99 Thanksgiving Quotes, Toasts & Blessings To Share With Family & Friends

The story of the first Thanksgiving is well-known. if still hotly debated, as the feast shared by the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and the Native People of the Wampanoag Nation to celebrate the autumn harvest of 1621.

As the legends (and historical records) have it, each welcomed, learned from, and accepted the other. That is forever the wonder of Thanksgiving. It is a time that reminds us to put aside our differences, even if only for long enough to sit for a meal with one another.

What is it that has the power to unite us all? The food is certainly alluring, but it's only one piece of a much larger, much more meaningful pie (pun absolutely intended).

The best Thanksgiving quotes sum it all up, as Thanksgiving is meant to remind us that, no matter what troubles may ail us, we must still recognize the good fortune we are blessed with to live in a nation of freedom and opportunity.

Some years we seem to be drowning in blessings, while during others we're clinging to only a few. But either way, the fourth Thursday in November is a time to put our problems in perspective and remember what we do have to be thankful for.

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The impact of shared gratitude can be strong enough to help us all overcome our differences. So this Thanksgiving, ask yourself what you have to be truly grateful for, and what you could offer to your friends, family, neighbors and even strangers in return.

To get you started, we selected 99 Thanksgiving quotes, toasts, and blessings to help you and your loved ones ring in the holiday season by giving sincere thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving Quotes

1. “When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup.” — ​Sam Lefkowitz

2. "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

3. “What if today, we were just grateful for everything?” — Charlie Brown

4. “Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple life... a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year — and the deep, deep connection of all these things with God.” — Ray Stannard Baker

5. “If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken.” — ​Ina Garten

6. “A thought about Thanksgiving Day: Once, there was this day... this one day when... everyone realized they needed each other.” —​ April Burns

7. “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

8. "America has developed a pie tradition unequivocally and unapologetically at the sweet end of the scale, and at no time is this better demonstrated than at Thanksgiving." — Janet Clarkson

9. “Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast” — ​William Shakespeare, "The Comedy Of Errors"

10. "An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day." — ​Irv Kupcinet

11. "It’s like being at the kids’ table at Thanksgiving – you can put your elbows on it, you don’t have to talk politics... no matter how old I get, there’s always a part of me that’s sitting there." — John Hughes

12. "My fondest memories are generally the day after Thanksgiving. I get the total decorating Christmas itch." — Katharine McPhee

13. "Give thanks not just on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of your life. Appreciate and never take for granted all that you have." — Catherine Pulsifer

14. "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." — Daniel Humm

15. “Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.” —​ Nigel Hamilton

16. “He who thanks but with the lips Thanks but in part; The full, the true Thanksgiving Comes from the heart.” — ​J.A. Shedd

17. “Forever on Thanksgiving Day the heart will find the pathway home.” — ​Wilbur D. Nesbit

18, “My favorite part is introducing my kids to the excitement and electricity of the holiday season.” —​ Savannah Guthrie

19. "Thanksgiving is the holiday that encompasses all others. All of them, from Martin Luther King Day to Arbor Day to Christmas to Valentine’s Day, are in one way or another about being thankful." — Jonathan Safran Foer

20. "The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we all can agree so vehemently about? I don’t think so." — Nora Ephron

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Inspirational Thanksgiving Quotes

21. “If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.” —​ W. Clement Stone

22. “Thanksgiving is more than one dinner. Thanksgiving is a time of celebrating everything you love.” —​ Robin Kite

23. “Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.” —​ Henry Ward Beecher

24. “Thanks are the highest form of thought, and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder” —​ G.K. Chesterton

25. "Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day." — Robert Caspar Lintner

26. "We all can ‘act’ a certain way for a brief period of time, for instance, on Thanksgiving, who of us hasn’t had to ‘act’ like we just loved everyone at the table? This brief show of good behavior is not true character. Our character is who we are when no one is looking." — Becky Van Volkinburg

27. "No one has ever become poor by giving." — Anne Frank

28. “Now is not the time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what.” —​ Ernest Hemingway

29. “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.” —​ Melody Beattie

30. “The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for.” —​ Norman Vincent Peale

31. "If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily." — Gerald Good

32. "An attitude of gratitude brings great things." — Yogi Bhajan

33. "You shouldn’t just give during Christmas and Thanksgiving you should be giving all the time." — Alcurtis Turner

34. “Gratitude helps us see what is instead of what isn’t.” —​ Unknown

35. “Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.” —​ Randy Pausch

36. “Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.” — ​Amy Grant

37. “Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day and leave out the gratitude.” —​ E.P. Powell

38. "An attitude of gratitude goes a long way when it comes to physical and emotional healing." — ​Jill Bolte Taylor

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Funny Thanksgiving Quotes

39. "The thing I'm most thankful for right now is elastic waistbands." —​ Unknown

40. "Coexistence: what the farmer does with the turkey — until Thanksgiving." — Mike Connolly

41. “Real ballplayers pass the stuffing by rolling it up in a ball and batting it across the table with a turkey leg.” — ​Tom Sawyers

42. "The Thanksgiving tradition is, we overeat. ‘Hey, how about at Thanksgiving we just eat a lot?’ ‘But we do that every day!’ ‘Oh. What if we eat a lot with people that annoy the hell out of us?" — Jim Gaffigan

43. “I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it.” —​ Robert Brault

44. “If there is a better way of showing thanks than eating a giant bird followed by pie, I’d like to see it.” — ​Jake Vig

45. "What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?" — ​Erma Bombeck

46. “I’m from Canada, so Thanksgiving to me is just Thursday with more food. And I’m thankful for that.” — ​Howie Mandel

47. “Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.” — ​Kevin James

48. "Here I am, 5 o’clock in the morning, stuffing bread crumbs up a dead bird’s butt." — Rosanne Barr

49. "Overeating at Thanksgiving is a case in point. It’s a national tradition." — Eric Samuel Timm

50. "The funny thing about Thanksgiving ,or any big meal, is that you spend 12 hours shopping for it then go home and cook, chop, braise and blanch. Then it’s gone in 20 minutes and everybody lies around sort of in a sugar coma and then it takes 4 hours to clean it up." — Ted Allen

51. "Cooking Tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out." —​ Nicole Hollander

52. “Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often.” —​ Johnny Carson

53. “After a good dinner, one can forgive anyone. Even ones own relations.” —​ Oscar Wilde

54. “I like football. I find its an exciting strategic game. It’s a great way to avoid conversation with your family at Thanksgiving.” —​ Craig Ferguson

55. “I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.” — Jon Stewart

56. “On this Thanksgiving Day good friends, good food, good wine, and good Spanx!” — ​Unknown

57. "Thanksgiving is America's national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty." — ​Michael Dresser

58. “You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.” — ​Jay Leno

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Thanksgiving Quotes About Giving Thanks

59. “And though I ebb in worth, I’ll flow in thanks.” — ​John Taylor

60. “Appreciation can change a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” —​ Margaret Cousins

61. “Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” —​ Charles Dickens

62. “The more we express thanks, the more gratitude we feel. The more gratitude we feel, the more we express thanks. It’s circular, and it leads to a happier life.” — ​Steve Goodier

63. “Thanksgiving reminds us that no matter what befalls us in life, we can take the charred remnants and we can reconstruct a life unimaginably richer than that from which the shards and pieces fell.” —​ Craig D. Lounsbrough

64. “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.” —​ Cicero

65. “Be thankful for what you have. Your life no matter how bad you think it is, is someone else’s fairytale.” — ​Wale Ayeni

66. “Thanksgiving isn’t just a day, it’s a way we can live our lives everyday.” —​ Katrina Mayer

67. "Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way." — Native American Saying

68. “If a fellow isn’t thankful for what he’s got, he isn’t likely to be thankful for what he’s going to get.” — ​Frank A. Clark

69. “No duty is more urgent than that of returning of thanks” — ​James Allen

70. “Happiness comes when we stop complaining about the troubles we have and offer thanks for the troubles we don’t have.” — ​Thomas S. Monson

71. “We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” — ​John F. Kennedy

72. "Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow." — Edward Sandford Martin

73. "On Thanksgiving, I will stop to give thanks that my family is safe and healthy, especially because I realize that, following the tragedies of this year, it is all too real a possibility that they might not have been." — Bobby Jindal

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Thanksgiving Blessings

74. "Be present in all things and thankful for all things." —​ Maya Angelou

75. “The cheerful heart has a continual feast.” —​ Proverbs 15:15

76. “Thank you is the best prayer that anyone can say. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility and understanding.” —​ Alice Walker

77. "Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain." — Alexander Pope

78. “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them is the true measure of Thanksgiving.” — ​W. T. Parker

79. "To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." — Johannes A. Gaertner

80. “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence." — Henry David Thoreau

81. “The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.” — ​William Blake

82. "Look at the sky: That is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass them on the street: Those faces are for you." —​ Miranda July

83. “On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.” —​ William Jennings Bryan

84. "Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings." — J. Robert Moskin

85. "I will praise God’s name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving." — Psalm 69:30

86. “Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.” —​ Theodore Roosevelt

87. "Even in the trials of life, if we have eyes to see them, we can find good things everywhere we look." — ​Joanna Gaines

88. "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not. Remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." —​ Epicurious

89. “Thanksgiving creates abundance.” —​ Ann Voskamp

90. "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." — Willie Nelson

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Thanksgiving Toasts

91. "It’s not too much food. This is what we’ve been training for our whole lives. This is our destiny, this is our finest hour." — Lorelai Gilmore, "Gilmore Girls"

92. “May your stuffing be tasty. May your turkey plump, May your potatoes and gravy, have a nary lump. May your yams be delicious, And your pies take the prize, And may your Thanksgiving dinner stay off your thighs.” — ​Unknown

93. “Drink and be thankful to the host! What seems insignificant when you have it, is important when you need it.” — ​Franz Grillparzer

94. “But see, in our open clearings, how golden the melons lie; Enrich them with sweets and spices, and give us the pumpkin-pie!” — ​Margaret Junkin Preston

95. "For what I have received may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly for what I have not received." — Storm Jameson

96. “Give thanks for a little, and you will find a lot.” — ​Hausa Proverb

97. "Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is." — Ernest Hemingway

98. "Once you start practicing being grateful and thankful for things, people, and events, you may notice that you start to attract more positive things, people, and events in your life." — Stephanie Conkle

99. “Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude” — ​Amy Leigh Mercree

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Kaitlin Kaiser​ is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture and relationship topics.