58 Thanksgiving Quotes For Celebrations & Gratitude

A few weeks before the fourth Thursday of November, Americans start their preparation for Thanksgiving Day. Our Thanksgiving quotes below encapsulate this special occasion filled with gratitude, food, tradition, and history.

Even if the amount of food preparation and traveling could cause stress, the people's dedication to this holiday is undeniable. In fact, in 2021, Statista surveyed Americans regarding their favorite holiday. Unsurprisingly, Thanksgiving bags the first place with a rating of 81%, beating Christmas Day by 4%.

Let our curated Thanksgiving quotes be your go-to resource to get yourself in the spirit for a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Related: For more for the season, you might also like our guide to a zero-waste Thanksgiving, packed with tips to celebrate with less waste.

Quick links to our selection of Thanksgiving quotes:

Best Thanksgiving Quotes

There are Thanksgiving celebrations in the USA and countries like Germany, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, and Puerto Rico. Each has different origin stories, but all of them center around gratitude. 

To show gratitude together as a family, Americans all over the country travel to their loved ones, resulting in long road traffic queues and busy airports. According to the American Automobile Association, the best time to book tickets for Thanksgiving is not one to two months earlier but less than a month before, excluding the Thanksgiving week itself. 

So fill up with gratitude with our best Thanksgiving quotes as you travel to your family.

"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

"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 many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
- Charles Dickens

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

"Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving."
- Amy Grant

"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

Thanksgiving Quotes To Show Gratefulness For The Past Year

Thanksgiving’s heritage focuses on being grateful for the past year's harvest and other blessings. It's undeniable that being thankful makes us feel good, and now research can back this. According to multiple studies by Robert Emmons and his colleagues², expressing gratitude can provide better sleep, increased energy, and many more benefits.

Let's be grateful not just on Thanksgiving Day but every day, inspired by the Thanksgiving quotes to express gratefulness.

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

"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

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
- Marcel Proust

"Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last."
- Lawrence Welk

"Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude."
- Nigel Hamilton

Hopeful Thanksgiving Quotes For The Coming Year

Thanksgiving should be about the past and present and the future, for we should not only be counting what we’re grateful for but also making them count. We don't know what tomorrow brings, but gratitude can help us overcome our challenges. 

Whether the subject is children, students, or in a specific situation, multiple studies reveal a close relationship between gratitude and resilience¹. So, if you are going through a problem, whip out your gratitude journal and start writing away, getting started with our list of journal prompts. 

Read the Thanksgiving quotes below for another perspective on the festive occasion while getting in the holiday spirit.

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

"Thanksgiving, for me, is a time for reflection."
- Trish Regan

"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our Thanksgiving."
- W.T. Purkiser

"You may have heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There's another day you might want to know about: Giving Tuesday. The idea is pretty straightforward. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, shoppers take a break from their gift-buying and donate what they can to charity."
- Bill Gates

Positive Thanksgiving Quotes To Utter Words Of Gratitude

“Be consistent in your dedication to showing your gratitude to others. Gratitude is a fuel, a medicine and spiritual and emotional nourishment”

~ Oscar Wilde

How many times have you said “thank you” in your whole life? In 2012, a national survey by the John Templeton Foundation concluded that Americans are grateful people but don't express it often. Results say that 90% of respondents are thankful for their immediate family. But only 49% of them regularly expressed gratitude to their parents and 76% to their children.

As Dalai Lama said, “The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” So, after reading the Thanksgiving quotes below, try to turn these numbers up by saying thank you more often to everyone and making those blessings count. Let it be your natural impulse to express gratitude!

"Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life."
- Emily Suvanvej

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more."
- Alice Morgan

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

"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings."
- William Arthur Ward

Quotes About Being Genuinely Thankful At Thanksgiving

Do you believe it's better to give than to receive? If yes, volunteering during Thanksgiving Day is the ideal way to get into the spirit of this occasion. You can sort and pack donated food, assist visiting families, deliver meals to the old and disabled, cook, and many more. So, after reading the Thanksgiving quotes below, head out to Feeding America and choose the nearest food banks near you. Let’s find ways to reciprocate the kindness received.

Related: You might also like our selection of giving back quotes, and for more on volunteering, check out the latest volunteering facts or read up on how to volunteer at a homeless shelter or plant trees.

"To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do."
- Victor Hugo

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

"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."
- Meister Eckhart

"In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices."
- Elizabeth Gilbert

"Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding."
- Alice Walker

Memorable Quotes About Thanksgiving Dinner

More than showing gratitude, Thanksgiving's next highlight is enjoying food. Every article, website, or show will always feature a twist on the typical turkey dinner or ways to revamp leftovers for the following days.

Americans love their Thanksgiving dinner so much that according to the Calorie Control Council, the average person consumes more than 4500 calories. Check out the Thanksgiving quotes below, perfect for sharing around the Thanksgiving table while appreciating the food bounty.

"If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it's really like making a large chicken."
- Ina Garten

"Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants."
- Kevin James

"The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we all can agree so vehemently about?"
- Nora Ephron

"Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence."
- Erma Bombeck

"After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations."
- Oscar Wilde

"It is now common knowledge that the average American gains 7 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day."
- Marilu Henner

Thanksgiving Quotes Showing Fondness Of America

Part of the Thanksgiving meal tradition is breaking the turkey's wishbone or furcula, stabilizing them for flight. The wishbone tradition has simple rules: two people pull each side, and the one who has the larger piece gets a Thanksgiving wish. 

Other traditions include New Yorkers lining the streets of Manhattan to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, running a turkey trot, watching football games, or preparing for the Black Friday craze the next day. 

Read the Thanksgiving quotes below to discover how fond Americans are of this occasion.

"If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands down."
- Tony Snow

"Thanksgiving is the holiday that encompasses all others. All of them, from Martin Luther King Day to Arbor Day to Christmas to Valentine’s Day, are in one way or another about being thankful."
- Jonathan Safran Foer

"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

"My fondest memories are generally the day after Thanksgiving. I get the total decorating Christmas itch."
- Katharine McPhee

"I've been giving back since I was a teen, handing out turkeys at Thanksgiving and handing out toys at toys drives for Christmas. It's very important to give back as a youth. It's as simple as helping an old lady across the street or giving up your seat on the bus for someone who is pregnant."
- Queen Latifah

Noteworthy Thanksgiving Quotes By Authors And Poets

Most of the population's knowledge of Thanksgiving's origin is just one side of the story. It is from the perspective of English colonists who commemorated their peaceful encounter with the Native American tribes.

Unfortunately, that's not the whole story. Today, Native Americans celebrate the National Day of Mourning at the same time as Thanksgiving Day to honor their ancestors and educate people about the other side of the story. The whole month of November also recognizes Native American Heritage Month.

We all want to enjoy the occasion like the authors and poets below. Still, to read up more, head to First Nations Development Institute's knowledge center to explore more of the historical context after reading the Thanksgiving quotes below.

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

"Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves."
- Henry Ward Beecher

"He who thanks but with the lips. Thanks but in part; the full, the true Thanksgiving. Comes from the heart."
- John G. Shedd

"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

"Best of all is it to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song."
- Konrad von Gesner

Short Thanksgiving Captions For Social Media

To end this article on a light note, we want to share some great content you can share on your social media accounts. 

You will be amazed to discover world-breaking records related to Thanksgiving. In the baked goods category, Texas prepared a whopping 41,586 pounds of pecan pie, while Ohio had a pumpkin pie weighing in at 3,699 pounds. If you're in charge of carving the turkey, you can impress your dinner guests by trying to beat the fastest record of three minutes and 19.47 seconds. 

If that interests you, search for other records and use them to entertain your family with more trivia during Thanksgiving dinner - they’ll surely love you for it. But first, use the Thanksgiving captions and even a few funny Thanksgiving quotes below to share sweet memories of food, friends, and family with the world. Thanksgiving is a wonderful thing.

And Happy Thanksgiving!

"Gratitude is the sign of noble souls."
- Aesop

"I'm thankful for every moment."
- Al Green

"Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart."
- Roy T. Bennett

"Thanksgiving creates abundance."
- Ann Voskamp

"An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day."
- Irv Kupcinet

"The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest."
- William Blake

"If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share."
- W. Clement Stone

"Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside."
- Willard Scott

"Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast."
- William Shakespeare

A few more Thanksgiving quotes

For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile.

~ Soumi Sarkar

We should just be thankful for being together. I think that's what they mean by Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown.

~ Marcie, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

The thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Dear Lord, I'm so grateful I'm still loved.

~ Vivien Leigh

Gratitude is a divine emotion: it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever.

~ Charlotte Brontë

Good mashed potato is one of the great luxuries in life.

~ Lindsey Bareham

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.

~ Jim Davis