One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that loving my life depends upon me choosing to be happy. I know from experience that this isn’t always easy to do. Because during challenging seasons, it can feel practically impossible to find a glimmer of hope. What I’ve discovered is that when I am grasping at how to get my thoughts wrangled towards the positive is that I may need to read the wisdom of other souls in the form of gratitude quotes.
Gratitude is a powerful ingredient to loving your life.
And, as I’ve shared often, having a gratitude practice helps rewire your brain to the positive. And because our thoughts are such an important part of the reality we are experiencing, this allows us access those feelings of happiness and joy more often.
I’m a realist, I know that choosing happiness, feeling joyful, and loving the everyday messy moments of life may seem like an uphill climb for many of you. Well, for all of us. Yes, me as well. Just because I love my life and experience happy moments every day, doesn’t mean I don’t need to be bolstered on occasion. Turning to gratitude quotes is a way to aid your mind and spirit.
One of my tricks to do this when times are tough is to take pen to paper and write down gratitude quotes in my journal. So, even if I can’t access the emotions with my own words, then I can be inspired by the words of gratitude by people like the poet Rumi, the researcher Brene Brown, and the Monk David Steindl-Rast.
Here are seventy-nine gratitude quotes to turn to when you need inspiration to choose happiness
- “Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.”
–Rumi
- “We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count.”
–Neal A. Maxwell - “When you view your world with an attitude of gratitude, you are training yourself to focus on the good in life.”
–Paul J. Meyer - “Gratitude, warm, sincere, intense, when it takes possession of the bosom, fills the soul to overflowing and scarce leaves room for any other sentiment or thought.”
–John Quincy Adams - “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
–Albert Schweitzer - “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.”
–Elizabeth Gilbert - “Compliments linger.”
— Diane Keaton
- “In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.”
–David Steindl-Rast - “Artists are among the most generous of people. Perhaps inherent in the appreciation of creativity comes a deep, underlying love of humanity and our Earth.”
–Kelly Borsheim - “Be grateful for what you already have while you pursue your goals. If you aren’t grateful for what you already have, what makes you think you would be happy with more?”
–Roy T. Bennett - “A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being.”
–James E. Faust - “We are never more than one grateful thought away from peace of heart.”
–David Steindl-Rast
- “The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.”
–William James - “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
–Marcus Aurelius - “Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”
–Maya Angelou - “Sometimes we should express our gratitude for the small and simple things like the scent of the rain, the taste of your favorite food, or the sound of a loved one’s voice.”
–Joseph B. Wirthlin - “Gratitude is one of the strongest and most transformative states of being. It shifts your perspective from lack to abundance and allows you to focus on the good in your life, which in turn pulls more goodness into your reality.”
–Jen Sincero - “If you want to find happiness, find gratitude.”
–Steve Maraboli
- “Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
–Voltaire - “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
–Marcel Proust - “When you know in your bones that your body is a sacred gift, you move in the world with an effortless grace. Gratitude and humility rise up spontaneously.”
–Debbie Ford - “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 - “To love someone fiercely, to believe in something with your whole heart, to celebrate a fleeting moment in time, to fully engage in a life that doesn’t come with guarantees – these are risks that involve vulnerability and often pain. But, I’m learning that recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy, gratitude and grace.”
–Brene Brown - “Gratitude takes less energy than anger.”
— Kristin Cashore
- “Gratitude and attitude are not challenges; they are choices.”
–Robert Braathe - “Gratitude is a many-colored quality, reaching in all directions. It goes out for small things and for large.”
–Faith Baldwin - “Be consistent in your dedication to showing your gratitude to others. Gratitude is a fuel, a medicine, and spiritual and emotional nourishment.”
— Steve Maraboli - “Everything is a gift. The degree to which we are awake to this truth is a measure of our gratefullness, and gratefullness is a measure of our aliveness.”
–David Steindl-Rast - “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
–Denis Waitley - “Start each day with a positive thought and a grateful heart.”
–Roy T. Bennett
- “Be grateful for whatever it is that opens you up.”
— Allan G. Hunter - “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
–Melody Beattie - “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
— Thorton Wilder - “It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.”
–Germany Kent - Never let a day pass without looking for the good, feeling the good within you, praising, appreciating, blessing, and being grateful. Make it your life commitment, and you will stand in utter awe of what happens in your life.”
–Rhonda Byrne - “Every day, I like to wake up and remind myself to be grateful of the simple things.”
–Miranda Kerr
- “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”
–Maya Angelou - “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.”
–Henry David Thoreau - “He who does not reflect his life back to God in gratitude does not know himself.”
–Albert Schweitzer - “One single gift acknowledged in gratefulness has the power to dissolve the ties of our alienation.”
–David Steindl-Rast - “This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
–Rumi - “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”
–Marcus Tullius Cicero
- “The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.”
–Richard Bach - “The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing. ”
–Hannah Whitall Smith - “You can’t fix everything. Not even close. But you can look for reasons to be grateful. More than that, you can work to create them.”
— Katherine Center - “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.”
–Fred De Witt Van Amburgh - “When you express gratitude for the blessings that come into your life, it not only encourages the universe to send you more, it also sees to it that those blessings remain.”
–Stephen Richards - “When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in.”
–Kristin Armstrong
- “The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.”
–Friedrich Nietzsche - “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”
–William Arthur Ward - “There is no one harder to live with than an artist. Therefore an artist is a real gift because he or she raises the sanctity of everyone else in the community.”
–David Steindl-Rast - “When we replace a sense of service and gratitude with a sense of entitlement and expectation, we quickly see the demise of our relationships, society, and economy.”
–Steve Maraboli - “There is no better opportunity to receive more than to be thankful for what you already have. Thanksgiving opens up the windows of opportunity for ideas to flow your way.”
–Jim Rohn - “Music and art both spring from a grateful heart.”
–Katie Wood McCloy
- “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
–Robert Brault - “I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”
–Brene Brown - “The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.”
–Henri Nouwen - “I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating. I don’t care if it’s a book, a film, a painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music. Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us. This world would be unlivable without art. Thank you for inspiring me.”
–Steven Soderberg - “This a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.”
–Maya Angelou
- “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.”
–Lionel Hampton - “The root of joy is gratefulness…It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”
–David Steindl-Rast - “That’s what I learned. I learned I couldn’t shed light on love other than to feel its comings and goings and be grateful.”
— Diane Keaton - “Gratitude is one of the most powerful human emotions. Once expressed, it changes attitude, brightens outlook, and broadens our perspective.”
–Germany Kent - “Gratefulness translates into a joy-filled understanding that informs art making a simplicity that goes beyond preconceived ideas and moves us toward truth.”
–Dean Taylor Drewyer - “The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.”
–William Blake
- “Gratitude opens the door to… the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe.”
–Deepak Chopra - “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.”
–Albert Einstein - “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 bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”
–John Milton - “For love casts out fear, and gratitude can conquer pride.”
— Louisa May Alcott
- “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
–Gilbert K. Chesterton - “Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you.”
–Eileen Caddy - “I truly believe experiencing gratitude on a daily basis will bring about more positive changes than any other thing you’ve tried before.”
— Josie Robinson - “Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.”
–Zig Ziglar - “Today, let us swim wildly, joyously in gratitude.”
–Rumi
- “In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.”
–David Steindl-Rast - “Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
–A.A. Milne - “Every time we decide to be grateful it will be easier to see new things to be grateful for. Gratitude begets gratitude, just as love begets love.”
— Henri J.M. Nouwen - “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
I hope, my dear, that all of these gratitude quotes can help you choose a happier path in life.
Despite my decades-long gratitude practice, exploring wise gratitude quotes helps remind me to be grateful no matter what’s happening in my life. So, if you need a lift, read through these gratitude quotes time and again. Better yet, take pen to paper and write them in your own journal.
Want more help in choosing happiness in addition to exploring gratitude quotes? Choose a Word of the Year!
Get your FREE Copy of this powerful workbook: A Guiding Light for 2024: Discover Your Word of the Year
Never forget that you deserve to be happy. And combining a word of the year with a gratitude practice – with inspiration from all these gratitude quotes – can help you make that a reality.
