Gratitude

Gratitude, appreciation, or thankfulness from the Latin word gratus "pleasing, thankful", is a feeling of appreciation felt by and/or similar positive response shown by the recipient of kindness, gifts, help, favors, or other types of generosity, to the giver of said gifts.

O Lord, that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness! ~ [William Shakespeare]

Quotes

• 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, Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer (2006)

• When prosperous the fool trembles for the evil that is to come; in adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had.
  • Ambrose Bierce, Epigrams, The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911), Volume 8, p. 371.

• Eradication of envy: gratitude.
  • Giannina Braschi, United States of Banana (2011).

Flag of the United States with "merci", the French word for "thank you", written on it, planted in front of a cross in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial

• Thank you for nothing.
  • Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote (1605-15), Part I, Book III, Chapter VIII.

• Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it, while there's time.
  • Dale Dauten, Cited in: Colleen Zuck etal. (2002) Daily Word for Families, p. 167.

• When I'm not thank'd at all, I'm thank'd enough,
  I've done my duty, and I've done no more.
  • Henry Fielding, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great (1730), Act I, scene 3.

• Don't mistake gratitude for love.
  • Esther Friesner, Harlot’s Ruse, (1986) ISBN 0-445-20208-4, p. 56

• Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.
  • Samuel Johnson, Tour to the Hebrides (Sept. 20, 1773).

• I am glad that he thanks God for anything.
  • Samuel Johnson, reported in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1775).

• While expressing gratitude seems innocent enough, it is a revolutionary idea. In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition. Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires. Gratitude cultivates an ethic of fullness, but the economy needs emptiness.
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions. 16 September 2013. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-57131-871-8. 

• Gratitude plants the seed for abundance.
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions. 16 September 2013. p. 376. ISBN 978-1-57131-871-8. 

• Cultures of gratitude must also be cultures of reciprocity. Each person, human or no, is bound to every other in a reciprocal relationship. Just as all beings have a duty to me, I have a duty to them. If an animal gives its life to feed me, I am in turn bound to support its life. If I receive a stream's gift of pure water, then I am responsible for returning a gift in kind. An integral part of a human's education is to know those duties and how to perform them.
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions. 16 September 2013. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-57131-871-8. 

• Gratitude doesn't send you out shopping to find satisfaction; it comes as a gift rather than a commodity, subverting the foundation of the whole economy. That's good medicine for land and people alike.
  • p. 111
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions. 16 September 2013. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-57131-871-8. 

• I’ve heard it said that sometimes, in return for the gifts of the earth, gratitude is enough. It is our uniquely human gift to express thanks, because we have the awareness and the collective memory to remember that the world could well be otherwise, less generous than it is. But I think we are called to go beyond cultures of gratitude, to once again become cultures of reciprocity.
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions. 16 September 2013. p. 189. ISBN 978-1-57131-871-8. 

• That kind of deep attention that we pay as children is something that I cherish, that I think we all can cherish and reclaim, because attention is that doorway to gratitude, the doorway to wonder, the doorway to reciprocity. And it worries me greatly that today’s children can recognize 100 corporate logos and fewer than 10 plants.
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer Interview on On Being podcast (2022)

• Feelings of love and gratitude arise directly and spontaneously in the baby in response to the love and care of his mother.
  • Melanie Klein (1937, p. 311) as cited in: David Mann (2013) Love and Hate: Psychoanalytic Perspectives. p. 79.

• Do not let the empty cup be your first teacher of the blessings you had when it was full. Do not let a hard place here and there in the bed destroy your rest. Seek, as a plain duty, to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.
  • Alexander Maclaren, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 290.

• A grateful mind
  By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
  Indebted and discharg'd.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book IV, line 55.

• Whoever does not express his gratitude to people will never be grateful to God.
  • Muhammad, reported in al-Tirmidhī, al-Ţabarānī, Musnad Ahmad, Musnad Abū Hanīfah, Musnad Abu Ya'la.

• The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims, Maxim 298 (1665–1678).

• Your bounty is beyond my speaking;
  But though my mouth be dumb, my heart shall thank you.
  • Nicholas Rowe, Jane Shore (1714), Act II, scene 1.

• Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give
  As one near death to those that wish him live.
  • William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1600s), Act II, scene 1, line 133.

• Now the good gods forbid
  That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
  Towards her deserved children is enroll'd
  In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam
  Should now eat up her own!
  • William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (c. 1607-08), Act III, scene 1, line 290.

• O Lord, that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (c. 1590-91), Act I, scene 1.

• Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass,
  But still remember what the Lord hath done.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (c. 1590-91), Act II, scene 1, line 85.

• Let but the commons hear this testament—
  Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—
  And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds
  And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
  Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
  And, dying, mention it within their wills,
  Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
  Unto their issue.
  • William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar (1599), Act III, scene 2, line 135.

• How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
  To have a thankless child.
  • William Shakespeare, King Lear (1608), Act I, scene 4, line 310.

• Thankfulness is the tune of angels.
  • Edmund Spenser, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 290.

• To receive honestly is the best thanks for a good thing.
  • George MacDonald, Mary Marston (1881), Chapter V.

• We can set our deeds to the music of a grateful heart, and seek to round our lives into a hymn — the melody of which will be recognized by all who come in contact with us, and the power of which shall not be evanescent, like the voice of the singer, but perennial, like the music of the spheres.
  • William Mackergo Taylor, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 290.

• The best way to be thankful is to use the goods the gods provide you.
  • Anthony Trollope, The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867), Vol. I, ch. 32.

• Did you ever think of the reason why the Psalms of David have come, like winged angels, down across all the realms and ages,— why they make the key-note of grateful piety in every Christian's soul, wherever he lives? Why? Because they are so full of gratitude. " Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men!"
  • Alphonso Albert Willits, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 290.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 336-37.

• If hush'd the loud whirlwind that ruffled the deep,
  The sky if no longer dark tempests deform;
  When our perils are past shall our gratitude sleep?
  No! Here's to the pilot that weather'd the storm!
  • George Canning, Song (on "Billy Pitt"); sung at a public dinner (May 28, 1802).

• Gratus animus est una virtus non solum maxima, sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum.
  • A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.
  • Cicero, Oratio Pro Cnæo Plancio, XXXIII.

• Praise the bridge that carried you over.
  • George Colman the Younger, Heir-at-Law, Act I, scene 1.

• Gratitude is expensive.
  • Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

• The still small voice of gratitude.
  • Thomas Gray, For Music, Stanza 5.

• The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.
  • François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxim, 298.

• La reconnaissance est la mémoire du cœur.
  • Gratitude is the memory of the heart.
  • Massieu to the Abbé Sicard.

• Gratia pro rebus merito debetur inemtis.
  • Thanks are justly due for things got without purchase.
  • Ovid, Amorum (16 BC), I, 10, 43.

• Conveniens homini est hominem servare voluptas.
  Et melius nulla quæritur arte favor.
  • It is a pleasure appropriate to man, for him to save a fellow-man, and gratitude is acquired in no better way.
  • Ovid, Epistolæ Ex Ponto, II. 9. 39.

• Th' unwilling gratitude of base mankind!
  • Alexander Pope, Second Book of Horace, Epistle I, line 14.

• Non est diuturna possessio in quam gladio ducimus; beneficiorum gratia sempiterna est.
  • That possession which we gain by the sword is not lasting; gratitude for benefits is eternal.
  • Quintus Curtius Rufus, De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, VIII, 8.,11.

• Qui gratus futurus est statim dum accipit de reddendo cogitet.
  • Let the man, who would be grateful, think of repaying a kindness, even while receiving it.
  • Seneca the Younger, De Beneficiis, II. 25.

• L'ingratitude attire les reproches comme la reconnaissance attire de nouveaux bienfaits.
  • Ingratitude calls forth reproaches as gratitude brings renewed kindnesses.
  • Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, Lettres.

• As we give thanks for the Earth, will we live in such a way that the Earth can be grateful for us?
  • Robin Wall Kimmerer Interview (2015)

• I've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds
  With coldness still returning;
  Alas! the gratitude of men
  Hath often left me mourning.
  • William Wordsworth, Simon Lee.

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 785.

• From too much love of living,
  From hope and fear set free,
  We thank with brief thanksgiving
  Whatever gods may be,
  That no life lives forever,
  That dead men rise up never;
  That even the weariest river
  Winds somewhere safe to sea.
  • Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Garden of Proserpine, Stanza 11.

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• "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." William Arthur Ward

• "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." G.K. Chesterton

• "'Enough' is a feast." Buddhist proverb

• "If you count all your assets, you always show a profit." Robert Quillen

• "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." Robert Brault

• "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

• "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." Charles Dickens

• "Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance." Eckhart Tolle

• "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

• "If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily." Gerald Good

• "Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie

• "The world has enough beautiful mountains and meadows, spectacular skies and serene lakes. It has enough lush forests, flowered fields, and sandy beaches. It has plenty of stars and the promise of a new sunrise and sunset every day. What the world needs more of is people to appreciate and enjoy it." Michael Josephson

• "Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy." Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

• The way to develop the best in a man is by appreciation and encouragement.
  • Charles Schwab, The Irish Digest, Volume 84, Number 1, p. 48. (1965)

• "He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has." Epictetus

• "At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer

• "The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated." William James

• "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." Oprah Winfrey

• "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

• "Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone." Gertrude Stein

• "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
  • The first two sentences are from William Taylor's English Synonyms Discriminated. --Hughh (talk) 16:39, 19 October 2016 (UTC)

• "You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late." Ralph Waldo Emerson

• "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." Willie Nelson

• "It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment." Naomi Williams

• "One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay 'in kind' somewhere else in life." Anne Morrow Lindbergh

• "Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out." John Wooden

• "No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude." Alfred North Whitehead

• "Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude." A.A. Milne

• "Forget yesterday--it has already forgotten you. Don't sweat tomorrow--you haven't even met. Instead, open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift--today." Steve Maraboli

• "We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count." Neal A. Maxwell

• "In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

• "The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you." John E. Southard

• "I truly believe we can either see the connections, celebrate them, and express gratitude for our blessings, or we can see life as a string of coincidences that have no meaning or connection. For me, I'm going to believe in miracles, celebrate life, rejoice in the views of eternity, and hope my choices will create a positive ripple effect in the lives of others. This is my choice." Mike Ericksen

• "Gratitude also opens your eyes to the limitless potential of the universe, while dissatisfaction closes your eyes to it." Stephen Richards

• "Gratitude and attitude are not challenges; they are choices." Robert Braathe

• "They both seemed to understand that describing it was beyond their powers, the gratitude that spreads through your body when a burden gets lifted, and the sense of homecoming that follows, when you suddenly remember what it feels like to be yourself." Tom Perrotta

• "Gratitude is more of a compliment to yourself than someone else." Raheel Farooq

• "Keep your eyes open and try to catch people in your company doing something right, then praise them for it." Tom Hopkins

• "In life, one has a choice to take one of two paths: to wait for some special day--or to celebrate each special day." Rasheed Ogunlaru

• "This a wonderful day. I've never seen this one before." Maya Angelou

• "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that1 what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." Epicurus

• "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." Marcus Tullius Cicero

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See also

• Benevolence
• Ethics
• Gift
• Manners
• Sharing
• Value (ethics)
• Worth

External links

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has an article about:

Gratitude

Commons

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Gratitude

• "How Radical Gratitude Can Help You Get Through Hard Times" by Daisy Luther (November 23, 2023)
• "Thanksgiving: When Gratitude Is In Short Supply" by Charles Hugh Smith (November 22, 2023)

Emotions
Adoration ~ Affection ~ Agony ~ Amusement ~ Anger ~ Anguish ~ Anxiety ~ Apathy ~ Awe ~ Boredom ~ Calmness ~ Cheerfulness ~ Compassion ~ Contempt ~ Contentment ~ Depression ~ Desire ~ Disappointment ~ Discontent ~ Disgust ~ Ecstasy ~ Embarrassment ~ Empathy ~ Enthusiasm ~ Envy ~ Euphoria ~ Fear ~ Gratitude ~ Grief ~ Guilt ~ Happiness ~ Hatred ~ Hope ~ Hostility ~ Humiliation ~ Impatience ~ Indignation ~ Insecurity ~ Jealousy ~ Joy ~ Loneliness ~ Loss ~ Love ~ Lust ~ Malice ~ Melancholy ~ Nostalgia ~ Panic ~ Passion ~ Pity ~ Pride ~ Rage ~ Regret ~ Remorse ~ Resentment ~ Sadness ~ Shame ~ Sorrow ~ Suffering ~ Surprise ~ Sympathy ~ Wonder ~ Worry

Virtues
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Vices
Aggression • Anger • Apathy • Arrogance • Bigotry • Contempt • Cowardice • Cruelty • Dishonesty • Drunkenness • Egotism • Envy • Evil speaking • Gluttony • Greed • Hatred • Hypocrisy • Idleness • Ignorance • Impatience • Impenitence • Ingratitude • Inhumanity • Intemperance • Jealousy • Laziness • Lust • Malice • Neglect • Obstinacy • Philistinism • Prejudice • Pretension • Pride • Recklessness • Self-righteousness • Selfishness • Superficiality • Tryphé • Unkindness • Usury • Vanity • Worldliness