Spring Sale! Get 50% off your PLUS subscription. Use code SPRING

34 Favorite Thanksgiving Quotes to Experience Gratitude Today and All Days

34 Favorite Thanksgiving Quotes to Experience Gratitude Today and All Days

We are thrilled to share with you our 34 favorite thanksgiving quotes! Whether it’s the Thanksgiving Day holiday or any day of the year that you want to experience a heart full of thanks, these quotes will surely inspire gratitude. The reason holiday can get lost in the busyness of food, family and football. Start Thanksgiving day off right by reflecting on both the blessings and struggles that have brought you growth and wisdom. Share these quotes with your friends and family or write them down to remind yourself to give thanks in all things!

Thanksgiving Day Quotes 

1. "Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude." - E.P. Powell

2. "Our rural ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labor when the end was rest,
Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,
With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain." - Alexander Pope

3. "Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action." - W.J. Cameron

4. "So once in every year we throng
Upon a day apart,
To praise the Lord with feast and song
In thankfulness of heart." - Arthur Guiterman

5. "The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added... No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union." - President Abraham Lincoln: Proclamation of Thanksgiving

gratitude thanksgiving quote

To help you in thanking God, we created a 30 Days of Gratitude Prayer Guide HERE. Download and print this guide to keep with you as a reminder of God's love and promises.

Quotes About Gratitude

6. "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

7. "I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual." - Henry David Thoreau

8. "We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction."  - Harry Ironside

9. "There should be a parallel between our supplications and our thanksgivings. We ought not to leap in prayer, and limp in praise." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

10. "Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now." - A.W. Tozer

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

12. "The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings." - Henry Ward Beecher

13. "The Christian who walks with the Lord and keeps constant communion with Him will see many reason for rejoicing and thanksgiving all day long." - Warren W. Wiersbe

14. "Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." - Melody Beattie

15. "Careful for nothing, prayerful for everything, thankful for anything." - Dwight L. Moody

16. "Each day is a gift from God. What you do with it is your gift to Him." - T.D. Jakes

17. "God wants to see prayers that are filled with genuine praise and thanksgiving for what He has done in the past. He wants our hearts to be filled with awe and gratitude for His blessings. He wants us to set up memorials in our hearts testifying to the provisions He has given us." - Michael Youssef

18. "We can always find something to be thankful for, and there may be reasons why we ought to be thankful for even those dispensations which appear dark and frowning." - Albert Barnes

19. "The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!" - Henry Ward Beecher

20. "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

21. "As you keep your mind and heart focused in the right direction, approaching each day with faith and gratitude, I believe you will be empowered to live life to the fullest and enjoy the abundant life He has promised you!" - Victoria Osteen

22. "Of all the characteristics needed for both a happy and morally decent life, none surpasses gratitude. Grateful people are happier, and grateful people are more morally decent." - Dennis Prager

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Quotes

23. "Thanksgiving is a very important holiday. Ours was the first country in the world to make a national holiday to give thanks." - Linus

24. "Isn't it peculiar, Charlie Brown, how some traditions just slowly fade away?" - Lucy

25. "But Thanksgiving is more than eating, Chuck. You heard what Linus was saying out there. Those pilgrims were thankful for what had happened to them, and we should be thankful, too. We should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown." - Marcy

26. "In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian chief Massasoit, who brought ninety of his brave Indians and a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captain Miles Standish were honored guests. Elder William Brewster, who was a minister, said a prayer that went something like this: 'We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice." - Linus' Thanksgiving prayer

Biblical Thanksgiving Quotes

Scripture is filled with reminders of how much we have to be thankful for. Here are just a few of our favorite Bible verses on giving thanks. You can read more Thanksgiving Bible verses at BibleStudyTools.com

27. "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

28. "The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad." - Psalm 118:24

29. "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever." Psalm 136:1

30. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

31. "Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation. Psalm 50:23

32. "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever, his faithfulness continues through all generations." - Psalm 100

give thanks thanksgiving quote

Related Articles 

Thanksgiving Prayers to Encourage and Inspire - We would love to encourage you and help you along the way toward greater hope and joy! Start living out the promises of God that Jesus came "that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Thanksgivings Greatest Enemy - When thanksgiving's enemy comes knowing at your door, what will you do? If you let him in, he will only multiply, and soon fill the table of your heart. If you close the door and give thanks for what you already have through Christ, discontentment and ingratitude will slink away and disappear, and gratitude will abound...

How to Pray for People You are Not Thankful For - This thanksgiving consider a new tradition. Bring the most difficult people in your life before the Father...

How to Have a Thankful Heart Through Difficult Times - God understands that thankfulness is not always (or usually) a gut-reaction for us. Even Jesus struggled to thankfully accept God's plan of salvation while He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, preparing to go through the agony of the cross...

1 Thing Christians Forget to be Thankful For - Why would I be thankful for these things? These horrible, depressing times of life? Because one thing: They brought me closer to Jesus...

The Power of Gratitude: 21 Verses of Thanks to God - God's Word is filled with many reminders of how powerful and vital and thankful heart can be in this world...


This article is part of our larger Inspiring Quotes resource meant to encourage and strengthen your faith. Visit our most popular quotes by well known Christians and theologians to find more inspiration. Remember, the Holy Spirit can work through us when we have faith and share it with others! Please pass along any quotes that touch your heart because you never know light you’ll shine on someone else’s dark day!