Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Gratitude
If hush’d the loud whirlwind that ruffled the deep,
The sky if no longer dark tempests deform;
When our perils are past shall our gratitude sleep?
No! Here’s to the pilot that weather’d the storm!
George Canning—Song (on “Billy Pitt”). Sung at a public dinner, May 28, 1802.
Gratus animus est una virtus non solum maxima, sed etiam mater virtutum omnium reliquarum.
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.
Cicero—Oratio Pro Cnæo Plancio. XXXIII.
Praise the bridge that carried you over.
Geo. Colman (the Younger)—Heir-at-Law. Act I. Sc. 1.
Gratitude is expensive.
Gibbon—Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
The still small voice of gratitude.
Gray—For Music. St. 5.
The gratitude of most men is but a secret desire of receiving greater benefits.
La Rochefoucauld—Maxim. 298.
La reconnaissance est la mémoire du cœur.
Gratitude is the memory of the heart.
Massieu to the Abbé Sicard.
A grateful mind
By owing owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharg’d.
Milton—Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 55.
Gratia pro rebus merito debetur inemtis.
Thanks are justly due for things got without purchase.
Ovid—Amorum. I. 10. 43.
Conveniens homini est hominem servare voluptas.
Et melius nulla quæritur arte favor.
It is a pleasure appropriate to man, for him to save a fellow-man, and gratitude is acquired in no better way.
Ovid—Epistolæ Ex Ponto. II. 9. 39.
Th’ unwilling gratitude of base mankind!
Pope—Second Book of Horace. Ep. I. L. 14.
Non est diuturna possessio in quam gladio ducimus; beneficiorum gratia sempiterna est.
That possession which we gain by the sword is not lasting; gratitude for benefits is eternal.
Quintus Curtius Rufus—De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni. VIII. 8. 11.
Qui gratus futurus est statim dum accipit de reddendo cogitet.
Let the man, who would be grateful, think of repaying a kindness, even while receiving it.
Seneca—De Beneficiis. II. 25.
L’ingratitude attire les reproches comme la reconnaissance attire de nouveaux bienfaits.
Ingratitude calls forth reproaches as gratitude brings renewed kindnesses.
Mme. de Sévigné—Lettres.
Now the good gods forbid
That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude
Towards her deserved children is enroll’d
In Jove’s own book, like an unnatural dam
Should now eat up her own!
Coriolanus. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 290.
Let but the commons hear this testament—
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read—
And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar’s wounds
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto their issue.
Julius Cæsar. Act III. Sc. 2. L. 135.
I’ve heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds
With coldness still returning;
Alas! the gratitude of men
Hath often left me mourning.
Wordsworth—Simon Lee.