With the strain of pulling together a Thanksgiving feast and the pressure of a house full of relatives, it would be easy to miss the reason for the holiday.

Below are some quotes that will remind you, in the words of the late Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, author of the “Last Lecture,” that “Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”

· “Be thankful for what you have. Your life is someone else’s fairy tale.” — Wale Ayeni

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

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

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

· “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

· “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

· “The turkey. The sweet potatoes. The stuffing. The pumpkin pie. Is there anything else we all can agree so vehemently about? I don’t think so.” — Nora Ephron

· “No one has ever become poor by giving.” — Anne Frank

· “After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” — Oscar Wilde

· “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the eons, it’s that you can’t give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.” — Rick Riordan

· “Forever on Thanksgiving Day, the heart will find the pathway home.” — Wilbur D. Nesbit

· “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” — Meister Eckhart

· “I suppose I will die never knowing what pumpkin pie tastes like when you have room for it.” — Robert Brault

· “An attitude of gratitude brings great things.” — Yogi Bhajan

· “I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.” — Erma Bombeck

· “What if, today, we were grateful for everything?” — Charlie Brown

· “Be present in all things and thankful for all things.” — Maya Angelou

· “When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup.” — Sam Lefkowitz