Natalie Seale

Natalie Seale is a writer, researcher, and editor for keepinspiring.me. She holds an MA, MSc, and PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh, and has started two businesses since 2011. Natalie is an avid reader, a keen traveller, and enjoys cooking and walking with her English Spaniel. Her posts focus on inspiring others to live healthy, happy, and active lives.

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Mark Twain Quotes

Samuel Clemens, better know by his pen-name Mark Twain, was a writer, publisher, humorist, and entrepreneur. These Mark Twain quotes …

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115 Faith Quotes

Faith is a complete trust or confidence in someone or something. These faith quotes will show you the way.

Many of us identify faith with a strong sense of belief in God. We have confidence in the things we hope and pray for, and assurance that He is working in our lives – even when we cannot see it.

In order to succeed, we must also have faith in ourselves and our abilities. This sense of self-belief, even in the face of great difficulty or failure, is often what sets the successful apart.

Here are 115 amazing quotes about faith. Whether you are seeking a reminder of the importance of faith in hard times or just looking to be inspired by something bigger, we hope you’ll find the perfect faith quote here.

Faith Quotes

Martin Luther quote "We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone"
“We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” – Martin Luther

Faith is not the belief that God will do what you want. It is the belief that God will do what is right.

Max Lucado, He Still Moves Stones: Everyone Needs a Miracle

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.

Kahlil Gibran

Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason. Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.

Madeleine L’Engle

Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.

Beatrix Potter

All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.

J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

J.R.R. Tolkien

I don’t think that we’re meant to understand it all the time. I think that sometimes we just have to have faith.

Nicholas Sparks, A Walk to Remember

Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark. If we truly knew all the answers in advance as to the meaning of life and the nature of God and the destiny of our souls, our belief would not be a leap of faith and it would not be a courageous act of humanity; it would just be… a prudent insurance policy.

Elizabeth Gilbert
Mitch Albom quote "Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe"
“Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.” – Mitch Albom

The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.

J.M. Barrie

Faith does not eliminate questions. But faith knows where to take them.

Elisabeth Elliot

None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.

Paulo Coelho

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

Alan Wilson Watts

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.

G.K. Chesterton

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility.

Orson F. Whitney

Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.

Mahatma Gandhi

You have as much laughter as you have faith.

Martin Luther

I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith.

Immanuel Kant

But there were some things I believed in. Some things I had faith in. And faith isn’t about perfect attendance to services, or how much money you put on the little plate. It isn’t about going skyclad to the Holy Rites, or meditating each day upon the divine. Faith is about what you do. It’s about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It’s about making sacrifices for the good of others – even when there’s not going to be anyone telling you what a hero you are.

Jim Butcher
Emerson faith quote "All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen"
“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

St. Augustine of Hippo

It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

He who thinks half-heartedly will not believe in God; but he who really thinks has to believe in God.

Isaac Newton

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1, ESV

True faith rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the One who cannot lie.

A.W. Tozer

Real change is difficult at the beginning. Without the familiar to rely upon, you may not in as much command as you had once been. When things are not going your way, you will start doubting yourself. Stay positive, keep the faith, and keep moving forward – your breakthrough may be just around the corner.

Roy T. Bennett

I perceive God everywhere in His works. I sense Him in me; I see Him all around me.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.

Paul Tillich

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7, ESV
AW Tozer quote "Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith"
“Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith.” – A.W. Tozer

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Mahatma Gandhi

Never lose faith in yourself, and never lose hope; remember, even when this world throws its worst and then turns its back, there is still always hope.

Pittacus Lore

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Everyone would like to have stronger faith. By themselves, the scriptures may not strengthen your faith, but being faithful to what they teach, does. In other words, faith cannot be separated from faithfulness.

John Bytheway

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible.

Stanislaw Lem

If you can see the invisible, God will do the impossible.

Joel Osteen

True faith manifests itself through our actions.

Francis Chan
Charles Spurgeon quote "Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement"
“Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.” – Charles Spurgeon

The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting.

Oswald Chambers

Faith, the least exclusive club on Earth, has the craftiest doorman. Every time I’ve stepped through its wide-open doorway, I find myself stepping out on the street again.

David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

Thomas Merton

In order to have faith in his own path, he does not need to prove that someone else’s path is wrong.

Paulo Coelho

It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.

Timothy Keller

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, faith looks up.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith is universal. Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary. Some of us pray to Jesus, some of us go to Mecca, some of us study subatomic particles. In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.

Dan Brown, Angels and Demons

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.

Rabindranath Tagore

Just because you can explain it doesn’t mean it’s not still a miracle.

Terry Pratchett
Paul Tillich faith quote "Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith"
“Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.” – Paul Tillich

Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.

Ken Follett

Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God.

A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

You can’t know, you can only believe – or not.

C.S. Lewis

Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.

Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman

Reason is in fact the path to faith, and faith takes over when reason can say no more.

Thomas Merton

Faith don’t come in a bushel basket, Missy. It come one step at a time. Decide to trust Him for one little thing today, and before you know it, you find out He’s so trustworthy you be putting your whole life in His hands.

Lynn Austin, Candle in the Darkness

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable

Maya Angelou

We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray.

Corrie Ten Boom

What is belief – what is faith – if you don’t continue it after failure?

Brandon Sanderson
Franz Kafka quote "Even the merest gesture is holy if it is filled with faith"
“Even the merest gesture is holy if it is filled with faith.” – Franz Kafka

Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing. We are in it.

Richard Rohr

Life is doubt,
And faith without doubt is nothing but death.

Miguel de Unamuno

You were made by God and for God and until you understand that, life will never make sense.

Rick Warren

Leap, and the net will appear.

Julia Cameron

Faith is like radar that sees through the fog — the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see.

Corrie Ten Boom

God does not require that we be successful only that we be faithful.

Mother Teresa

For he who loves God without faith reflects on himself, while the person who loves God in faith reflects on God.

Søren Kierkegaard

Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.

Frederick Buechner

A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.

Arthur C. Clarke

All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.

Martin Luther
Ravi Shankar quote "Faith is realizing that you always get what you need"
“Faith is realizing that you always get what you need.” – Ravi Shankar

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Soren Kierkegaard

A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Christian should work as if all depended upon him, and pray as if it all depended upon God.

Charles Spurgeon

Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: It comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.

Henry Miller

When you aren’t sincere you need to pretend, and by pretending you end up believing yourself; that’s the basic principle of every faith.

Alberto Moravia

Do not ask directions from the people around you. Ask directions from the person who called you.

Bo Sanchez

Believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Have faith in your own abilities, work hard, and there is nothing you cannot accomplish.

Brad Henry

Our lives are the only meaningful expression of what we believe and in Whom we believe. And the only real wealth, for any of us, lies in our faith.

George B. Hinckley

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.

Martin Luther

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy

Norman Vincent Peale
Marty Rubin quote "The deep roots never doubt spring will come"
“The deep roots never doubt spring will come.” – Marty Rubin

A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. It is an expression of humility. It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being.

James E. Faust

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

Henry David Thoreau

Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them.

Mahalia Jackson

If you lose faith, you lose all.

Eleanor Roosevelt

You need to have faith in yourself. Be brave and take risks. You don’t have to have it all figured out to move forward.

Roy T. Bennett

Patience is not the ability to wait. Patience is to be calm no matter what happens, constantly take action to turn it to positive growth opportunities, and have faith to believe that it will all work out in the end while you are waiting.

Roy T. Bennett

Faith makes all things possible. Love makes them easy.

Dwight L. Moody

Faith is accepting what makes no sense, what we cannot prove, but know down deep in our souls is real.

Megan McCafferty

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

Corrie Ten Boom

When you get to the end of all the light you know and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.

Edward Teller
Amy Gatliff quote "The greatest act of faith some days is to simply get up and face another day"
“The greatest act of faith some days is to simply get up and face another day.” – Amy Gatliff

Do not be afraid; our fate
Cannot be taken from us; it is a gift.

Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Faith and Reason are like two wings of the human spirit by which is soars to the truth.

Pope John Paul II

Faith is not so much something we believe; faith is something we live.

Joseph Wirthlin

All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light.

James Joyce

God’s revelation does not need the light of human genius, the polish and strength of human culture, the brilliancy of human thought, the force of human brains to adorn or enforce it; but it does demand the simplicity, the docility, humility, and faith of a child’s heart.

E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

Faith is not a blind thing; for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing; for faith believes facts of which it is sure. It is not an unpractical, dreamy thing; for faith trusts, and stakes its destiny upon the truth of revelation.

Charles Spurgeon, All of Grace

The difference between faith and insanity is that faith is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence, whereas insanity is the ability to hold firmly to a conclusion that is incompatible with the evidence.

William Harwood

Faith is not about finding meaning in the world, there may be no such thing — faith is the belief in our capacity to create meaningful lives.

Terry Tempest Williams

Faith is unseen but felt, faith is strength when we feel we have none, faith is hope when all seems lost.

Catherine Pulsifer
Kahlil Gibran quote "Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof"
“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.” – Kahlil Gibran

Through hard work, perseverance and a faith in God, you can live your dreams.

Ben Carson

Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.

Steve Jobs

I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.

William Sloane Coffin

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.

Billy Graham

Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I’d look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer.

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Faith doesn’t mean that you never doubt. It only means that you never act upon your doubts.

Orson Scott Card

Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now.

A.W. Tozer

Faith in God includes Faith in God’s timing.

Neal A. Maxwell
Euripides quote about faith "He who believes needs no explanation"
“He who believes needs no explanation.” – Euripides

We know that when times are tough, it can be difficult to keep our faith. Yet sometimes the greatest blessings are disguised among our hardest challenges. We hope that these faith quotes will inspire you today and for many days to come.

107 Thanksgiving Quotes to Make You Feel Thankful

It’s so easy to get caught up in our busy lives.

From New Years resolutions to spring cleaning, and summer vacations to the holidays—life can come and go as quickly as the seasons.

That’s why it’s so important to pause, reflect, and feel gratitude for all the blessings we have in our lives.

In that spirit, here are 107 Thanksgiving Quotes to use for the holidays and throughout the year.

Thanksgiving Quotes

Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.

Nigel Hamilton

I love Thanksgiving because it is a holiday centered around food and family, two things that are of utmost importance to me.

Marcus Samuelsson

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
Erma Bombeck quote "Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence"
“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.” – Erma Bombeck

He who thanks but with the lips Thanks but in part; The full, the true Thanksgiving Comes from the heart.

J.A. Shedd

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

If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken.

Ina Garten

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

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattie

Remember God’s bounty in the year. String the pearls of His favor. Hide the dark parts, except so far as they are breaking out in light! Give this one day to thanks, to joy, to gratitude!

Henry Ward Beecher

We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.

John F. Kennedy
Johnny Carson quote "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"
“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

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.

H.U. Westermayer

Appreciation can change a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.

Margaret Cousins

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

John F. Kennedy

I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.

Erma Bombeck

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
Robert Caspar Lintner quote “Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day”
“Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.” – Robert Caspar Lintner

It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.

Alistair Cooke

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

There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.

O. Henry, Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen
WT Purisker quote “Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving”
“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” – W.T. Purkiser

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

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

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

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are.

Joyce Giraud

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
George Bush Thanksgiving quote “All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives”
“All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives.” – George W. Bush

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Charles Dickens

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

Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.

Kevin James

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

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
Dalai Lama Thanksgiving quote "The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness"
“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” – Dalai Lama

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

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

Although Thanksgiving comes but once a year, every day should be a day of Thanks. Among all the challenges that we face as people with hearing loss there are certainly brighter moments in every day – moments that deserve to be recorded in our Gratitude Journal.

Monique Hammond

Real ballplayers pass the stuffing by rolling it up in a ball and batting it across the table with a turkey leg.

Tom Swyers

Thanksgiving Day is a good day to recommit our energies to giving thanks and just giving.

Amy Grant
Willard Scott quote “Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside”
“Thanksgiving just gets me all warm and tingly and all kinds of wonderful inside.” – Willard Scott

My most memorable meal is every Thanksgiving. I love the food: the turkey and stuffing; the sweet potatoes and rice, which come from my mother’s Southern heritage; the mashed potatoes, which come from my wife’s Midwestern roots; the Campbell’s green-bean casserole; and of course, pumpkin pie.

Douglas Conant

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

You shouldn’t just give during Christmas and Thanksgiving you should be giving all the time.

Alcurtis Turner

My fondest memories are generally the day after Thanksgiving. I get the total decorating Christmas itch.

Katharine McPhee

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are.

Joyce Giraud
Irv Kupcinet quote "An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day"
“An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.” – Irv Kupcinet

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

Thanksgiving, our eminent moral holiday, doesn’t have much for children. At its heart are conversation, food, drink, and fellowship – all perks of adulthood.

Rosecrans Baldwin

Thanksgiving is America’s favorite holiday because it’s a time when we put aside our cares, much as the struggling Pilgrims did nearly four centuries ago, and eat a gut-busting meal without worrying about the ‘out years.’

David Ignatius

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

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
Mike Connolly quote “Coexistence: what the farmer does with the turkey — until Thanksgiving”
“Coexistence: what the farmer does with the turkey — until Thanksgiving.” – Mike Connolly

Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet. Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place. There is not, and there never has been a better time, or a better place to live in.

Phillips Brooks

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

Cicero

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

I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it.

Robert Brault

Thanksgiving is so called because we are all so thankful that it only comes once a year.

P. J. O’Rourke
Michael Dresser quote "Thanksgiving is America's national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty"
“Thanksgiving is America’s national chow-down feast, the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty.” – Michael Dresser

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

W.T. Purkiser

If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily.

Gerald Good

If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.

W. Clement Stone

The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.

William Blake

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

It took me three weeks to stuff the turkey. I stuffed it through the beak.

Phyllis Diller
Nicole Hollander quote “Cooking Tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out”
“Cooking Tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out.” – Nicole Hollander

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

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

I’m from Canada, so Thanksgiving to me is just Thursday with more food. And I’m thankful for that.

Howie Mandel

If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There’s turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Someone needs to tell the turkey, man, just be yourself.

Mitch Hedberg

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.

W.J. Cameron
Jim Davis quote “Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie”
“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.” – Jim Davis

Most turkeys taste better the day after; my mother’s tasted better the day before.

Rita Rudner

You can tell you ate too much for Thanksgiving when you have to let your bathrobe out.

Jay Leno

My Thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite — only a sense of existence.

Henry David Thoreau

And though I ebb in worth, I’ll flow in thanks.

John Taylor

Forever on Thanksgiving Day the heart will find the pathway home.

Wilbur D. Nesbit
Amy Leigh Mercree quote “Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude”
“Thanksgiving is a joyous invitation to shower the world with love and gratitude.” – Amy Leigh Mercree

Thanksgiving in Books, Films, and TV

A thought about Thanksgiving Day: Once, there was this day… this one day when… everyone realized they needed each other.

April Burns, Pieces of April

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

Rosanne Barr, Rosanne

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

Thornton Wilder, The Woman of Andros

Thanksgiving creates abundance.

Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
Oscar Wilde Thanksgiving quote "After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations"
“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” – Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

Thanksgiving was nothing more than a pilgrim-created obstacle in the way of Christmas; a dead bird in the street that forced a brief detour.

Augusten Burroughs, You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

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, The Food You Want to Eat: 100 Smart, Simple Recipes

I always think it’s funny when Indians celebrate Thanksgiving. I mean, sure, the Indians and Pilgrims were best friends during the first Thanksgiving, but a few years later, the Pilgrims were shooting Indians. So I’m never quite sure why we eat Turkey like everybody else.

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

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, Pie: A Global History
Elizabeth Camden quote “Preparing and serving food had always been a joy, for it made her appreciate the abundance of the world”
“Preparing and serving food had always been a joy, for it made her appreciate the abundance of the world.” – Elizabeth Camden, Until The Dawn

About 94 percent of Americans prepare and serve turkey at home and most people stick to a traditional menu for the main meal: turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed white potatoes with giblet gravy, candied sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, a cooked green vegetable dish, relishes, and a pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.

Martin K. Gay, Encyclopedia of North American Eating & Drinking Traditions, Customs, and Rituals

I can’t cook a Thanksgiving dinner. All I can make is cold cereal and maybe toast.

Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

‘So what do we do?’ We do what all families do. Grin, bear it, and pass the mashed potatoes.

Heather Brewer, Eleventh Grade Burns

In November, people are good to each other. They carry pies to each other’s homes and talk by crackling woodstoves, sipping mellow cider. They travel very far on a special November day just to share a meal with one another and to give thanks for their many blessings – for the food on their tables and the babies in their arms.

Cynthia Rylant, In November
Carew Papritz quote “Thanksgiving - fall's finale. Best damn holiday of the year in my worldly estimation”
“Thanksgiving – fall’s finale. Best damn holiday of the year in my worldly estimation.” – Carew Papritz, The Legacy Letters: His Wife, His Children, His Final Gift

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, Eating Animals

Overeating at Thanksgiving is a case in point. It’s a national tradition.

Eric Samuel Timm, Static Jedi: The Art of Hearing God Through the Noise

The next day, eating a turkey sandwich with salt and mayonnaise, Rebecca decided Thanksgiving was the best holiday, although she had little to choose from: her family never celebrated Hanukkah but her father was militant about ignoring Christmas and insisted they spend December 25 eating Chinese takeout and going to the movies.

Anna Quindlen, Still Life with Bread Crumbs

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go baste the turkey and hide the kitchen knives.

Mrs. Pascal in The House of Yes

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 in Gilmore Girls
Ambrose Pierce quote “Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude”
“Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude.” – Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

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, Happy Person. Happy Life. A Recipe for Happiness

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, God’s Word, Your Voice

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Turkey for the girls and Turkey for the boys. My favorite kind of pants are corduroys. Gobble gobble goo and Gobble gobble gickel. I wish turkey only cost a nickel. Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Adam Sandler, The Thanksgiving Song

Family gathers to share good noise and good food. Gratitude abounds.

Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & A Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
William Shakespeare quote "Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast"
“Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.” – William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors

Did you enjoy our list of Thanksgiving quotes? Which one sparked your holiday spirit? Share your favorite thanksgiving quote in the comments below – we’d love to add any additions to the list!

Updated November 19, 2020.

Political Quotes

Politics has always played a central role in everyday life, but these political quotes put it all in perspective. In …

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Teamwork Quotes

We’ve all heard the saying that teamwork makes the dream work… but it turns out, it’s actually true! These teamwork quotes show the beauty of working with others to accomplish common goals.

When we focus our energies on working together, we are able to complete tasks and meet our goals in more effective and efficient ways. A great team works together cohesively towards a common goal, and creates a positive atmosphere for everyone. Its members support and encourage one another to strive for success.

Whether you’re in a team at work or play sports for fun, being part of a group can be a great force for good in your life. Supporting others and knowing that they, too, have your back can make challenges and obstacles easier to overcome.

We hope you’ll be inspired by these amazing quotes about teamwork!

Teamwork Quotes

Henry Ford teamwork quote "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself"
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” – Henry Ford

Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.

Patrick Lencioni

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

John D. Rockefeller

Teamwork: simply stated, it is less me, more we.

Anonymous

The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.

John Wooden
Isaac Newton quote "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants"
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” – Isaac Newton

I like working with people. I believe change can only come through collaboration.

Alain de Botton

No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.

Reid Hoffman

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

Booker T. Washington

It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.

Charles Darwin
Helen Keller teamwork quote "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

Andrew Carnegie

Together, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results.

Becka Schoettle

The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.

Knute Rockne

The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.

Babe Ruth
"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit"
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” – Harry S. Truman

One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up, add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends; needless to say that individuality counts but teamwork dynamites.

Jin Kwon

No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.

Reid Hoffman

Collaboration and augmentation are the foundational principles of innovation.

Vaclav Smil

The whole is other than the sum of the parts.

Kurt Koffka
Napoleon Hill teamwork quote "It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed"
“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” – Napoleon Hill

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.

Mike Krzyzewski

No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.

Warren Buffet

Unity is strength. . . when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.

Mattie Stepanek

If you can laugh together, you can work together.

Robert Orben
Ken Blanchard quote "None of us is as smart as all of us"
“None of us is as smart as all of us.” – Ken Blanchard

You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.

Jim Stovall

I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition.

Jean-Francois Cope

There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.

George Shinn

Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.

Vince Lombardi
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together"
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.

Henry Ford

The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.

James Cash Penney

Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.

Amy Poelher
"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships"
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” – Michael Jordan

None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.

Mother Teresa

Politeness is the poison of collaboration.

Edwin Land

The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.

Iyanla Vanzant

Collaboration allows teachers to capture each other’s fund of collective intelligence.

Mike Schmoker
"No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it"
“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.” – H.E. Luccock

When you form a team, why do you try to form a team? Because teamwork builds trust and trust builds speed.

Russel Honore

When you need to innovate, you need collaboration.

Marissa Mayer

Sometimes, great collaboration is hard to nurture online, so doing so offline is the way to go.

Cameron Russell
Satoro teamwork quote "Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean"
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro

A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of others.

Norman Shidle

The ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team.

Lewis Ergen

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Mark Twain

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up.

Oliver Wendell Holmes
Steve Jobs teamwork quote "Great things in business are never done by one person; they're done by a team of people"
“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs

Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.

Virginia Burden

Success is best when it’s shared.

Howard Schulz

Effectively, change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation, and consensus.

Simon Mainwaring

The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.

Phil Jackson
Louisa May Alcott teamwork quote "It takes two flints to make a fire"
“It takes two flints to make a fire.” – Louisa May Alcott

We hope you’ve enjoyed this collection of teamwork quotes! Though working together presents challenges, the rewards of celebrating your collective victory will always be sweet.

Fall Quotes

Now that September is upon us, it seems that we can almost smell Fall in the air! These fall quotes …

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Patience Quotes

Patience is the ability to remain calm when dealing with a difficult or trying task, situation, or person. Patience is …

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Kindness Quotes

Kindness is a quality or type of behavior that is characterized by acts of generosity, consideration, and care and concern for others.

It is a virtue that is prized in almost every culture and religion in the world.

Here are the best kindness quotes to inspire you to make the world a kinder and more considerate place.

Whether it’s Random Acts of Kindness Day, or any other day of the year, take a moment to bring a smile to someone else’s face. Your small kind gesture could make their day, or even change their life.

Kindness Quotes

Eric Hoffer quote "Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind"
“Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.” – Eric Hoffer

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.

William Penn

A random act of kindness, no matter how small, can make a tremendous impact on someone else’s life.

Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Life is mostly froth and bubble; Two things stand like stone: Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in our own.

Adam Lindsay Gordon

I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.

Mother Teresa

Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.

Henry James
"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late"
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his wickedness.

Lao Tzu

It’s all a matter of paying attention, being awake in the present moment, and not expecting a huge payoff. The magic in this world seems to work in whispers and small kindnesses.

Charles de Lint

Because I haven’t yet learned the simplest and most important thing of all: the world is difficult, and we are all breakable. So just be kind.

Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl

Be kind to people whether they deserve your kindness or not. If your kindness reaches the deserving good for you if your kindness reaches the undeserving take joy in your compassion.

James Fadiman
William Arthur Ward quote "A warm smile is the universal language of kindness"
“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” – William Arthur Ward

There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world.

Mary Anne Radmacher

Kindness has no religion. Religions are like narrow tracks but kindness is like an open sky.

Amit Ray

Silence the angry man with love. Silence the ill-natured man with kindness. Silence the miser with generosity. Silence the liar with truth.

Buddha

A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.

St. Basil

Kind hearts are the gardens. Kind thoughts are the roots. Kind words are the blossoms. Kind deeds are the fruits.

Kirpal Singh

How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time.

Morgan Freeman
Richard Carlson kindness quote "Choose being kind over being right and you'll be right every time"
“Choose being kind over being right and you’ll be right every time.” – Richard Carlson

Be kind in your actions. Do not think that you are the only one who can do efficient work, work worth showing. This makes you harsh in your judgment of others who may not have the same talents. Do your best and trust that others do their best. And be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Mother Teresa

I have found that it is the small everyday deed of ordinary folks that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.

J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit

Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true.

Robert Brault

Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.

R.J. Palacio, Wonder
Dalai Lama quote "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness"
“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” – Dalai Lama

Mean girls go far in high school. Kind women go far in LIFE.

Mandy Hale

Our kindness may be the most persuasive argument for that which we believe.

Gordon B. Hinckley

There is no wrong way to perform an act of kindness.

Catherine Ryan Hyde, Pay it Forward

I have understood that the most important things are tenderness and kindness. I can’t do without them.

Brigitte Bardot

You can tell by the kindness of a dog how a human should be.

Captain Beefheart

I think people are willing to talk about anything if you come to it with kindness.

Jacqueline Woodson
"The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention"
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.” – Kahlil Gibran

If you do something with acceptance and kindness, you can create a true friendship.

Dustin Lance Black

Goodness is about character – integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.

Dennis Prager

We talk about feelings. And about sex. And about bodies, and their gratification, violation, repair, decoration, deferred, maybe permanently deferred, mortality. Feelings are a bodily thing, and respecting them is called kindness.

A.S. Byatt

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

Nothing is black or white, nothing’s ‘us or them.’ But then there are magical, beautiful things in the world. There’s incredible acts of kindness and bravery, and in the most unlikely places, and it gives you hope.

Dave Matthews
Anne Frank quote "You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!"
“You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!” – Anne Frank

One who is kind is sympathetic and gentle with others. He is considerate of others’ feelings and courteous in his behavior. He has a helpful nature. Kindness pardons others’ weaknesses and faults. Kindness is extended to all – to the aged and the young, to animals, to those low of station as well as the high.

Ezra Taft Benson

Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.

Frank A. Clark

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.

Mother Teresa

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Leo Buscaglia
"Kindness means building bridges instead of walls"
“Kindness means building bridges instead of walls.” – Unknown

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.

Charlie Chaplin

Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

Samuel Johnson

God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.

Kurt Vonnegut

Kindness and good nature unite men more effectually and with greater strength than any agreements whatsoever, since thereby the engagements of men’s hearts become stronger than the bond and obligation of words.

Thomas More, Utopia

The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

William Wordsworth
Dolly Parton quote "You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can't put a dollar sign on"
“You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can’t put a dollar sign on.” – Dolly Parton

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

Khalil Gibran

A laugh, to be joyous, must flow from a joyous heart, for without kindness, there can be no true joy.

Thomas Carlyle

The influence of a mother upon the lives of her children cannot be measured. They know and absorb her example and attitudes when it comes to questions of honesty, temperance, kindness, and industry.

Billy Graham

If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.

Thich Nhat Hanh
Doug Coupland quote "If you have an impulse to kindness, act on it"
“If you have an impulse to kindness, act on it.” – Douglas Coupland

He is as full of valor as of kindness. Princely in both.

William Shakespeare, Henry V

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.

Theodore Isaac Ruibn

I’m a big believer in acts of kindness, no matter how small.

Liam Neeson

He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.

Benjamin Franklin

Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They’re underused.

Tommy Lee Jones

Always be kind, but kindness doesn’t mean that you have to not say what you think.

Grace VanderWaal
Rousseau kindness quote "What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?"
“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Each smallest act of kindness, reverberates across great distances and spans of time –affecting lives unknown to the one who’s generous spirit, was the source of this good echo. Because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage, years later, and far away. Likewise, each small meanness, each expression of hatred, each act of evil.

Dean Koontz

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.

Princess Diana

No act of kindness is too small. The gift of kindness may start as a small ripple that over time can turn into a tidal wave affecting the lives of many.

Kevin Heath
"Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see"
“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” – Mark Twain

Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.

Scott Adams

I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love, it is the common fiber of life, the flame that heats our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to our lives.

Elizabeth Kübler Ross

Practice kindness – particularly when you feel irritated or things are not going well. Kindness hardly ever goes wrong.

Lewis Richmond

It’s a little embarrassing that after 45 years of research & study, the best advice I can give people is to be a little kinder to each other.

Aldous Huxley
Plato kindness quote "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle"
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” – Plato

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of acts of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.

James Boswell

One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples this world pulls.

Jack Kerouac

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

George Sand

Hate ricochets, but kindness does too.

Robin Roe

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.

Desmond Tutu
Isaac Singer quote "Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything in life"
“Kindness, I’ve discovered, is everything in life.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer

All I’m saying is, kindness don’t have no boundaries.

Kathryn Stockett, The Help

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.

Kahlil Gibran

The simplest acts of kindness are by far more powerful then a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

Mahatma Gandhi

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.

Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

Happiness is the new rich. Inner peace is the new success. Health is the new wealth. Kindness is the new cool.

Syed Balkhi
JM Barrie kindness quote "Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary"
“Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary.” – J.M. Barrie

A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal.

Steve Maraboli

We’re all born with selfish desires, so we can all relate to those feelings in others. But kindness is something made individually by each person…so it’s easy to misunderstand when others are trying to be kind to you.

Natsuki Takaya

If you can be anything, be kind.

Unknown

Kindness is strength.

Robert G. Ingersoll

Kindness can transform someone’s dark moment with a blaze of light. You’ll never know how much your caring matters. Make a difference for another today.

Amy Leigh Mercree
Sophocles quote "Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness"
“Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.” – Sophocles

Wherever there is a human in need, there is an opportunity for kindness and to make a difference.

Kevin Heath

A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money.

John Ruskin

Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

Alexander Pope

Men are more prone to revenge injuries than to requite kindness.

Thomas Fuller

I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.

Lady Gaga
"Kindness is loving people more than they deserve"
“Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.” – Joseph Joubert

Kindly words do not enter so deeply into men as a reputation for kindness.

Mencius

A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.

Amelia Earhart

Forget injuries; never forget kindness.

Confucius

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the figure of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness.

Maya Angelou
Buddha kindness quote "When words are both true and kind, they can change the world"
“When words are both true and kind, they can change the world.” – Buddha

Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.

Bob Kerrey

Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference.

Helen James

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth.

Albert Einstein

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make

Jane Goodall

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

Albert Schweitzer
Marian Keyes quote "Love and kindness go hand in hand"
“Love and kindness go hand in hand.” – Marian Keyes

Always find opportunities to make someone smile, and to offer random acts of kindness in everyday life.

Roy T. Bennett

Human kindness is like a defective tap, the first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries up.

P.D. James

It is sometimes difficult to view compassion and loving kindness as the strengths they are.

Sharon Salzberg

When you treat yourself with the kindness and high regard that you would give to one of your spiritual heroes, your body becomes the epicenter of quiet joy rather than a battlefield for the ego.

Debbie Ford

Together we can change the world, just one random act of kindness at a time.

Ron Hall
Aesop quote "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted"
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop

I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Never lose a chance of saying a kind word.

William Makepeace Thackeray

If we are going to be kind, let it be out of simple generosity, not because we fear guilt or retribution.

J.M. Coetzee

Sometimes it’s easy to lose faith in people. And sometimes one act of kindness is all it takes to give you hope again.

Randa Abdel-Fattah

Friendships between women, as any woman will tell you, are built of a thousand small kindnesses… swapped back and forth and over again.

Michelle Obama, Becoming
"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness"
“For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.” – Audrey Hepburn

I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals.

Brendan Behan

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.

Brad Meltzer

Moments of kindness and reconciliation are worth having, even if the parting has to come sooner or later.

Alice Monroe

Be kind. Always if you have a choice, be kind.

Anne Rice

What I want is so simple I almost can’t say it: elementary kindness.

Barbara Kingsolver
George Elliston quote "How beautiful a day can be, when kindness touches it!"
“How beautiful a day can be, when kindness touches it!” – George Elliston

Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your modus operandi and change your world.

Annie Lennox

A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward.

William John Bennett

Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.

Roy T. Bennett

Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.

Seneca

You can accomplish by kindness what you cannot by force.

Publilius Syrus
"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers"
“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” – Tennessee Williams

Good words bring good feelings to the heart. Speak with kindness, always.

Rod Williams

Be a little kinder than you have to.

E. Lockhart

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao Tzu

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.

Pearl S. Buck
"Kindness is not a business. True kindness expects nothing in return and should never act with conditions"
“Kindness is not a business. True kindness expects nothing in return and should never act with conditions.” – Roy T. Bennett

We hope you’ve enjoyed these kindness quotes! Looking for ideas for random acts of kindness? Why not…

  1. Compliment a stranger.
  2. Donate goods to your local Food Bank, Diaper Bank, or animal shelter.
  3. Pay for a cup of coffee – or even lunch – for a stranger. Whether you’re in the drive-thru lane or at another table, you’ll make someone’s day!
  4. Call your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or any elder you don’t speak to very often and make their day.
  5. Let someone go ahead of you in the grocery store checkout.
  6. Say thank you to a person who makes a real difference in your community. It could be a police officer, firefighter, military veteran, or doctor.
  7. Make a donation at the blood bank. You could save a life!
  8. Send a card in the mail to someone you haven’t spoken to recently. Tell them how much you appreciate their friendship, love, or support.
  9. Buy flowers for your significant other, mom, sister, grandma, or friend.
  10. Make a commitment to volunteer to help others. There are so many ways to get involved, from delivering food to seniors through Meals on Wheels to helping in a community garden.

Each February, Random Acts of Kindness Day inspires people to be altruistic to their friends, colleagues, neighbors, and strangers.

The movement has its origins in a California restaurant in 1982, when Anne Herbert scribbled the words “practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty” [insert amazon link to book with this title] on a place mat. From buying coffee or groceries for another person to simply sharing a warm smile with a stranger, showing kindness to others can make all of us feel good.

Maya Angelou Quotes

Maya Angelou was an American poet, civil rights activist, and prolific writer.

Across the span of 50 years, she is credited with 7 autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, plays, movies, and television shows. Before her death in 2014, she received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.

Her most famous autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, focuses on her life and experiences before the age of 17. Angelou lived a difficult, if fascinating, early life working as a sex worker, nightclub dancer, fry cook, actor, and journalist.

She was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in 1982, and became friends with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X through her involvement in the civil rights movement.

In 1993, Maya Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.

Maya Angelou’s writings and poems continue to inspire generations of people on themes like racism, self-identity, family, and travel. Here are 150 of the best Maya Angelou quotes.

Maya Angelou Quotes

Maya Angelou quote "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you"
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” – Maya Angelou

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self.

You can’t get too high for somebody to bring you down.

The Heart of a Woman

A leader sees greatness in other people. He nor she can be much of a leader if all she sees is herself.

Maya Angelou quote "You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody"
“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.” – Maya Angelou

Human beings are more alike than unalike. Whether in Paris, Texas, or Paris, France, we all want to have good jobs where we are needed and respected and paid just a little more than we deserve. We want healthy children, safe streets, to be loved and have the unmitigated gall to accept love.

Suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.

The only way you can be a mark is if you want something for nothing. If you’re greedy, you’re set up.

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

"Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances"
“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.” – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

A mother’s love liberates.

Success is loving life and daring to live it.

Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.

Don’t let the man bring you down.

The Heart of a Woman

I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life.

Maya Angelou quote "I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh"
“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.” – Maya Angelou

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.

Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Maya Angelou quote "I sustain myself with the love of family"
“I sustain myself with the love of family.” – Maya Angelou

We need much less than we think we need.

To those who have given up on love: I say, ‘Trust life a little bit.’

If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don’t be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning ‘Good morning’ at total strangers.

A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.

Letter to My Daughter

Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.

Maya Angelou quote "All great achievements require time"
“All great achievements require time.” – Maya Angelou

The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.

When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe.

When was the last time anyone told you how important you are?

If a person – any human being – is told often enough, ‘You are nothing. You are nothing. You account for nothing. You count for nothing. You are less than a human being. I have no visibility of you,’ the person finally begins to believe it.

We are here to love each other. That is why you are alive. That is what life is for.

Maya Angelou quote "Nothing will work unless you do"
“Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou

I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.

Home is a refuge not only from the world, but a refuge from my worries, my troubles, my concerns.

You listen with interest. That gives some sense of confidence to the speaker.

If I have a monument in this world, it is my son.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

Maya Angelou quote "Only equals can become friends"
“Only equals can become friends.” – Maya Angelou

First best is falling in love. Second best is being in love. Least best is falling out of love. But any of it is better than never having been in love.

I was told many years ago by my grandmother who raised me: If somebody puts you on a road and you don’t feel comfortable on it and you look ahead and you don’t like the destination and you look behind and you don’t want to return to that place, step off the road.

When you know you are of worth — not asking it but knowing it — you walk into a room with a particular power.

I do my best because I’m counting on you counting on me.

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.

"Your belief and your work will speak for you"
“Your belief and your work will speak for you.” – Maya Angelou

This is what I am learning, at 82 years old: the main thing is to be in love with the search for truth.

The children to whom we read simple stories may or may not show gratitude, but each boon we give strengthens the pillars of the world.

History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.

My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.

To those who are given much, much is expected.

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

"Life loves the liver of it"
“Life loves the liver of it.” – Maya Angelou

When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things.

Each of us, famous or infamous, is a role model for somebody, and if we aren’t, we should behave as though we are — cheerful, kind, loving, courteous. Because you can be sure someone is watching and taking deliberate and diligent notes.

Live as though life was created for you.

We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.

"I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish"
“I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.” – Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women
"The best candy shop a child can be left alone in, is the library"
“The best candy shop a child can be left alone in, is the library.” – Maya Angelou

Strong women- precious jewels all- their humanness is evident in their accessibility. We are able to enter into the spirit of these women and rejoice in their warmth and courage.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.

Ain’t nothin’ to it, but to do it.

Maya Angelou quote "As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else"
“As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else.” – Maya Angelou

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.

Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives.

Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.

Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.

I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.

"Be present in all things and thankful for all things"
“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.

Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

Maya Angelou quote "When you learn, teach, when you get, give"
“When you learn, teach, when you get, give.” – Maya Angelou

If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?

Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.

What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.

There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it"
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.” – Maya Angelou

The problem I have with haters is that they see my glory, but they don’t know my story.

I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.

Maya Angelou quote "Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!"
“Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!” – Maya Angelou

We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate – thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising.

Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.

Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer

A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the best. Then she is living phenomenally.

I want to thank you, Lord, for life and all that’s in it. Thank you for the day and for the hour, and the minute.

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'"
“I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life.'” – Maya Angelou

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.

Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.

No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

"If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be"
“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” – Maya Angelou

Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.

I don’t trust people who don’t love themselves and tell me, ‘I love you.’ … There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

I want you to learn that you cannot have anything without working for it.

Mom & Me & Mom

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

Maya Angelou quote "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud"
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” – Maya Angelou

Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

"Nothing can dim the light which shines from within"
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” – Maya Angelou

We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.

Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.

When you know you are of worth, you don’t have to raise your voice, you don’t have to become rude, you don’t have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn’t have to protest.

I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can’t ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won’t stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you’d be surprised that people say, ‘Can I be of help?’

Maya Angelou quote "Achievement brings its own anticlimax"
“Achievement brings its own anticlimax.” – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

When I forgive other people, I let them go, I free them from my ignorance. And as soon as I do, I feel lighter, brighter and better.

I’m really saddened by the attempts to separate and polarize. This is a time when we have hungry people, people out of work, and people out of spirit. This is a time where we need to uplift, not to separate.

"I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world’s variety and uniqueness"
“I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world’s variety and uniqueness.” – Maya Angelou

I never have written every day. When I’m writing a book, I write Monday through Friday. I always try to take Saturday and pretend to have some sanity.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.

I try to see every day as a celebration.

Those who have something to say accept the fact that that’s lonely. One already knows that there will be adversaries.

If I’m going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don’t just go bumbling over things.

"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities"
“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.” – Maya Angelou

God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us – in the dreariest and most dreaded moments – can see a possibility of hope.

Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

The sisters and brothers that you meet give you the materials which your character uses to build itself. It is said that some people are born great, others achieve it, some have it thrust upon them. In truth, the ways in which your character is built have to do with all three of those. Those around you, those you choose, and those who choose you.

Maya Angelou quote "I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment"
“I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment.” – Maya Angelou

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I’ll rise!

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.

Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now
Maya Angelou quotes "If you're for the right thing, you do it without thinking"
“If you’re for the right thing, you do it without thinking.” – Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

Grace is like a lake of drinkable water right outside your door. But you stay inside and die of thirst.

We are only as blind as we want to be.

This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this amazing collection of Maya Angelou quotes!

If you want to learn more about one of America’s most beloved poets, why not start with her own words?

With 7 autobiographical books to choose from, you’ll find plenty of inspiration in her incredible life experiences.

Forgiveness Quotes to Help You Move On

Being able to forgive is one of the healthiest emotions in the world. At times, we even need to forgive ourselves. These forgiveness quotes will show you how to start.

Forgiveness is a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward someone who has harmed you, whether they deserve it or not.

Your capacity for forgiveness often says much more about you than the person you are forgiving.

Forgiveness doesn’t have to mean reconciliation.

When we are wronged by a friend or family member, our relationship may be damaged beyond repair, but letting go of resentment and moving on with our lives is a much healthier outcome.

Here are the best forgiveness quotes to inspire you to be forgiving. Whether you’ve just been slighted, or want to let go of long-held resentment, you’ll find the perfect quote to sum up your feelings and help you to move on.

Forgiveness Quotes

Alexander Pope forgiveness quote "To err is human, to forgive, divine"
“To err is human, to forgive, divine.” – Alexander Pope

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Mahatma Gandhi

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

Thomas Szasz

Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.

Robert Jordan

It is important that we forgive ourselves for making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on.

Steve Maraboli

True forgiveness is when you can say, ‘Thank you for that experience.’

Oprah Winfrey
JFK quote "Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names"
“Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.” – John F. Kennedy

The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.

Steve Maraboli

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

C.S. Lewis

Forgiveness has nothing to do with absolving a criminal of his crime. It has everything to do with relieving oneself of the burden of being a victim–letting go of the pain and transforming oneself from victim to survivor.

C.R. Strahan

To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.

G.K. Chesterton

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

Maya Angelou
"Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another"
“Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.” – Emma Goldman

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Martin Luther King Jr.

The remedy for life’s broken pieces is not classes, workshops or books. Don’t try to heal the broken pieces. Just forgive.

Iyanla Vanzant

To understand somebody else as a human being, I think, is about as close to real forgiveness as one can get.

David Small

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

George Bernard Shaw

Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.
"Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them"
“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

Francis of Assisi

Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense.

Robert Frost

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you’ve closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

Desmond Tutu

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

Oscar Wilde

Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.

Anne Lamott
Les Brown forgiveness quote "Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on"
“Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.” – Les Brown

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Mark Twain

Inner peace can be reached only when we practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past, and is therefore the means for correcting our misperceptions.

Gerald G. Jampolsky

Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

Corrie Ten Boom

Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.

Criss Jami
"Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive"
“Forgiveness in no way requires that you trust the one you forgive.” – William Paul Young

When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines upon you.

John Krakauer

Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.

Marianne Williamson

Forgive those who have hurt you.

Les Brown

Nothing inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.

Scott Adams

He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven; for everyone has need to be forgiven.

George Herbert
Princess Diana quote "When you are happy you can forgive a great deal"
“When you are happy you can forgive a great deal.” – Princess Diana

And you know, when you’ve experienced grace and you feel like you’ve been forgiven, you’re a lot more forgiving of other people. You’re a lot more gracious to others.

Rick Warren

Forgiveness is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.

Dag Hammarskjold

I can forgive, but I cannot forget, is only another way of saying, I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note – torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one.

Henry Ward Beecher

One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything every night before you go to bed.

Bernard Baruch
Norman Cousins quote "Life is an adventure in forgiveness"
“Life is an adventure in forgiveness.” – Norman Cousins

Sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.

Igor Stravinsky

If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.

Jesse Jackson

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

Catherine the Great

Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.

Jean Paul

To confer dignity, forgive. To express contempt, forget.

Mason Cooley
Josh Billings forgiveness quote "There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness"
“There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.” – Josh Billings

The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.

Elbert Hubbard

Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness.

Billy Graham

Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure.

Jane Austen

One forgives to the degree that one loves.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Forgiveness must be immediate, whether or not a person asks for it. Trust must be rebuilt over time. Trust requires a track record.

Rick Warren
MLK quote "Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude"
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded; not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.

Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.

Oprah Winfrey

I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

But if you forgive someone for something they did to you, it doesn’t mean you agree with what they did or believe it was right. Forgiving that person means you have chosen not to dwell on the matter anymore; you have moved on with your life.

Idowu Koyenikan

We don’t forgive people because they deserve it. We forgive them because they need it—because we need it.

Bree Despain
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you"
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” – Lewis B. Smedes

I think that if God forgives us we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.

C.S. Lewis

Forgiveness is God’s greatest gift

Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code

The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.

Marianne Williamson

Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back. You’re done.

Anne Lamott

Every year during their High Holy Days, the Jewish community reminds us all of our need for repentance and forgiveness.

Billy Graham
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much"
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde

Forgiveness is not to give the other person peace. Forgiveness is for you. Take that opportunity.

Mackenzie Phillips

If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

Nelson Mandela

It’s far easier to forgive an enemy after you’ve got even with him.

Jewel

Forgiveness is that subtle thread that binds both love and friendship. Without forgiveness, you may not even have a child one day.

George Foreman

Forgiveness to the injured does belong; but they ne’er pardon who have done wrong.

John Dryden
"Forgiveness provides hope, joy, and a bright future that nothing else can"
“Forgiveness provides hope, joy, and a bright future that nothing else can.” – Paul J. Meyer

Just knowing you don’t have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn – and those are all good things.

Dick Van Dyke

See, forgiveness doesn’t happen all at once. It’s not an event — it’s a process. Forgiveness happens while you’re asleep, while you’re dreaming, while you’re inline at the coffee shop, while you’re showering, eating, farting… It happens in the back of your mind, and then one day you realize that you don’t hate the person anymore, that your anger has gone away somewhere. And you understand. You’ve forgiven them. You don’t know how or why. It sneaked up on you. It happened in the small spaces between thoughts and in the seconds between ideas and blinks. That’s where forgiveness happens.

Barry Lyga
Steve Maraboli quote "Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient"
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” – Steve Maraboli

We often forgive those who bore us, but we cannot forgive those whom we bore.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Most of us can forgive and forget; we just don’t want the other person to forget that we forgave.

Ivern Ball

As long as you don’t forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind.

Isabelle Holland

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.

Eric Hoffer

A broken friendship that is mended through forgiveness can be even stronger than it once was.

Stephen Richards
Hannah Arendt quote "Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom"
“Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.” – Hannah Arendt

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

Abraham Lincoln

Forgive others not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.

Jonathan Huie

Forgiveness is the final form of love.

Reinhold Niebuhr

God pardons like a mother, who kisses the offense into everlasting forgiveness.

Henry Ward Beecher

Choosing forgiveness opens the door of your heart and makes way for a miracle in your life.

Victoria Osteen
George MacDonald quote "Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life"
“Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.” – George MacDonald

Forgiveness is about empowering yourself, rather than empowering your past.

T.D. Jakes

I like cast iron coated with enamel for longevity and forgiveness if I happen to take my eyes off the prize while pouring Chianti.

Mario Batali

Forgiveness takes time. It is the last step of the grieving process.

Elin Nordegren

There is freedom in forgiveness, and it’s not that hard to do once you get into the habit.

Dana Perino

As we know, forgiveness of oneself is the hardest of all the forgivenesses.

Joan Baez
"I am 100% in the camp that says forgiveness is mostly about the forgiver"
“I am 100% in the camp that says forgiveness is mostly about the forgiver.” – Hillary Clinton

Can you really forgive if you can’t forget?

Sarah Jessica Parker

It’s said in Hollywood that you should always forgive your enemies – because you never know when you’ll have to work with them.

Lana Turner

Acceptance and tolerance and forgiveness, those are life-altering lessons.

Jessica Lange

Forgiveness really is so misunderstood, as well as the power it can release in an individual.

Jennifer O’Neill

You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.

Lewis B. Smedes
Ben Affleck forgiveness quote "I find forgiveness to be really healthy"
“I find forgiveness to be really healthy.” – Ben Affleck

Forgiveness is not something you do for someone else; it’s something you do for yourself. To forgive is not to condone, it is to refuse to continue feeling bad about an injury.

Jim Beaver

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.

Corrie Ten Boom

Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day’s chalking.

Frederick Buechner

It’s far easier to forgive an enemy after you’ve got even with him.

Olin Miller

God’s forgiveness allows us to be honest with ourselves. We recognize our imperfections, admit our failures, and plead to God for clemency.

Jonathan Sacks
Suzanne Somers quote "Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself"
“Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.” – Suzanne Somers

Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself.

Ausonius

We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.

Sir Francis Bacon

Forgiveness isn’t approving what happened. It’s choosing to rise above it.

Robin Sharma

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.

Robert Muller

The act of forgiveness takes place in our own mind. It really has nothing to do with the other person.

Louise L. Hay
Alfred Korzybski forgivenesss quote "God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won't"
“God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won’t.” – Alfred Korzybski

To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.

Confucius

Forgiveness is a sign that the person who has wronged you means more to you than the wrong they have dealt.

Ben Greenhalgh

We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness.

Frederick William Robertson

When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.

Alan Paton

To understand is to forgive, even oneself.

Alexander Chase
Paul Boose quote "Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future"
“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Paul Boose

I believe in forgiveness; I believe in trying to work with people.

John Lewis

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message; that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.

Dalai Lama

The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy.

William Hazlitt

It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much.

George Eliot

Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.

Karl Lagerfeld
Arthur Balfour forgiveness quote "I never forgive, but I always forget"
“I never forgive, but I always forget.” – Arthur Balfour

You can’t forgive without loving. And I don’t mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‘I forgive. I’m finished with it.’

Maya Angelou

Without forgiveness life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.

Roberto Assagioli

Forgive, forget. Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours.

Philips Brooks

Forgotten is forgiven.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.

Bryant H. McGill
"Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning"
“Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.” – Desmond Tutu

Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.

St. Augustine

How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself.

Publilius Syrus

America loves a forgiveness story. America is the land of second chances.

Michael Caputo

I’m all about preaching forgiveness and compassion.

Michel de la Montaigne

Forgiveness is for yourself because it frees you. It lets you out of that prison you put yourself in.

Louise L. Hay
"Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting"
“Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.” – William Arthur Ward

Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge.

Isaac Friedmann

True forgiveness is not an action after the fact, it is an attitude with which you enter each moment.

David Ridge

If you can’t forgive and forget, pick one.

Robert Brault

Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.

Will Smith
William Blake quote "It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend"
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.” – William Blake

Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.

Marlene Dietrich

When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.

Katherine Ponder

Wise man say: forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza.

Michelangelo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

It’s not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.

Tyler Perry
Mason nCooley quote "Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it"
“Forgiveness is like faith. You have to keep reviving it.” – Mason Cooley

I think the first step is to understand that forgiveness does not exonerate the perpetrator. Forgiveness liberates the victim. It’s a gift you give yourself.

T.D. Jakes

People have to forgive. We don’t have to like them, we don’t have to be friends with them, we don’t have to send them hearts in text messages, but we have to forgive them, to overlook, to forget. Because if we don’t we are tying rocks to our feet, too much for our wings to carry!

C. Joybell C.

A life lived without forgiveness is a prison.

William Arthur Ward

Anger makes you smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you are.

Cherie Carter Scott
Tolstoy forgiveness quote "Let us forgive each other – only then will we live in peace"
“Let us forgive each other – only then will we live in peace.” – Leo Tolstoy

We hope you’ve enjoyed these forgiveness quotes!

Wherever you are on your road to forgiveness, keep focusing on how good it feels to let go of your resentment and release yourself and others.