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

Ah! on Thanksgiving day....
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?
                         ~John Greenleaf Whittier

There is one day that is ours.
There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made
go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and
marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to.
Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.
                                      ~O. Henry

For, after all, put it as we may to ourselves,
we are all of us from birth to death guests at a table which we did not spread.
The sun, the earth, love, friends, our very breath are parts of the banquet....
Shall we think of the day as a chance to come nearer to our Host,
and to find out something of Him who has fed us so long?
                                        ~Rebecca Harding Davis

Stand up, on this Thanksgiving Day, stand upon your feet.
Believe in man. Soberly and with clear eyes, believe in your own time and place.
There is not, and there never has been a better time, or a better place to live in.
                                        ~Phillips Brooks