107 Thanksgiving Quotes That Will Have You Counting Your Blessings
It’s so easy to get caught up in our busy lives.
From New Years resolutions to spring cleaning, and summer vacations to the holidays—life can come and go as quickly as the seasons.
That’s why it’s so important to pause and be thankful for the blessings we have in our lives.
“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” ―John F. Kennedy
Here’s a list of 107 thanksgiving quotes you can use for the holidays and throughout the year…
107 Thanksgiving Quotes
“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.”
“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 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.”
“Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will.”
“All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives.”
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
“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
“When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup.”
“Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.”
“I like football. I find its an exciting strategic game. Its a great way to avoid conversation with your family at Thanksgiving.”
“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
“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” -Dalai Lama
“Thanksgiving reminds us that no matter what befalls us in life, we can take the charred remnants and we can reconstruct a life unimaginably richer than that from which the shards and pieces fell.”
“Although Thanksgiving comes but once a year, every day should be a day of Thanks. Among all the challenges that we face as people with hearing loss there are certainly brighter moments in every day – moments that deserve to be recorded in our Gratitude Journal.”
“Real ballplayers pass the stuffing by rolling it up in a ball and batting it across the table with a turkey leg.”
“Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.” -Nigel Hamilton
“Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.”
“Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.”
“My most memorable meal is every Thanksgiving. I love the food: the turkey and stuffing; the sweet potatoes and rice, which come from my mother’s Southern heritage; the mashed potatoes, which come from my wife’s Midwestern roots; the Campbell’s green-bean casserole; and of course, pumpkin pie.”
“On Thanksgiving I will stop to give thanks that my family is safe and healthy, especially because I realize that, following the tragedies of this year, it is all too real a possibility that they might not have been.”
“You shouldn’t just give during Christmas and Thanksgiving you should be giving all the time.” -Alcurtis Turner
“My fondest memories are generally the day after Thanksgiving. I get the total decorating Christmas itch.”
“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.”
“It’s like being at the kids’ table at Thanksgiving – you can put your elbows on it, you don’t have to talk politics… no matter how old I get, there’s always a part of me that’s sitting there.”
“An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.” -Irv Kupcinet
“Thanksgiving, our eminent moral holiday, doesn’t have much for children. At its heart are conversation, food, drink, and fellowship – all perks of adulthood.”
“Thanksgiving is America’s favorite holiday because it’s a time when we put aside our cares, much as the struggling Pilgrims did nearly four centuries ago, and eat a gut-busting meal without worrying about the ‘out years.’” – David Ignatius
“What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?” -Erma Bombeck
“But see, in our open clearings, how golden the melons lie; Enrich them with sweets and spices, and give us the pumpkin-pie!”
“Coexistence: what the farmer does with the turkey — until Thanksgiving.”
“Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet. Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place. There is not, and there never has been a better time, or a better place to live in.”
“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.” -Cicero
“And though I ebb in worth, I’ll flow in thanks.”
“I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it.”
“Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year.”
“Thanksgiving is America’s national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty.” -Michael Dresser
“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.”
“If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.”
“If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.”
“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
“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
“Cooking Tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out.”
“It took me three weeks to stuff the turkey. I stuffed it through the beak.”
“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” -Edward Sandford Martin
“The Thanksgiving tradition is, we overeat. ‘Hey, how about at Thanksgiving we just eat a lot?’ ‘But we do that every day!’ ‘Oh. What if we eat a lot with people that annoy the hell out of us?”
“I’m from Canada, so Thanksgiving to me is just Thursday with more food. And I’m thankful for that.”
“If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There’s turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Someone needs to tell the turkey, man, just be yourself.”
“Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” -W.J. Cameron
“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.”
“Most turkeys taste better the day after; my mother’s tasted better the day before.”
“You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.”
“Forever on Thanksgiving Day The heart will find the pathway home.” -Wilbur D. Nesbit
“My Thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence.”
“Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude.”
Thanksgiving Quotes from Books, Films, and Television
“A thought about Thanksgiving Day: Once, there was this day… this one day when… everyone realized they needed each other. ” “Here I am, 5 o’clock in the morning, stuffing bread crumbs up a dead bird’s butt.” “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” “Thanksgiving was nothing more than a pilgrim-created obstacle in the way of Christmas; a dead bird in the street that forced a brief detour.” “The funny thing about Thanksgiving ,or any big meal, is that you spend 12 hours shopping for it then go home and cook,chop,braise and blanch. Then it’s gone in 20 minutes and everybody lies around sortof in a sugar coma and then it takes 4 hours to clean it up.” “I always think it’s funny when Indians celebrate Thanksgiving. I mean, sure, the Indians and Pilgrims were best friends during the first Thanksgiving, but a few years later, the Pilgrims were shooting Indians. So I’m never quite sure why we eat Turkey like everybody else.” “America has developed a pie tradition unequivocally and unapologetically at the sweet end of the scale, and at no time is this better demonstrated than at Thanksgiving.” “Preparing and serving food had always been a joy, for it made her appreciate the abundance of the world.” “About 94 percent of Americans prepare and serve turkey at home and most people stick to a traditional menu for the main meal: turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed white potatoes with giblet gravy, candied sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, a cooked green vegetable dish, relishes, and a pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.” “’So what do we do?’ We do what all families do. Grin, bear it, and pass the mashed potatoes.”” “The next day, eating a turkey sandwich with salt and mayonnaise, Rebecca decided Thanksgiving was the best holiday, although she had little to choose from: her family never celebrated Hanukkah but her father was militant about ignoring Christmas and insisted they spend December 25 eating Chinese takeout and going to the movies.” – Anna Quindlen, Still Life with Bread Crumbs “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go baste the turkey and hide the kitchen knives.” – Mrs. Pascal in The House of Yes “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 – for the food on their tables and the babies in their arms.” “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.” “It’s not too much food. This is what we’ve been training for our whole lives. This is our destiny, this is our finest hour.” “I can’t cook a Thanksgiving dinner. All I can make is cold cereal and maybe toast.” “Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude.” “Once you start practicing being grateful and thankful for things, people, and events, you may notice that you start to attract more positive things, people, and events in your life.” “We all can ‘act’ a certain way for a brief period of time, for instance, on Thanksgiving, who of us hasn’t had to ‘act’ like we just loved everyone at the table? This brief show of good behavior is not true character. Our character is who we are when no one is looking.” “Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” “Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.” “Turkey for the girls and Turkey for the boys. My favorite kind of pants are corduroys. Gobble gobble goo and Gobble gobble gickel. I wish turkey only cost a nickel. Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!”
Did you enjoy our list of Thanksgiving quotes? Which one sparked your holiday spirit? Share your favorite thanksgiving quote in the comments below; we’d love to add any additions to the list!