75 Happy Thanksgiving Quotes to Express Your Gratitude for Family and Friends
Including short quotes, toast ideas, and blessings.
Arguably the best holiday of the year, Thanksgiving is a time for friends and family to gather around the table and share a meal in gratitude of their many blessings. This often means celebrating with a Thanksgiving menu that includes turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. The meaning behind this day of thankfulness is exemplified in these Thanksgiving quotes that range from heartfelt and sentimental to funny and witty.
While many of us have heard the story of the first Thanksgiving — where the Native Americans and settlers dined in honor of the settlers’ first year at Plymouth Rock — the real reason for Thanksgiving is to celebrate a successful harvest.
Throughout the years, Americans have shaped the holiday into what we know today: A day of food, friends, family, and (let’s be honest) football. But the core of the celebration — gratitude for the year’s bounty — still resonates, as we use this day of gathering to reflect on the things we are most thankful for: delicious food, thoughtful friends, loving family members, and so much more. Browse through these grateful Thanksgiving quotes to reflect on the things you are most thankful for this year.
For more inspirational words to share around the Thanksgiving table, check out our roundups of Thanksgiving Bible verses, Thanksgiving blessings, and Thanksgiving psalms, as well as the best Thanksgiving greetings to send your loved ones.
Oprah Winfrey
“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.”
Tony Snow
“If you think Independence Day is America’s defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.”
Michael Strahan
“That’s one of the great things about Thanksgiving: Football’s on!”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
Karl Barth
“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.”
Deepak Chopra
“Gratitude opens the door, the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude.”
Elizabeth Gilbert
“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.”
Willie Nelson
"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around."
Henry Van Dyke
“Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.”
Joanna Gaines
“Even in the trials of life, if we have eyes to see them, we can find good things everywhere we look.”
Maya Angelou
“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.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”
Voltaire
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
Chief Tecumseh
“When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.”
Charlotte Brontë
“For my part, I am almost contented just now, and very thankful. Gratitude is a divine emotion: it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever.”
Epictetus
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
Douglas Wood
“The heart that gives thanks is a happy one, for we cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time.”
Rumi
“Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.”
RELATED: 15 Powerful Rumi Quotes That Have Stood the Test of Time
Audre Lorde
“We are all more blind to what we have than to what we have not.”
Alice Walker
“‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.”
Elizabeth Berry (she/her) is the Updates Editor at the Good Housekeeping Institute where she optimizes lifestyle content across verticals. Prior to this role, she was an Editorial Assistant for Woman’s Day where she covered everything from gift guides to recipes. She also has experience fact checking commerce articles and holds a B.A. in English and Italian Studies from Connecticut College.
Kate Franke (she/her) is the editorial assistant at Woman’s Day. She loves all things lifestyle, home, and market related. Kate has a BAJMC in Magazine Media and BA in Writing from Drake University. She is a proud ASME alum whose work has appeared in Food Network Magazine, The Pioneer Woman Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, Modern Farmhouse Style, Beautiful Kitchens & Baths, and more. Next to writing, Kate’s two favorite things are chai lattes and pumpkin bread!
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