We give thanks for unknown blessings already on
their way.
- ritual chant
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
Who does not thank for little will not thank for
much.
- Estonian proverb
Got no check books, got no banks. Still I'd like
to express my thanks - I got the sun in the
mornin' and the moon at night.
- Irving Berlin
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
Do not get tired of doing what is good. Don't get discouraged and give up,
for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.
- Galatians 6:9
Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation
(from the collection of Lincoln's papers in the Library of
America series, Vol II, pp. 520-521).
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the
blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties,
which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source
from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature,
that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is
habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity,
which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression,
peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained,
the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed
everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre
has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry
to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship;
the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of
iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp,
the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of
augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with
large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked
out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who,
while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States,
and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands,
to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next,
as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him
for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence
for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care
all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife
in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition
of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon
as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquillity and Union.
It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence
upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions
in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead
to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the
Holy Scriptures and proven by all history,
that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
- Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation October 3, 1863
Best of all is it to preserve everything in a
pure, still heart, and let there be for every
pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song.
- Konrad von Gesner
An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.
--Irv Kupcinet
Thanksgiving 8000 calorie poem
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
and your pies take the prize,
and may your Thanksgiving dinner
stay off your thighs!
-Unknown
Once, when my feet were bare, and I had not the
means of obtaining shoes I came to the chief of
Kufah in a state of much dejection, and saw there
a man who had no feet. I returned thanks to God
and acknowledged his mercies, and endured my want
of shoes with patience
- Sadi, The Gulistan
The pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts …
nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.
--H. W. Westermayer
On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence.
--William Jennings Bryan
We will speed the day when all of God's children,
black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join
hands and sing ...Free at last, Free at last,
Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them,
is the true measure of our thanksgiving.
--WT Purkiser
Address at Lincoln Memorial during March on Washington, 28 Aug 1963
Thank God every day when you get up that you have
something to do that day which must be done
whether you like it or not. Being forced to work
and forced to do your best will breed in you
temperance and self-control, diligence and
strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a
hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
- Basil Carpenter
Now thank we all our God, With hearts and hands and voices;
Who wondrous things hath done, In whom this world rejoices.
Who, from our mother's arms, Hath led us on our way,
With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep still in grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next.
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest heaven;
The one eternal God, Whom earth and heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
--Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) Lutheran minister, Now thank we all our God
God gave us our relatives; thank God we can choose
our friends.
- Ethel Watts Mumford
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