50 Thanksgiving Quotes to Make You Feel Grateful This Holiday Season

Unlike all those ordinary days that run together, Thanksgiving is the time of year when we gather together with family and friends to reflect on what's most important in life and be thankful for all that we have, even regular opportunities and routine jobs.  

Videos by Wide Open Country

As Americans, it's one of our favorite days of the year. But it's easy to get caught in some drama at the dinner table (you know you brought up politics/religion last year) and forget that the holiday is a time of togetherness. The Pilgrims didn't bicker. They knew they were lucky and were just happy to be eating. (You'll have plenty of time to argue on Christmas, don't worry.)

We've gathered a list of 50 Thanksgiving quotes to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, give you a thankful heart, remind you what's really important this holiday season, and help you have a happy Thanksgiving. (Spoiler: It's not who burned the turkey or brought carrot cake instead of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner.)

There are some funny ones, too. Not everything has to be William Shakespeare or Henry David Thoreau, after all. If you're searching for the right words, here are some to consider: 

• "Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse." - Henry Van Dyke
• "Coexistence: what the farmer does with the turkey — until Thanksgiving." - Mike Connolly
• "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
• "The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest." - William Blake
• "Forever on Thanksgiving the heart will find the pathway home." - Wilbur D. Nesbit

• "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." - Willie Nelson
• "What if today, we were just grateful for everything?" - Charlie Brown
• "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
• "Thanksgiving isn't just a day. It's a way we can live our lives every day." - Katrina Mayer
• "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

• "After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations." - Oscar Wilde
• "Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is." - Ernest Hemingway
• "If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily." - Gerald Good
• "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart." - Helen Keller
• "Not what we say about our blessing, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving." - W.T. Purkiser

• "All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives." - President George W. Bush
• "I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with Thanksgiving." - Psalm 69:30
• "Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust
• "Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving." - Amy Grant
• "We can always find something to be thankful for, no matter what may be the burden of our wants, or the special subject of our petitions." - Albert Barnes

• "To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone." - Reba McEntire
• "In November, people are good to each other. They carry pies to each other's homes and talk by crackling woodstoves, sipping mellow cider. They travel very far on a special November day just to share a meal with one another and to give thanks for their many blessings." - Cynthia Rylant
• "Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings." - William Arthur Ward
• "I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual." - Henry David Thoreau

• "Good mashed potato is one of the great luxuries in life." - Lindsey Bareham
• "Gratitude, help us to see what is there instead of what isn't." - Annette Bridges
• "The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we all can agree so vehemently about?" - Nora Ephron
• "I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage." - Erma Bombeck
• "Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude." - Nigel Hamilton
• "I love Thanksgiving because it's a holiday that is centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me." - Marcus Samuelsson

• "Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life." - Rumi
• "Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are." - Joyce Giraud
• "Thankfulness is the quickest path to joy." - Jefferson Bethke
• "Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside." - Willard Scott
• "Appreciation can change a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary." - Margaret Cousins

• "Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day." - Robert Caspar Lintner
• "Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it, is important when you need it." - Franz Grillparzer
• "Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot." - Hansa Proverb
• "If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it's really like making a large chicken." - Ina Garten
• "Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some." - Charles Dickens
• "Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other." - Randy Pausch

• "He who thanks but with the lips thanks but in part; the full, the true Thanksgiving comes from the heart." - J.A. Shedd
• "Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have." - Catherine Pulsifer
• "What I love about Thanksgiving is that it's purely about getting together with friends or family and enjoying food. It's really for everybody, and it doesn't matter where you're from." - Daniel Humm
• "Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude." - Amy Leigh Mercree
• "The more we express thanks, the more gratitude we feel. The more gratitude we feel, the more we express thanks. It's circular and it leads to a happier life." - Steve Goodier
• "Thanksgiving creates abundance." - Ann Voskamp