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Quotations I love: Five quotations about thankfulness

Lynne Baab • Thursday December 29 2016

Quotations I love: Five quotations about thankfulness

“A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues.”—Cicero (106-43 BCE)

Another year will draw to a close in a few days, and the self-help magazines are full of ideas for New Year’s resolutions. I wonder why the recommended task of the last week of year focuses on looking ahead in the area of self-improvement, rather than looking back at the past year for the purpose of thankfulness.  

I’ve started this post with a quotation that dates from a long, long time ago in order to show that the significance of thankfulness was recognized, at least by one person, in the ancient world. I love Cicero’s idea that thankfulness gives birth to other virtues. Thankfulness as a psychologically helpful practice is being recognized both in the secular and Christian worlds these days. I wonder how much more motivation for thankfulness we would have if we saw it as “the parent of all virtues.”

“Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” —Estonian proverb

This second quotation implies that an attitude of thankfulness either permeates a person’s life – with a focus on everything, large or small – or not. The proverb suggests a connection between noticing big and small things to be thankful for. Do you try to notice both?

“The choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious. Because every gift I acknowledge reveals another and another until, finally, even the most normal, obvious and seemingly mundane event or encounter proves to be filled with grace.” —Henri Nouwen

Nouwen is so right that there’s a kind of training involved in learning to be thankful. If we practice thankfulness, we’ll get better at it: “Every gift I acknowledge reveals another.” Noticing things to be grateful for, and extending thanks to the giver on earth or the Giver in heaven, helps us notice more things. Over time our hearts are shaped in the direction of receptivity, and we realize everything good comes to us as a wonderful gift.

“Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning.” —Karl Barth

Barth like Nouwen connects thankfulness with grace. Barth uses a vivid metaphor to help hammer home this connection. He implies that for people who are aware of God’s grace, thankfulness will be automatic. Is it possible our lack of thankfulness comes from our inability to perceive the magnitude of the grace of God in Jesus Christ?

“For what has been—thanks! For what shall be—yes!” —Dag Hammerskjöld

This last quotation illustrates the connection between thankfulness and hope. We can enter a New Year with hope because we have seen the many gifts of 2016. Even if 2016 was hard year, and I’m sure it was for many people, there were gifts from God and from family and friends mixed in with the hard things. We can look at 2017 with optimism and hope because those good gifts will continue, sometimes in the same form, sometimes in new forms. God’s grace will continue to flow abundantly in the New Year.

In this last week of the year I want to challenge you to do two things:

1. Think of three people who have contributed something positive to your life in 2016. Drop them an email, a text message or a card to express your thanks. Be specific about what you’re thanking them for.

2. Make a list of ten things you can thank God for in 2016. Include things like a place to live and food on your table and the people in your life. Stretch the list to 20 if you can. Post the list on your bathroom mirror, in your kitchen or by your desk, and each time you see it, express your thanks to God.

(Next week: Enter the New Year by listening in on Jesus’ early morning prayer. Illustration: someone I’m thankful for, our son Mike, drawn by another person I’m thankful for, my husband Dave Baab. If you’d like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up under “subscribe” in the right hand column.)

This is the last post in a series on quotations I love. Here are the earlier posts:
Richard Halverson on being sent
Secrets and compassion    
Four Quotations about attention            
Breton Fisherman’s Prayer  
Arnold Glasow on feeling at home with people  
A. W. Tozer on worship that illuminates work  
The Jerusalem Talmud on enjoying good things  
Thomas Aqinas on loving people we disagree with  
Paul Tournier on building good out of evil 
Thomas Merton on our transparent world  
Moving from intending to pray to actually praying  
Eugene Peterson on paying attention  
Regret and fear are thieves  
Rick Warren on love and disagreement  
Henri Nouwen on being beloved 



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