80 Festive Thanksgiving Quotes | Shutterfly

Thanksgiving day is a time to cherish with your loved ones. With the turkey roasting in the oven, the scent of sweet potato casserole filling the air and your family all gathering around the dinner table, Thanksgiving is a time to pause and reflect on what you’re grateful for. Whether you’re looking for a few words of inspiration, or simply want funny quotes about Thanksgiving to share in this season’s holiday cards, we have you covered with these 80 Thanksgiving quotes.

Select a filter from the options below, from classic to inspirational, to discover memorable happy Thanksgiving quotes for anyone. Then, personalize your own Thanksgiving cards so all of your family and friends know how much you appreciate them.

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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

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.

— Irv Kupcinet

Appreciation can change a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.

— Margaret Cousins

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

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

Coexistence: what the farmer does with the turkey — until Thanksgiving.

— Mike Connolly

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Dear Lord; we beg but one boon more: Peace in the hearts of all men living, peace in the whole world this Thanksgiving.

— Joseph Auslander

Every Thanksgiving, we all write down three things we’re thankful for and put them in a hat. Then we pass the hat around the dinner table and everyone has to guess who wrote what!

— Debby Ryan

For what I have received may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly for what I have not received.

— Storm Jameson

Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot.

— Hansa Proverb

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.

— Native American Saying

God is pleased with no music below so much as with the thanksgiving songs of relieved widows and supported orphans; of rejoicing, comforted, and thankful persons.

— Jeremy Taylor

Gratitude can transform common days into Thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.

— William Arthur Ward

Gratitude is a constant attitude of thankfulness and appreciation for life as it unfolds. Living in the moment, we are open to the abundance around us and within us. We express appreciation freely. We contemplate the richness of our life. In life’s trials, we seek to understand, to accept, to learn. Gratitude is a continual celebration of life.

— Author Unknown

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

— Melody Beattie

Greed grabs, Gratitude receives.

— Author Unknown

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.

— D. Waitley

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

— Epictetus

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don’t unravel.

— Author Unknown

Homemade stuffing is my favorite thing about Thanksgiving. I wish people served it more than just once a year.

— Troy Gentile

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

— Henry David Thoreau

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.

— Will Carleton

I love chicken. I would eat chicken fingers on Thanksgiving if it were socially acceptable.

— Todd Barry

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

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

— Psalm 69:30

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

— G.K. Chesterton

I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.

— Elbert Hubbard

I’m thankful for every moment.

— Al Green

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

If no one shopped on Thanksgiving Day, the stores wouldn’t open. End of story. I say we all take the pledge and stay home. Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for what you have, not to save a few dollars to get more.

— Regina Brett

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.

— Meister Eckhart

If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.

— W. Clement Stone

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

— Tony Snow

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

— Gerald Good

It is now common knowledge that the average American gains 7 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

— Marilu Henner

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

— Marcel Proust

Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.

— Psalm 95:2

My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.

— Phyllis Diller

My mom makes something called green pie, which I thought was a delicacy that many people only had at Thanksgiving, but it turns out it was just Jello with whipped cream on it. And it’s delicious.

— Bobby Moynihan

None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.

— Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

— WT Purkiser

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.

— Seneca

On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.

— William Jennings Bryan

On the morning of Thanksgiving, I would wake up to the home smelling of all good things, wafting upstairs to my room. I would set the table with the fancy silverware and china and hope that my parents and grandmother wouldn’t have the annual Thanksgiving fight about Richard Nixon.

— Debi Mazar

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

— Lawrence Welk

Remember God’s bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!

— Henry Ward Beecher

Sharing in God’s blessings is at the heart of Thanksgiving and at the core of the American spirit.

— President Bill Clinton

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.

— William Shakespeare

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

Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.

— Amy Grant

Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.

— E. P. Powell

Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare. They are consumed in 12 minutes. Halftimes take 12 minutes. This is not coincidence.

— Erma Bombeck

Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.

— Nigel Hamilton

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

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday – it’s a day that’s American to the core and it’s a day that’s all about what and how we eat.

— Marcus Samuelsson

Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.

— Willard Scott

Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.

— Robert Caspar Lintner

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.

— W.J. Cameron

Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.

— Kevin James

That’s one of the great things about Thanksgiving: Football’s on!

— Michael Strahan

The earliest you can play Christmas music is on Thanksgiving.

— Tinashe

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

— Dalai Lama

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.

— William Blake

The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

— Henry Ward Beecher

The willingness of America’s veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude.

— Jeff Miller

There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.

— O. Henry

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

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

— Thornton Wilder

We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.

— John F. Kennedy

When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup.

— Sam Lefkowitz

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

— Willie Nelson

When people come to my act any time after Thanksgiving, I usually say, You shouldn’t be here. You should be shopping. Our economy depends on you! You should be out there buying stuff.

— Lewis Black

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.

— Reba McEntire

It’s not the minutes spent at the table that put on weight, it’s the seconds.

— Author Unknown

Cooking Tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out.

— Nicole Hollander

After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.

— Oscar Wilde

O Lord that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.

— William Shakespeare

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.