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. . . see: "APPRECIATION" see: "THANKFULNESS" see: "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for other related links Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. --Æsop (c. 620 B.C.—c. 560 B.C.) (Thought to be a legendary figure.) _Æsop Fables_ "Androcles" The world (and my self) seem to me this morning, in light of recent context, evil, exhausting and hopeless, not to mention nauseating and infuriating and incurable, yet I am thoroughly glad I am in it and alive. --James Agee (1909—1955) American novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic. In James Harold Flye _Letters of James Agee to Father Flye_ [1962]. Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade. --Arabian Proverb Love is perhaps no more than gratitude for pleasure. --Honoré de Balzac (1799—1850) French journalist and writer. _Le Père Goriot_ (Father Goriot or Old Goriot) [1834-35] - A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. --Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887) American Congregational minister; brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher. In Henry Ward Beecher and Edna Dean Proctor, _Life Thoughts: Gathered From the Extemporaneous Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher_, p. 115 [1858]. Next to ingratitude the most painful thing to bear is gratitude. --Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887) American Congregational minister; brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher. _Norwood; or, Village in New England_ [1867] - Blessed is he who expects no gratitude, for he shall not be disappointed. --attributed to W. C. Bennett If with pleasure you are viewing, Any work a man is doing, If you like him or love him, tell him now. Do not wait till life is over, And he's underneath the clover, For he cannot read his tombstone when he's dead. --Berton Braley (1882—1966) American poet. _Do It Now_ You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you. --Sarah Ban Breathnach _Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy_ [1995] When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep? No — here's to the pilot that weathered the storm. --George Canning (1770—1827) British statesman; prime minister [1827]. Song for the inauguration of the Pitt Club [25 May 1802]. Count not what is lost but what is left. --Chinese Proverb A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC) Roman orator and statesman. _Oratio Pro Ciueu Plaiicio_ XXXIII Quoted in J. K. Hoyt (ed.) _The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_ p. 799 [1896]. Act with kindness, but do not expect gratitude. --attributed to Confucius (551—479 B.C.) K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher. The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten. --Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933) American Republican statesman and President [1923—1929]. Speech at Northhampton, Massachusetts, accepting the Republican vice-presidential nomination [27 July 1920]. According to a new survey, women say they feel more comfortable undressing in front of men than they do in front of other women. They say that women are too judgemental, whereas, of course, men are just grateful. --attributed to Robert De Niro, Jr. (b. 1943) American actor. I feel a very unusual sensation — if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude. --Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881) British Tory statesman, novelist, and Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880]. Quoted in _Transactions of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy_, vol. 58, p. 23 [1948]. - In 1952 when ... my mother was dying. I held her frail hand in mine for hours, looking at the pale face of my ma. That's what I always called her--not Mum, not Momma, not Mother--just Ma. . . . Her startling last words still echo somewhere deep inside of me. My mother, in her last moments, was concerned about me. She was a real mother who took care of me till the very end of her life. Now, lying in my hospital bed, I wondered: What happens when you die? Could I see my mother again? I would like that. But maybe, after death, you come before that mythical Man with a long beard, sitting on a throne. You stand before Him, puny and timid. Then you ask, "Is this heaven?" And He roars back, "Heaven! You just came from there!" And as your eyes widen, He continues, "Ingrate! Didn't you like the sunrise, the sunset, the moon, and the stars? Weren't you pleased with the mountains, forests, rivers, and streams that I gave you?" I remain silent as the voice roars. "Didn't you like the fragrant flowers and fruits and vegetables I gave you? And when I nurtured those plants with rain, you complained because you couldn't play golf. Ingrate! That was heaven!" --Kirk Douglas [Issur Danielovitch] (b. 1916) American film actor and producer. _My Stroke of Luck_ [2002], "Death Takes a Holiday" - - For, the expectation of gratitude is mean, and is continually punished by the total insensibility of the obliged person. It is a great happiness to get off without injury and heart-burning, from one who has had the ill luck to be served by you. It is a very onerous business, this of being served, and the debtor naturally wishes to give you a slap. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. "Gifts" _Essays_, Second Series [1844] We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. "Gifts" _Essays_, Second Series [1844] - Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude all the time, is having to accept it. --William Faulkner (1897—1962) American novelist. _Requiem for a Nun_ [1951] Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep. --Felix Frankfurter (1882—1965) Austrian-born U.S. Supreme Court justice who helped found the A.C.L.U.. Quoted in _Law and Politics: Occasional Papers of Felix Frankfurter 1913-1938_ [Harcourt, Brace; 1939]. The heaviest debt is that of gratitude When it is not in our power to repay it. --Dr. Thomas Franklin _Matilda_ [1775 play] - Now let all of us who are moderate, reasonable, fair-minded, balanced and normal, lift up our voices and give thanks to all those who are immoderate, unreasonable, bloody-minded, unbalanced and crazy; because without them as our context it is we who should be the abnormal ones. If all 3,500 million people in the world who are more despicable than you were taken out and shot for their shortcomings, you would be the most despicable creature on the face of the earth. --Michael Frayn (b. 1933) British novelist and playwright, _Constructions_, # 70 [1974] - If we meet someone who owes us a debt of gratitude, we remember the fact at once. How often can we meet someone to whom we owe a debt of gratitude without thinking about it at all! --attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832) German poet, novelist, and playwright. People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them. --Eric Hoffer (1902—1983) American longshoreman, philosopher, and author who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982. Quoted in "New York Times Magazine" [25 April 1971]. Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. [20 Sept. 1773] entry in Boswell's _The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_ [1786]. 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) American author and educator who was blind and deaf. _The Open Door_ [1957] - The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. _Maxims_ [1665], #298, tr. Louis Kronenberger [1959] Almost every one takes pleasure in repaying trifling obligations, very many feel gratitude for those that are moderate; but there is scarcely any one who is not ungrateful for those that are weighty. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. Quoted in Maturin M. Ballou _Treasury of Thought_ p. 214 [15th ed. 1894]. & note: Most people return small favors, acknowledge middling ones and repay great ones — with ingratitude. --Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. _Poor Richard's Almanack_ [April 1757] - A single grateful thought towards heaven is the most perfect prayer. --Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729—1781) German dramatist. _Minna von Barnhelm_, II, vii [1767] ^ Before I sit down to watch the Memorial Day Concert on PBS I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all who served in WW II. I was a young girl in Britain when we were 'invaded' by hordes of gum-chewing, wise-cracking young men who tore up our beautiful fields to lay down runways for the aircraft that would soon be taking off on missions. At first we resented those loud, brash fellows who drove too fast on our country lanes and who filled up our pubs. They were young, wonderfully handsome and cocky in their new-found roles of about-to-be-heroes. They soon became 'our boys'. I was able to be with some of them after D-Day at a Red Cross Club in London. Their youthful brashness was gone — they would never quite be young again. My thanks to their families and all those on the Home Front who also 'served'. Now I will go and watch the program with a tug of the heartstrings as memories come flooding in. --Lorna May soc.retirement (Usenet newsgroup) [24 May 1998] ^ [Man talking to his psychiatrist:] I do count my blessings, but then I end up counting those of others who have more and better blessings, and that pisses me off. --Cartoon caption, _The New Yorker_ [26 November 2007] - What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; — 'Tis dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. --Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809) English-American writer and political pamphleteer. "The American Crisis" (a pamphlet) no. 1 [19 December 1776] & see: People generally do not appreciate what they do not suffer for. A thing is held to be cheap if it did not cost dearly. Honor is lightly worn if it was easily attained. Inherited liberty is too often carelessly used until it is repossessed through sacrifices. --Fred Robert Tiffany, D.D. Attributed in Jacob Morton Braude _Handbook of Stories for Toastmasters and Speakers_ [1967]. - It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived. --George S. Patton, Jr. (1885—1945) American general. Speech in Boston, Massachusetts [7 June 1945]. Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. --Marcel Proust (1871—1922) French novelist. _Pleasures and Regrets_ [1896] 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 Barrett "Scotty" Reston (1909—1995) Scottish-born American journalist; two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for reporting. _Sketches in the Sand_ [1967] Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid, but which none have a right to expect. --Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778) French philosopher and novelist. Attributed in _Mental Recreation Or, Select Maxims_, p. 129 [Longman & Rees, London, 1831]. Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost. --Robert H. Schuller (b. 1926) American televangelist. _Power Thoughts_ [1993] - We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, as life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC—65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet. _Moral Essays_, "Of Benefits" It is another's fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man I will oblige a great many that are not so. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC—65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet. _Moral Essays_, "Of Benefits" - How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _King Lear_, I, iv, 280 [1605—1606] [Gratitude] is a sickness suffered by dogs. --Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (1879—1953), Soviet Communist leader and head of the USSR from the death of V. I. Lenin (1924) until his own death. In Nikolai Tolstoy _Stalin's Secret War_ [1981]. Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone. --Gladys Browyn Stern (1890—1973) English author and playwright. Attributed in _Proceedings, International Engineering Management Conference_ [1990]. Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure. --Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus] (c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian. In Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) _The Discourses_ [1517]. ^ Norma Talmadge (1895-1957) American silent movie actress. Some years into her retirement, after making over fifty movies and reigning as a queen of Hollywood for years, she was besieged by a crowd of admirers when she was spotted leaving a restaurant in Los Angeles. As she drove away, she called out to her fans, 'Go away! I don't need you anymore.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. --William Arthur Ward (1921—1994) American college administrator and author. Attributed in "Reader's Digest" [1995]. Like birds, whose beauties languish half concealed, Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes Expanded, shine with azure, green and gold; How blessings brighten as they take their flight. --Edward Young (1683—1765) English poet. "Night Thoughts", II, l. 589 [1742-1745] - Gratitude is the memory of the heart. --anon. ----- beholden (adj.) Obliged; bound in gratitude; indebted. end page | GAMBLING - GARDENS | GARFIELD - GENERATION GAP | GENEROSITY - GENTLEMEN | GEOGRAPHY - GERSHWIN | GHOSTS - GLASSES | GLOBALIZATION - GOALS | GOD | GOLF | GOOD DEEDS - GOODBYES | GOODNESS - GOVERNMENT | GRACE - GRASS | GRATITUDE | GRAVEYARDS - GREED | GREETINGS - GROWING | GROWING OLDER - PAGE 1 (A-L) | GROWING OLDER - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | GROWING UP - GULLIBLE | GUN CONTROL & GUNS | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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