Saturday, February 23, 2008

Gratitude- christiansquoting.org.uk

One act of thanksgiving made when things go wrong is worth a thousand when things go well.

He who can give thanks for little will always find he has enough.

If you can't be content with what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped.

Thank God for dirty dishes,
They have a tale to tell,
While others may go hungry,
We're eating very well,
With home and hearth and happiness,
I shouldn't want to fuss,
For by the stack of evidence,
God's been good to us.
Thanksgiving is possible only for those who take time to remember; no one can give thanks who has a short memory..

Some people complain that God put thorns on roses, while others praise Him for putting roses on thorns.

Gratitude is the heart's memory.

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. --Aesop (c. 550 BC)

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. French Proverb

Pride slays thanksgiving, but an 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

Blessed is he who expects no gratitude, for he shall not be disappointed.--W. C. Bennett

..give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1Ths. 5:18 NIV

Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues. Cicero

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.-- Colette

No metaphysician ever felt the deficiency of language so much as the grateful.-- Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832)

Act with kindness, but do not expect gratitude. --Confucius (551-479 BC)

Reflect upon your present blessings - of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.--- Charles Dickens

I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude. Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift...of expressing all that is in me.
Anne Frank, 14, diary:, April 4th 1944

Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep. -- Felix Frankfurter

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion. -- Benjamin Franklin

Thanksgiving is the language of heaven, and we had better start to learn it if we are not to be mere dumb aliens there. ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954)

All this, and Heaven too! --Philip Henry (1631-1696) (As quoted in Matthew Henry's _Life of Philip Henry_)

Thou who hast given so much to me, give one thing more--a grateful heart. --George Herbert (1593-1633)

Thou who hast given so much to me, give one thing more--a grateful heart. --George Herbert (1593-1633)

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. Eric Hoffer

Not for the mighty world. O Lord, tonight,
Nations and kingdoms in their fearful might--
Let me be glad the kettle gently sings,
Let me be grateful for little things.
Edna Jaques
Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies.--Charles E. Jefferson (1860-1937)

When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped. -- Samuel Johnson: Letter to Hester Thrale (July 14, 1770)

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.--Helen Keller (1880-1968)

Be thankful for the smallest blessing, and you will deserve to receive greater. Value the least gifts no less than the greatest, and simple graces as especial favours. If you remember the dignity of the Giver, no gift will seem small or mean, for nothing can be valueless that is given by the most high God. -- Thomas a Kempis

We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is "good," because it is good; if "bad" because it works in us patience, humility and contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country. --Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963)_Letter to Don Giovanni Calabria_ [August 10, 1948]

Who is there that ever receives a gift and tries to make bargains about it? Let us, then, return thanks for what He has bestowed on us. Who can tell whether, if we had had a larger share of ability or stronger health, we should not have possessed them to our destruction. Alphonsus Liguori

Men are slower to recognise blessings than evils. Livy

He had a rose in his hand and marveled at it. "A glorious work of art by God," he said. "If a man had the capacity to make just one rose he would be given an empire! But the countless gifts of God are esteemed as nothing because they're always present. We see that God gives children to all men, the fruit of their bodies resembling the parents. A peasant is said to have three and four sons who look so much like him that they're easily mistaken for one another. All of these gifts are despised because they're always present. Luther's Tabletalk from No.4593

One of life's gifts is that each of us, no matter how tired and downtrodden, finds reasons for thankfulness.-- J. Robert Maskin

Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy -- Jacques Maritain

When thou has truly thanked the Lord for every blessing sent,
But little time will then remain for murmur or lament.
Hannah More

When everything we receive from him is received and prized as fruit and pledge of his covenant love, then his bounties, instead of being set up as rivals and idols to draw our heart from him, awaken us to fresh exercises of gratitude and furnish us with fresh motives of cheerful obedience every hour.-- John Newton

A man receiving charity always hates his benefactor- it is a fixed characteristic of human nature. George Orwell

The worship most acceptable to God comes from a thankful and cheerful heart. ---Plutarch

Be thankful for the least gift, so shalt thou be meet to receive greater. --Thomas A' Kempis (1380-1471)

G. K. Chesterton, when he wrote his autobiography near the end of a long and useful life, set himself the task of defining in a single sentence the most important lesson he had learned. He concluded that the critical thing was whether one took things for granted or took them with gratitude. --James Reston _Sketches in the Sand_

There are three kinds of giving: grudge giving, duty giving, and thanksgiving. Grudge giving says, "I hate to," duty giving says, "I ought to," thanksgiving says, "I want to." The first comes from constraint, the second from a sense of obligation, the third from a full heart. Nothing much is conveyed in grudge giving since "the gift without the giver is bare." Something more happens in duty giving but there is no song in it. Thanksgiving is an open gate into the love of God. --Robert N. Rodenmayer, _Thanks Be To God_

Were there no God, we would be in this glorious world with grateful hearts: and no one to thank. -- Christina Rossetti

O Lord, that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness. -- William Shakespeare

Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks. Hamlet Act ii. Sc. 2.

Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) _King Henry VI_, Part II [1590-1591]; Act II, Scene I

I can no other answer make but thanks,
And thanks, and ever thanks.
William Shakespeare, _Twelfth-Night_, Act III, sc. 3

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. ~ Gladys Browyn Stern

God has two dwellings: one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart. --Izaak Walton (1593-1683)

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. William Arthur Ward

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