that so many people had a hand in our success.”
— Michelle Obama
Funny Gratitude Quotes
“Gratitude is the wine for the soul. Go on. Get drunk.”
— Rumi
“I feel a very unusual sensation — if it’s not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.”
— Benhamin Disraeli
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.”
— Henry David Thoreau
“Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed.”
— Mark Twain
“So long, and thanks for all the fish.”
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
More Gratitude Quotes & Captions
“When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in.”
— Kristin Armstrong
“Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.”
— Alphonse Karr
“Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.”
— Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
“Whatever we are waiting for — peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance — it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.”
— Sarah Ban Breathnach
“i thank the universe
for taking
everything it has taken
and giving to me
everything it is giving
— balance”
— Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey
“I have learned over a period of time to be almost unconsciously grateful — as a child is — for a sunny day, blue water, flowers in a vase, a tree turning red. I have learned to be glad at dawn and when the sky is dark. Only children and a few spiritually evolved people are born to feel gratitude as naturally as they breathe, without even thinking. Most of us come to it step by painful step, to discover that gratitude is a form of acceptance.”
— Faith Baldwin
“My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean.”
— Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
— Charles Dickens
“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”
— James Herriot , All Creatures Great and Small
“When I pray, I always thank Mother Nature for all the beauty in the world. It’s about having an attitude of gratitude.”
— Miranda Kerr
“Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude.”
— Deepak Chopra
