85 Best Thanksgiving Quotes to Show Gratitude to Your Friends and Family
Any of these funny and inspirational sayings would also make for a great toast.
The holiday season tends to get a bit frenetic, and Thanksgiving dinner definitely kicks things off with a bang. Although the holiday centers around gratitude, that message can get lost in the shuffle as you're trying to juggle the miles-long list of tasks required to pull off the sides-heavy Thanksgiving meal. Between getting the house ready for people to come over, choreographing the cooking so everything gets done (and not overdone) in time and making sure everyone is entertained along the way, Thanksgiving can be one of the most hectic days on the calendar. At least you can keep your guests busy with festive activities and family-friendly games that distract them from the chaos, or you can throw on a Thanksgiving movie to keep the kids where you can see them.
But let this be your opportunity to remember that the holiday is all about giving thanks and sharing gratitude for friends, family, health and all the blessings in our lives. If you need a little inspiration this year, try these Thanksgiving quotes on for size. Whether you're looking for a blessing to say before you carve the turkey or an inspiring Instagram caption for your Turkey Day pics, these Thanksgiving quotes will fit the bill. These funny and inspirational sayings can also help you when coming up with your Thanksgiving toast or trying to figure out what to write in a Thanksgiving card.
Albert Barnes
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.
Alistair Cooke
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.
Amy Grant
Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.
Andy Borowitz
For those of you who cannot be with family this Thanksgiving, please resist the urge to brag.
Carl Sagan
If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch you must first invent the universe.
Ina Garten
If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken.
Marcus Samuelsson
I love Thanksgiving because it is a holiday centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.
Melanie White
Thanksgiving is a time to count your blessings, one by one, as each relative goes home.
P.J. O'Rourke
Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year.
Robert Brault
I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it.
Toni Morrison
At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.
Albert Einstein
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
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Brené Brown
Recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy.
Cheryl Strayed
When you recognize that you will thrive not in spite of your losses and sorrows but because of them...the word for that is healing.
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Alphonse Karr
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.
Dalai Lama
When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect towards others.
Catherine Pulsifer
Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have.
Daniel Humm
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.
Deepak Chopra
Gratitude opens the door, the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude.
Elizabeth Gilbert
In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.
Lizz (she/her) is a senior editor at Good Housekeeping, where she runs the GH Book Club, edits essays and long-form features and writes about pets, books and lifestyle topics. A journalist for almost two decades, she is the author of Biography of a Body and Buffalo Steel. She also teaches journalism as an adjunct professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies and creative nonfiction at the Muse Writing Center, and coaches with the New York Writing Room.
Katarina Avendaño (she/her) is the senior SEO editor for Good Housekeeping, where she writes and edits lifestyle content and contributes to SEO strategy. Before joining GH in 2021, she was the digital editor at New York Family, where she was responsible for the website’s content and strategy. Katarina received her bachelor's degree in communications and Spanish from the University of Washington.
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