Thanksgiving Quotes of the Week from Greg Bover

Dear GMG Friends,

I have been thinking about what Thanksgiving means, beyond turkey and football. I looked back through my four plus years of weekly quotes and was a little surprised to find so many that speak about the various facets of gratitude, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been. Wise people over the centuries have recognized the power of thankfulness to transform one’s life, and it certainly has changed mine.

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

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC)

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

“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 (1852 – 1933)

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)

“By holding up a fancied golden era of yesteryear, we can devalue where we are and who we have become. Thanksgiving aims at gratitude not for what was, but for what is.”

James Carroll (1943-    )

“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.”
Melody Beattie (1948-    )

“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 (1954-    )

Greg Bover