Gratitude Quotes That Come Straight From the Heart

Express your thanks

Mature woman at beach looking at sky
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Jean Baptiste Massieu, the famous deaf educator, made a statement that is now considered a French proverb: "Gratitude is the memory of the heart."

Indeed, appreciation comes when you feel grateful from the depths of your heart. The head keeps an account of all the benefits you give and receive, but the heart records the appreciation, humility, and generosity that one feels when someone showers you with kindness.

If someone has done you a favor, given you a gift, or simply been a good friend, they deserve a "thank you." Your relationships will be stronger, and you'll feel like a good person by focusing on such positive emotions. Here are gratitude-themed quotes that fill your heart and inspire you to express appreciation at every opportunity.

Alfred Painter:

"Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality."

Ralph Marston:

"Make it a habit to tell people 'thank you.' To express your appreciation sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it."

Maya Angelou:

"I want to thank you, Lord, for life and all that’s in it. Thank you for the day and for the hour, and the minute."

Toni Mont:

"To say thank you is in recognition of humanity."

Joseph Addison:

"Gratitude is the best attitude. There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance."

Fred De Witt Van Amburgh:

"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."

Edwin Arlington Robinson:

"Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give."

Lionel Hampton:

"Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind."

Oscar Wilde:

"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention."

James Matthew Barrie:

"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves."

Gordon T. Watts:

"The depth and the willingness with which we serve is a direct reflection of our gratitude."

John Wooden:

"Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out."

John F. Kennedy:

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

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."

Courtland Milloy:

"Nothing purchased can come close to the renewed sense of gratitude for having family and friends."

Benjamin Franklin:

"To the generous mind, the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it."

Ralph H. Blum:

"There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy."

Melody Beattie:

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend."

Terri Guillemets:

"As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world."

G. B. Stern:

"Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone."