Gratitude & Thank You Quotes for Letters
Gratitude is easy to feel and strangely hard to deliver. A good quote gives your thank-you letter a doorway in. Here are 100 free quotes about gratitude — copy one for a card, or use it to open a letter to the person who deserves a real thank-you.
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Why thank-you letters are the most skipped
Nearly everyone can name a person who changed the direction of their life — a teacher, a manager, a friend's parent. Almost nobody tells them, usually on the assumption that it is too late, that others have surely said it, or that they will not be remembered. All three assumptions are generally wrong, and the letter is generally kept.
How to make gratitude specific
General thanks evaporate. Name the thing that happened, name what you did next because of it, and name where you are now. That three-part shape converts a compliment into evidence — it shows the person a consequence they did not know existed, which is what makes these letters land the way they do.
It is not too late
Late thanks are not diminished by the delay; if anything the delay is the point, because it demonstrates that the thing lasted. A letter arriving fifteen years after the fact says something a prompt one cannot. Our guide to writing a thank-you letter to a teacher covers the structure, and it applies to anyone.
100 gratitude quotes
“Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness. It's the spark that lights a fire of joy in your soul.”
— Amy Collette
“Gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things.”
— Rhonda Byrne
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
— Cicero
“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
— A.A. Milne
“When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.”
— Dalai Lama
“Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.”
— Kahlil Gibran
“Learn to be thankful for what you already have, while you pursue all that you want.”
— Jim Rohn
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
— Charles Dickens
“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say 'thank you'?”
— William Arthur Ward
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
— Voltaire
“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”
— John F. Kennedy
“Gratitude is a divine emotion: it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever.”
— Charlotte Bronte
“True forgiveness is when you can say, 'Thank you for that experience.'”
— Oprah Winfrey
“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer.”
— Maya Angelou
“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.”
— Lionel Hampton
“Take full account of what excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.”
— Marcus Aurelius
“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
“Gratitude is one of the strongest and most transformative states of being.”
— Jen Sincero
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
— Thornton Wilder
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”
— Willie Nelson
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
— G.K. Chesterton
“Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.”
— John Wooden
“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
— Melody Beattie
“Gratitude, like faith, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows.”
— Alan Cohen
“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.”
— Cynthia Ozick
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
— Marcel Proust
“Got no checkbooks, got no banks. Still I'd like to express my thanks. I got the sun in the mornin' and the moon at night.”
— Irving Berlin
“Appreciation can change a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.”
— Margaret Cousins
“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”
— W.T. Purkiser
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.”
— Melody Beattie
“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
“The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.”
— William James
“Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.”
— Fred De Witt Van Amburgh
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.”
— Melody Beattie
“Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation.”
— John Ortberg
“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.”
— Henry Ward Beecher
“No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.”
— Alfred North Whitehead
“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”
— John Milton
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
— Robert Brault
“Gratitude is an antidote to negative emotions, a neutralizer of envy, hostility, worry, and irritation.”
— Sonja Lyubomirsky
“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
“Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those who are grateful.”
— Joseph B. Wirthlin
“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
“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
“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”
— Randy Pausch
“Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you.”
— Wayne Dyer
“Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe.”
— Deepak Chopra
“It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
— David Steindl-Rast
“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.”
— Alphonse Karr
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
— William Arthur Ward
“Strive to find things to be thankful for, and just look for the good in who you are.”
— Bethany Hamilton
“The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.”
— Charles Schwab
“Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals.”
— Roy T. Bennett
“Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy.”
— David Steindl-Rast
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
— Epictetus
“Gratitude paints little smiley faces on everything it touches.”
— Richelle E. Goodrich
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
— Eckhart Tolle
“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.”
— Dalai Lama
“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.”
— Henry Ward Beecher
“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.”
— Johannes A. Gaertner
“Be thankful for everything that happens in your life; it's all an experience.”
— Roy T. Bennett
“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
— Meister Eckhart
“If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.”
— Gerald Good
“Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness.”
— Henri Frederic Amiel
“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.”
— William Faulkner
“When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity.”
— Elie Wiesel
“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
— Maya Angelou
“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
— Denis Waitley
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