Self pity usually doesn't care how bad other people have it. You know that we are very fortunate souls with our sobriety. We really can have/do anything that we are willing to work for. If we don't have it, then we weren't willing to do the legwork and as such didn't want it that badly. Our program has even showed us how to do it (through duplicating other people's successful efforts) and ask for help. When I am envious (hardly ever) or feeling less than, I know that I would be happier if I increased my gratitude level.

Gratitude = Happiness. There is no other truer equation. You simply can't have one without the other.

1. 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

2. You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. G. K. Chesterton

3. No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks. Unknown

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

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

6. You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you. Sarah Ban Breathnach

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

8. There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. Albert Einstein

9. Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings. William Arthur Ward

10. Take full account of the excellencies which you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not. Marcus Aurelius

11. Real life isnt always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgement of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties. Sarah Ban Breathnach

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

13. Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granteda paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul. Rabbi Harold Kushner

14. We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation. Marcus Annaeus Seneca

15. When we become more fully aware that our success is due in large measure to the loyalty, helpfulness, and encouragement we have received from others, our desire grows to pass on similar gifts. Gratitude spurs us on to prove ourselves worthy of what others have done for us. The spirit of gratitude is a powerful energizer. Wilferd A. Peterson

16. Whatever our individual troubles and challenges may be, its important to pause every now and then to appreciate all that we have, on every level. We need to literally count our blessings, give thanks for them, allow ourselves to enjoy them, and relish the experience of prosperity we already have. Shakti Gawain

17. Thou that has given so much to me,
Give one thing morea grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if thy blessings had spare days;
But such a heart, whose pulse may be
Thy praise.

George Herbert

18.  (Some people) have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy. A.H. Maslow

19. If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice. Meister Eckhart

20. Find the good and praise it. Alex Haley

21. Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot. The Hausa of Nigeria

22. What if you gave someone a gift, and they neglected to thank you for it-would you be likely to give them another? Life is the same way. In order to attract more of the blessings that life has to offer, you must truly appreciate what you already have. Ralph Marston

23. Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude. Joseph Wood Krutch

24. The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. Henry Miller

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

26.  Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy because we will always want to have something else or something more. Brother David Steindl-Rast

27.  Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. Denis Waitley

28. As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world. Adabella Radici

29. For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

30. Grace isnt a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. Its a way to live. Attributed to Jacqueline Winspear

31. When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them. Chinese Proverb

32. Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things. Horace

33. But the value of gratitude does not consist solely in getting you more blessings in the future. Without gratitude you cannot long keep from dissatisfied thought regarding things as they are. Wallace Wattles

34. Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting. Author Unknown

35. If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul. Rabbi Harold Kushner

36. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude. Albert Schweitzer

37. God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say thank you? William A. Ward

38. Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic. John Henry Jowett

39. Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life. Christiane Northrup

40.The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it. Richard Bach

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

42. Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance thats present love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth. Sarah Ban Breathnach

43. Whenever we are appreciative, we are filled with a sense of well-being and swept up by the feeling of joy. M.J. Ryan

44. Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty. Doris Day

45. Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude. Wallace Wattles

46. Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didnt learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didnt learn a little, at least we didnt get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didnt die; so, let us all be thankful. Buddha

47. Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give. Edwin Arlington Robinson

48. There is a law of gratitude, and it is . . . the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in opposite directions. The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to supreme intelligence is a liberation or expenditure of force. It cannot fail to reach that to which it is addressed, and the reaction is an instantaneous movement toward you. Wally Wattles

49. Gratitude should not be just a reaction to getting what you want, but an all-the-time gratitude, the kind where you notice the little things and where you constantly look for the good, even in unpleasant situations. Start bringing gratitude to your experiences, instead of waiting for a positive experience in order to feel grateful. Marelisa Fábrega

Be Thankful

Be thankful that you dont already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you dont know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when youre tired and weary
Because it means youve made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.

Author Unknown

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say "thank you?"  ~William A. Ward


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


Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.  ~G.B. Stern


If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.  ~Meister Eckhart


There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed.  If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude.  ~Robert Brault


Gratitude is the memory of the heart.  ~Jean Baptiste Massieu, translated from French


When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time.  Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?  ~G.K. Chesterton


The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.  ~John E. Southard


Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture.  ~Kak Sri


If you have lived, take thankfully the past.  ~John Dryden


As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily.  The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world.  ~Terri Guillemets


I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.  ~G.K. Chesterton


You say grace before meals.  All right.  But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.  ~G.K. Chesterton


For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson


If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get.  ~Frank A. Clark


The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!  ~Henry Ward Beecher


Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal.  It's a way to live.  ~Attributed to Jacqueline Winspear


Praise the bridge that carried you over.  ~George Colman


If you count all your assets, you always show a profit.  ~Robert Quillen


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


What a miserable thing life is:  you're living in clover, only the clover isn't good enough.  ~Bertolt Brecht, Jungle of Cities, 1924


Gratitude is the best attitude.  ~Author Unknown


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


We thank Thee, O Father of all, for... all the soul-help that sad souls understand.  ~Will Carleton


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


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


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


Gratitude is the least of the virtues, but ingratitude is the worst of vices.  ~Thomas Fuller


There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude.  It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance.  ~Joseph Addison


I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.  ~Benjamin Disraeli


There is no greater difference between men than between grateful and ungrateful people.  ~R.H. Blyth


Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.  ~Henry Clay


Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.  ~Estonian Proverb


Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, - a grateful heart;
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,
As if Thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy praise.
~George Herbert


The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.  ~Eric Hoffer, Reflections On The Human Condition


Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.  ~Henry Ward Beecher


When our perils are past, shall our gratitude sleep?  ~George Canning


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


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


Only a stomach that rarely feels hungry scorns common things.  ~Horace


The grateful person, being still the most severe exacter of himself, not only confesses, but proclaims, his debts.  ~Robert South


Gratitude is merely the secret hope of further favors.  ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld


Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.  ~Aldous Huxley


When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.  ~Chinese Proverb


Thanks are justly due for boons unbought.  ~Ovid


In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.  ~H.L. Mencken


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


Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel.  ~Author Unknown

-- Edited by StPeteDean on Thursday 2nd of December 2010 07:33:22 PM

sorry Bill, I guess I got carried away

I've already started with "saying grace" before everything in front of me.
That post will only lead to greater spiritual awakening and then I got more
to pass on right?  Getting even farther away from the next one.  

I just scratched the surface of gratitude quotes. There are so many when you google for them, lists upon lists. It seems that anybody who was anybody made gratitude statements. Must be the reason there were great and successful.

Great stuff, guys. I still convene the Steve pity party from time to time. Mainly b/c things are not exactly the perfect way as Steve wants them at that exact moment and therefore the world is terrible, I'm the only person who has ever had this, and what's going to happen next, etc.

Thankfully, this Fellowship has given me the tools to re-focus if I choose to use them...though sometimes I forget that my vision is out of focus. ;)

LB's points about gratitude are especially poignant -- I can see so much self-centredness in me still: so many of my shares have been "I'm grateful to HP b/c I'm sober today, not going into work hungover every day, blowing all my cash at the pub, etc." Something for me to keep working on.

Steve