Thanksgiving Gratitude Quotes for Your Holiday Designs

The word “Thanksgiving” comes from an ancient portmanteau of “giving” and “thanks.” That’s what we learned in college, anyway. But you don’t need fancy book learning to know that it’s a time of year when we stop to reflect on the things we’re grateful for. To help spread the cheer, we’ve rounded up a bunch of top-notch Thanksgiving gratitude quotes that'll help you say what you wanna say.

Find one (or a few) that you like, then share that sentiment by making cards, social posts, or whatever you please! Our designer-crafted templates make things super easy. They’re anxiously waiting for you to grace them with your design whims and wisdom, and they’ll help you flaunt a good-looking attitude of gratitude in record time.

General Thanksgiving gratitude quotes

From the sentimental to the irreverent, get gratitudinous with one of these all-purpose thankful tidbits.

• "It's not happy people who are thankful. It's thankful people who are happy."

• "What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?"

• Just remember: it could always get worse." - Yiddish folktale

• "Let's rock this day with love."

Poetry and literature quotes

Craving a fancier way to express your thanks? You can’t go wrong with a little literature. These poetic and literary quotes are some of our favorites for sharing your gratitude.

• "Piglet had noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude." - A.A. Milne

• "Whenever sorrow comes, be kind to it. For God has placed a pearl in sorrow's hand." - Rumi

• "Gratitude -- is not the mention / Of a Tenderness, / But its still appreciation / Out of Plumb of Speech." - Emily Dickinson

• "let us gather in a flourishing way / en la luz y en la carne of our heart to toil / tranquilos in fields of blossoms / juntos to stretch los brazos" - Juan Felipe Herrerra

Thanksgiving gratitude quotes from historical figures

Sometimes somebody else said it best. Honor a favorite historical figure by sharing their words with family and friends.

• "This is a wonderful day. I've never seen this one before." - Maya Angelou

• "Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone." - Gladys Bronwyn Stern

• "You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink." - G.K. Chesterton

• "We are all more blind to what we have than to what we have not." - Audre Lorde

Honorable mention: fake historical quotes

Quote investigators have roundly debunked these attributions … but they’re so good we couldn’t pass them up. After all, gratitude is a feeling, and feelings don’t respond to cold logical things like “who said what,” right?

• "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses." - Almost Certainly Not Abraham Lincoln

• "You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give." - Paraphrased from Winston Churchill

• "The more you are in a state of gratitude, the more you will attract things to be grateful for." - Nope, Not Walt Disney

• "You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy." - Buddha, Really? Nah.

How to Thanksgiving quotes to templates

Ready for a Thanksgiving project that’s as easy as store-bought pumpkin pie? Here’s how to pair your favorite quotes with one of PicMonkey's Thanksgiving templates.

1. In PicMonkey, click Create new > Templates.

2. Choose your favorite Thanksgiving template, or really any template you like (you can customize it easy-peasy).

3. Swap the template's text with your Thanksgiving gratitude quote. If you need to add a text box, click the Text tab, then click Add text.

4. Customize your text's font, size, position, and color. Try a text effect like outline or drop shadow.

5. More customization? Yes please. Add or swap out images and fun Thanksgiving graphics. You have tons to choose from.

6. Download your finished design as a JPG or PNG. It'll also save to Hub, PicMonkey's cloud storage, ready and waiting if you want to edit it later.

Need quotes for other occasions? We've collected plenty — see messages for small business holiday cards, New Year's cards, Valentine's day, weddings, mom's birthday, and sweet good night messages.