“When prosperous the fool trembles for the evil that is to come; in adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had.”
Ambrose Bierce · Epigrams, The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911)
La Rochefoucauld is cynical about thanks, and he might be right about some people. It's a useful reminder to check your own motives.
“When prosperous the fool trembles for the evil that is to come; in adversity the philosopher smiles for the good that he has had.”
Ambrose Bierce · Epigrams, The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce (1911)
“Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.”
Alfred Painter
“Gratitude plants the seed for abundance.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer
“One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay 'in kind' somewhere else in life.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“Nine-tenths of wisdom is appreciation. Go find somebody's hand and squeeze it, while there's time.”
Dale Dauten · Cited in Colleen Zuck et al., Daily Word for Families (2002)
“In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style.”
Rebecca Solnit
“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
A.A. Milne · The House at Pooh Corner (1928)
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.”
Melody Beattie
“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
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”
Willie Nelson