80 Appreciation Quotes to Say Thank You and Mean It

Most of us are better at feeling grateful than saying it out loud.

Then the moment passes and the person never hears it.

This list is meant to fix that, with short and sweet appreciation quotes for the people in your life, from your best friend to the coworker who always covers for you.

Pick one and send it today.

Short Appreciation Quotes

“I can live for two months on a good compliment.” — Mark Twain

“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” — Margaret Cousins

“The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” — William James

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

“Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.” — Gertrude Stein

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” — Voltaire

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” — Mother Teresa

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” — Oprah Winfrey

“No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.” — Alfred North Whitehead

“We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” — Cynthia Ozick

“I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.” — Arthur Rubinstein

“Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.” — Alan Cohen

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” — Anne Frank

“The simple act of caring is heroic.” — Edward Albert

“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” — Karl Barth

“In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” — Albert Schweitzer

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” — Thornton Wilder

Words of Appreciation

“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.” — Henry Ward Beecher

“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” — Saint Ambrose

“Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.” — Blaise Pascal

“A kind word is like a spring day.” — Russian Proverb

“Thank you is the best prayer that anyone could say.” — Alice Walker

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” — Cicero

“The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.” — Dalai Lama

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” — Melody Beattie

“Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” — Jean Baptiste Massieu

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” — Aesop

“The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value.” — Charles Dudley Warner

“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” — Eckhart Tolle

“A single grateful thought raised to heaven is the most perfect prayer.” — Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

“It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.” — David Steindl-Rast

“The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.” — Charles Schwab

“To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.” — Johannes A. Gaertner

“Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” — William Faulkner

“Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.” — Jacques Maritain

“He who knows he has enough is rich.” — Lao Tzu

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” — Maya Angelou

Gratitude Quotes

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” — G.K. Chesterton

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” — Meister Eckhart

“Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions.” — Zig Ziglar

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” — Epictetus

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.” — William Blake

“Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.” — Albert Einstein

“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” — John F. Kennedy

“Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” — Doris Day

“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

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

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” — Robert Brault

“The more grateful I am, the more beauty I see.” — Mary Davis

“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” — Willie Nelson

“When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.” — Dalai Lama

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” — Lionel Hampton

“Gratitude is the single most important ingredient to living a successful and fulfilled life.” — Jack Canfield

“There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.” — Ralph H. Blum

“Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe.” — Deepak Chopra

“He who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.” — Seneca

Thankful Quotes

“Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.” — Henri Frédéric Amiel

“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.” — William Shakespeare

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” — A.A. Milne

“If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.” — Robert Quillen

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

“This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.” — Maya Angelou

“Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” — Samuel Johnson

“Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” — Rumi

“Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.” — Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” — Mary Oliver

“In the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” — Kahlil Gibran

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” — Epicurus

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.” — Henry David Thoreau

“Thou hast given so much to me, give one thing more, a grateful heart.” — George Herbert

“For all that has been, thanks. For all that shall be, yes.” — Dag Hammarskjöld

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” — H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.” — Charles Dickens

“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

“Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.” — Dale Carnegie

“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.” — Henry Ward Beecher