Thankful Quotes – 59 Sayings for Practicing Gratitude and Thankfulness

Looking for inspirational gratitude quotes? Then you've come to the right place! Gratitude is one of the most valuable human virtues. Unfortunately, in our privileged society today, we take many things for granted - and therefore express gratitude and appreciation less often.

We need to understand how well off we actually are - and that it is selfish to really want everything while others have nothing. Gratitude and appreciation are therefore also among the most important pillars of the minimalist lifestyle or of a sustainable life. And ungratefulness is one of the motives for greed for more.

In this article, I would like to share with you my favorite short quotes, wisdom and sayings about gratitude to inspire you and other people to say "thank you" more often and be grateful for the things we have in our lives. Let's go!

My please: Keep in mind that many of the quotes about gratitude have been translated into English from other languages. I cannot guarantee that it is the original quote in each case. Therefore, double check them before you share them. If you like and share any of the quotes in the internet, please link this elaborately created collection. Thank you for your support!

The best quotes about gratitude and gratitude

What are you actually grateful for in life? It helps to take the time to find the answer to this question. You might even find the person you really need to thank again - or a simple way to find more satisfaction.

Use the following sayings and quotes to make you aware of how important gratitude should be in your life.

Gratitude quotes 1 - 10

1. "Gratitude and love are siblings." (Christian Morgenstern)
2. "Many misunderstandings arise from the fact that thanks are not said, but only felt." (Ernst R. Hauschka)
3. "Joy is the simplest form of gratitude." (Karl Barth)
4. "In gratitude for your good fortune, you must remember in return some sacrifice of your own life for another life." (Albert Schweitzer)
5. "Be thankful for the least gift, so shalt thou be meant to receive greater." (Thomas von Kempen)
6. "It is not happy people who are thankful. It is thankful people who are happy." (Francis Bacon)
7. "There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
8. "We underestimate what we have and overestimate what we are." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
9. "Whatever life throws at me I'll take it and be grateful for it as well." (Tom Felton)
10. "Grateful people are like fertile fields. You give back what you have received tenfold." (August von Kotzebue)

Gratitude quotes 11 - 20

11. "The greatest power in life is gratitude." (Hermann von Bezzel)
12. "The feeling of guilty gratitude is a burden that only strong souls are able to bear." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
13. "There is a pleasure in meeting the eyes of a person whom we have lately oblig'd." (Jean de La Bruyère)
14. "You'd better give thanks for what you've got; wait for the other and be haooy that you haven't got it all yet." (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
15. "There is only one way to feel good: One must learn to be content with what is given and not always demand what is lacking." (Theodor Fontane)
16. "The poor lack much, the greedy everything." (Publilius Syrus)
17. "Further more, the more beautiful and full the remembrances, the more difficult the separation. But gratitude transforms the torment of memory into silent joy." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
18. "It is only with gratitude that life becomes rich." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
19. "A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being." (James E. Faust)
20. "Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Gratitude quotes 21 - 30

21. "Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed." (Mark Twain)
22. "Our lives become bright when you learn to give thanks for the smallest thing." (Friedrich von Bodelschwingh)
23. "There is nothing we are more grateful for than gratitude." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
24. "Greed for power and personal success makes people become sober and indifferent." (Anton Chekhov)
25. "The best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful." (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
26. "It strikes man more what he lacks than what he owns." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
27. "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man." (Mark Twain)
28. "There is no excess in the world so commendable as excessive gratitude." (Jean de La Bruyèr)
29. "We have been German beasts for too long, unable to do more than get and eat and drink. But let us use reason for once, so that God may see the gratitude of his goods." (Martin Luther)
30. "Parents who expect gratitude from their children (there are even some who insist on it) are like usurers who gladly risk their capital if only they receive interest." (Franz Kafka)

Book Tip: For more gratitude in your everyday life, I can only advise you to take a few minutes every day to Gratitude Diary to lead. With your gratitude for the everyday, it also promotes your well-being, your satisfaction, your motivation and your self-love. Here you can get the best gratitude diary in different colors*.

Gratitude Quotes 31 - 40

31. "Gratitude is sometimes a bond, but often a shackle." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
32. "He who cannot thank cannot love." (Jeremias Gotthelf)
33. "Gratitude usually has a short expiration date." (Fred Ammon)
34. "People really don't have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you." (Aretha Franklin)
35. "For men use, if they have an evil turn, to write it in marble: and whoso doth us a good turn we write it in dust." (Thomas More)
36. "To him who does good to us we are never so grateful as to him who could do evil to us but refrains." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
37. "Gratitude is heaven itself; there could be no heaven without gratitude." (William Blake)
38. "Only free people are truly grateful to one another." (Baruch Spinoza)
39. "Gratitude is the fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people." (Samuel Johnson)
40. "A benefit becomes poison in the heart of the wicked." (George Gordon Byron)

Tip: Minimalism and gratitude are closely linked. We should be grateful that our basic needs are met - and limit our possessions to the things we really need. You can find out more in a detailed article, Why consumption does not make you happy.

Gratitude Quotes 41 - 50

41. "Who is not satisfied with what he has, would not be satisfied with what he would like to have." (Berthold Auerbach)
42. "Gratitude is a debt; and its debt is paid by everyone. But love is not a currency." (Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev)
43. "Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all of the others." (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
44. "Gratitude is a feeling which ennobles and improves the heart, beneficent to him who receives as well as to him who gives." (Adolph Knigge)
45. "Anyone who expects gratitude in politics is an incorrigible optimist." (Otto of Habsburg)
46. "Gratitude: endurance test for forgetfulness." (KarlHeinz Karius)
47. "For greed, all nature is too little." (Seneca)
48. "Do not expect gratitude when you do good to a men: you have exposed his weaknesses." (Elbert Hubbard)
49. He that does good to another does good also to himself, not only in the consequence but in the very act. For the consciousness of well-doing is in itself ample reward." (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
50. "Gratitude is the memory of the heart." (Jean-Baptiste Massillon)

Tip: Gratitude is an extremely positive trait from us humans. Anyone who shows gratitude is definitely also doing something for a good karma. 🙂

Gratitude quotes 51 - 59

51. "If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough." (Vicki Robin)
52. "People tend to be most grateful to those who help them to deceive themselves." (Peter Sirius)
53. "The gratitude is an oppressive burden to little souls, but a necessity to noble hearts." (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)
54. "Without strong affection, and humanity of heart, and gratitude to that Being whose code is mercy, and whose great attribute is benevolence to all things that breathe, true happiness can never be attained." (Charles Dickens)
55. "Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." (Melody Beattie)
56. "When you are grateful - when you can see what you have - you unlock blessings to flow in your life." (Suze Orman)
57. "There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart." (Celia Thaxter)
58. "Gratitude is a lively sense of benefits to come." (François de La Rochefoucauld)
59. "N every exalted joy, there mingles a sense of gratitude." (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)

Can you think of any other gratitude quotes and sayings about thanks?Then share your favorite sayings in the comments!

Frequently asked questions about gratitude

Use quotes and sayings about gratitude and gratitude in your everyday life

When you are grateful, your life is definitely filled with happiness. After all, gratitude makes you content - and contentment curbs greed. So be grateful in your everyday life for what you have and for what others give you. You know how great it feels when others express their gratitude to you 🙂

I can only advise you to save this gratitude diary* and write down briefly every day what you are grateful for. This small measure will enrich your life, I promise!

Also these further article can lead you to greater gratitude:

• Good deeds in everyday life
• Minimalism psychology
• Why live vegan?
• Superfluous things that nobody needs today

I hope that my collection of gratitude quotes helps you - and that it inspires you and other people too. Do you have any questions, tips or other quotes and sayings about gratitude? Then, as always, feel free to write me a comment.

Stay grateful,

PS: You are welcome to take a closer look at the Quotes blog around! There you will also find, for example, the best Sayings about minimalism.