"It is therefore recommended ... to set apart Thursday the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor ..."
-- Samuel Adams, father of the American Revolution on November 1, 1777 (adopted by the 13 states as the first official Thanksgiving Proclamation)
"Gratitude is the sign of noble souls."
-- Aesop's Fables
"Thanksgiving is possible only for those who take time to remember; no one can give thanks who has a short memory."
-- Anonymous
"One act of thanksgiving made when things go wrong is worth a thousand when things go well."
-- Anonymous
"Thanksgiving is a circle of memories."
-- Anonymous
"Thanksgiving is a time for remembering and appreciating the special people in our lives. Our home is warmed by the love of family and friends."
-- Anonymous
"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
"My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor."
-- Phyllis Diller
"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Who does not thank for little will not thank for much."
-- Estonian proverb
"Your friend is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving."
-- Kahlil Gibran
"There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day . . . is the one day that is purely American."
-- O. Henry
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day."
-- Irv Kupcinet
"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
"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
"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
" Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving."
-- WT Purkiser
"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
"Great as the preparations were for the dinner, everything was so contrived that not a soul in the house should be kept from the morning service of Thanksgiving in the church."
-- Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe
"How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens the doors. It changes a child's personality. A child is resentful, negative—or thankful. Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw people."
-- Sir John Templeton
"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
"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor."
-- George Washington in his first Presidential Proclamation
"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
"And let these altars, wreathed with flowers And piled with fruits, awake again Thanksgivings for the golden hours, The early and the latter rain!"
-- John Greenleaf Whittier

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