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

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

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.  ––William Arthur Ward

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

––Anonymous

When eating fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.

––Vietnamese proverb

If it happens that you are well off, in your heart be tranquil about it – if you can be just and glad and willing for the opposite condition. So let it be with food, friends, kindred, or anything else that God gives or takes away.   ––Meister Eckhart

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

––Charles Dickens

A grateful mind is a great mind, which eventually attracts to itself great things.        ––Plato

One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay “in kind” somewhere else in life.  ––Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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

Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.             ––Gertrude Stein

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

The observance of Thanksgiving Day – as a function – has become general of late years. The Thankfulness is not so general. This is natural. Two-thirds of the nation have always had hard luck and a hard time during the year, and this has a calming effect upon their enthusiasm.     ––Mark Twain

In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. It is very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe others.

––Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

For today and its blessings, I_owe the world an attitude of gratitude. ––Clarence E. Hodges

Gratitude is the heart’s memory.                         ––French Proverb

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.  ––G.K. Chesterton

(Each week this column features quotations gleaned from the readings and experiences of our editors, reporters, readers, and friends. All are invited to submit quotations for inclusion here. They may be sent to Gleanings, c/o The Newtown Bee, 5 Church Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470 or emailed to editor@thebee.com.)