quotations about gratitude
For the expectation of gratitude is mean, and is continually punished by the total insensibility of the obliged person. It is a great happiness to get off without injury and heart-burning from one who has had the ill-luck to be served by you. It is a very onerous business, this of being served, and the debtor naturally wishes to give you a slap.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Gifts", Essays
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, but because obligation is a pain.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The Life of Samuel Johnson
Gratitude is a second pleasure, one that prolongs the pleasure that precedes and occasions it, like a joyful echo of the joy we feel, a further happiness for the happiness we have been given.
ANDRE COMTE-SPONVILLE
A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues
O Lord, that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Henry VI, Part II
The expression of gratitude is a kind of metastrategy for achieving happiness. Gratitude is many things to many people. It is wonder; it is appreciation; it is looking at the bright side of a setback; it is fathoming abundance; it is thanking someone in your life; it is thanking God; it is "counting blessings." It is savoring; it is not taking things for granted; it is coping; it is present-oriented. Gratitude is an antidote to negative emotions, a neutralizer of envy, avarice, hostility, worry, and irritation. The average person, however, probably associates gratitude with saying thank you for a gift or benefit received. I invite you to consider a much broader definition.
SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY
The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want
Gratitude is a dynamic principle, one that makes us realize what we still have, even after so much has been taken. Gratitude is finding something to be grateful for, no matter how bad the situation is.
KATHLEEN O'HARA
A Grief Like No Other
You cannot ensure the gratitude of others for a favour conferred upon them in the way which is most agreeable to yourself.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude.
JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE
"Of the Affections", Les Caractères
Thankfulness is the tune of angels.
EDMUND SPENSER
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
Gratitude is a transformative energy. Gratitude doesn't just feel good, it affects the world around you. Gratitude is a weapon to be used against the villains of pain and unpleasantness. Gratitude is the sword of the spiritual superhero. If you are armed with true gratitude, you will soon become invincible in your spiritual journey through mortality. With gratitude you will bring a transformation to your own life and also cause a ripple effect that will help to bring about evolutionary change to the entire planet. Gratitude raises consciousness.
BRAD FLINDERS
The Evolving Soul
Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Tour to the Hebrides
Gratitude for the seemingly insignificant--a seed--this plants the giant miracle.
ANN VOSKAMP
One Thousand Gifts
Don't overload Gratitude; if you do, she'll kick.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1741
No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night.
ELIE WIESEL
Nobel acceptance speech, Dec. 10, 1986
It is not best to refine gratitude; it evaporates in the process of subtilization.
PIERRE NICOLE
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
The Light in the Heart
Gratitude is a sovereign antidote, changing wrath into grace.
RUMI
Discourses of Rumi
Whatever you appreciate and give thanks for will increase in your life.
SANAYA ROMAN
Living with Joy
When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.
MAYA ANGELOU
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Gratitude is a key component for personal happiness. People who are grateful about specific things in their past, who celebrate the triumphs, instead of focusing on losses or bitter disappointments, tend to be more satisfied in the present.
NINA LESOWITZ & MARY BETH SAMMONS
Living Life as a Thank You