117 Thanksgiving Quotes to Make You Feel Thankful

“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.” – Becky Van Volkinburg, God’s Word, Your Voice

“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.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough

“If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken.” – Ina Garten

“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” – Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

“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

“Here I am, 5 o’clock in the morning, stuffing bread crumbs up a dead bird’s butt.” – Roseanne Barr, Roseanne

“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.” – Douglas Conant

“Coexistence: what the farmer does with the turkey — until Thanksgiving.” – Mike Connolly

“Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.” – Nigel Hamilton

“If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.” – Gerald Good

“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. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie

“Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year.” – P. J. O’Rourke

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

“A thought about Thanksgiving Day: Once, there was this day… this one day when… everyone realized they needed each other.” – April Burns, Pieces of April

“Most turkeys taste better the day after; my mother’s tasted better the day before.” – Rita Rudner

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

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

“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.” – Janet Clarkson, Pie: A Global History

“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

“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

“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” – W. T. Purkiser

“For those of you who cannot be with family this Thanksgiving, please resist the urge to brag.” – Andy Borowitz

“Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life… a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year — and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God.” – Ray Stannard Baker

“Real ballplayers pass the stuffing by rolling it up in a ball and batting it across the table with a turkey leg.” – Tom Swyers

“But see, in our open clearings, how golden the melons lie; Enrich them with sweets and spices, and give us the pumpkin-pie!” – Margaret Junkin Preston

“Cooking Tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out.” – Nicole Hollander

“Thanksgiving, our eminent moral holiday, doesn’t have much for children. At its heart are conversation, food, drink, and fellowship – all perks of adulthood.” – Rosecrans Baldwin

“Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain.” – Alexander Pope

“So what do we do? We do what all families do. Grin, bear it, and pass the mashed potatoes.” – Heather Brewer, Eleventh Grade Burns

“He who thanks but with the lips Thanks but in part; The full, the true Thanksgiving Comes from the heart.” – J. A. Shedd

“You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.” – Jay Leno

“Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“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

“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

“All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives.” – George W. Bush

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

“Preparing and serving food had always been a joy, for it made her appreciate the abundance of the world.” – Elizabeth Camden, Until The Dawn

“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

“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

“Give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” – Brian Tracy

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

“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.” – Cynthia Rylant

“Overeating at Thanksgiving is a case in point. It’s a national tradition.” – Eric Samuel Timm, Static Jedi: The Art of Hearing God Through the Noise

“Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it, is important when you need it.” – Franz Grillparzer

“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

“We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.” – Neal A. Maxwell

“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

“I’m from Canada, so Thanksgiving to me is just Thursday with more food. And I’m thankful for that.” – Howie Mandel

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.” – Jim Davis

“I like football. I find its an exciting strategic game. It’s a great way to avoid conversation with your family at Thanksgiving.” – Craig Ferguson

“Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.” – Johnny Carson

“There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.” – O. Henry, Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen

“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.” – Martin K. Gay, Encyclopedia of North American Eating ...

... & Drinking Traditions, Customs, and Rituals

“My Thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Thanksgiving – fall’s finale. Best damn holiday of the year in my worldly estimation.” – Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: His Wife, His Children, His Final Gift

“Thanksgiving is a time to count your blessings, one by one, as each relative goes home.” – Melanie White

“I love Thanksgiving because it is a holiday centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.” – Marcus Samuelsson

“And though I ebb in worth, I’ll flow in thanks.” – John Taylor

“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.” – Lorelai Gilmore in Gilmore Girls

“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, Eating Animals

“Family gathers to share good noise and good food. Gratitude abounds.” – Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” – Willie Nelson

“It took me three weeks to stuff the turkey. I stuffed it through the beak.” – Phyllis Diller

“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

“Thanksgiving is America’s national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty.” – Michael Dresser

“Thanksgiving is a magical time of year when families across the country join together to raise America’s obesity statistics.” – Stephen Colbert

“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” – Dalai Lama

“Although Thanksgiving comes but once a year, every day should be a day of Thanks.” – Monique Hammond

“An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.” – Irv Kupcinet

“Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude.” – Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

“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 sort of in a sugar coma and then it takes 4 hours to clean it up.” – Ted Allen, The Food You Want to Eat: 100 Smart, Simple Recipes

“We can always find something to be thankful for, no matter what may be the burden of our wants, or the special subject of our petitions.” – Albert Barnes

“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

“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.” – Cynthia Rylant, In November

“Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.” – Amy Grant

“I can’t cook a Thanksgiving dinner. All I can make is cold cereal and maybe toast.” – Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

“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.” – Augusten Burroughs, You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

“I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it.” – Robert Brault

“If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” – W. Clement Stone

“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.” – Phillips Brooks

“Thanksgiving is the meal we aspire for other meals to resemble.” – Jonathan Safran Foer

“If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch you must first invent the universe.” – Carl Sagan

“Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have.” – Catherine Pulsifer

“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.” – Bobby Jindal

“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!” – Adam Sandler, The Thanksgiving Song

“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

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” – Thornton Wilder, The Woman of Andros

“Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude.” – Amy Leigh Mercree

“Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings.” – J. Robert Moskin

“Forever on Thanksgiving Day the heart will find the pathway home.” – Wilbur D. Nesbit

“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.” – Stephanie Conkle, Happy Person. Happy Life. A Recipe for Happiness

“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.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

“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

“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

“Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.” – Willard Scott

“A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen.” – Kin Hubbard

“It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.” – Alistair Cooke

“The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” – H. U. Westermayer

“You shouldn’t just give during Christmas and Thanksgiving you should be giving all the time.” – Alcurtis Turner

“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” – John F. Kennedy

“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

“My fondest memories are generally the day after Thanksgiving. I get the total decorating Christmas itch.” – Katharine McPhee