Hillsdale College

Gratitude

Give honor and thanks to those who show you kindness and grace.

StoriesPoemsLives of Virtue

Gratitude is the moral virtue that inclines one to acknowledge and repay the gifts and benefits that one has received from others. Acknowledgement begins in thought and remembrance and is expressed in words of thanks and praise. Repayment may consist in giving honor and gifts or in acts of service and assistance.

Grades K-2:

The virtue of gratitude gives us the desire to recognize and give thanks for the good things others have done for us and given to us. 

Grades 3-6:

The virtue of gratitude inclines us to acknowledge and repay the gifts and kindnesses that we have received from others. Gratitude begins in the mind by remembering and recognizing what we have been given and is then expressed in words of thanks and praise and in acts of kindness and service. 

Related Virtues

Justice

Patriotism
Respect
Responsibility
Honesty
Friendship
Generosity
Kindness

Featured Stories

The Thanksgiving StoryAlice Dalgliesh
Grade K-2

Story

The Little Hero of Holland The Children’s Book of VirtuesWilliam J. Bennett
Grade 1-2

Story

Farmer BoyLaura Ingalls Wilder
Grade 3-5

Story

Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery
Grade 4-6

Story

Zlateh the Goat and Other StoriesIsaac Bashevis Singer
Grade 3-5

Story

Always Room for One MoreSorche Nic Leodhas
Grade K-2

Story

More Stories

Featured Biographies

Giving Thanks: How Thanksgiving Became a National HolidayDenise Kiernan
Grade K-3

Biography

Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved ThanksgivingLaurie Halse Anderson
Grade K-3

Biography

More Than Petticoats: Remarkable New Hampshire WomenGail Underwood Parker
Grade 4-6

Biography

Poems about Gratitude

Now you’re part of that present unity Of absences the living move among,

For A Dog
By Ryan Wilson
Read More of For A Dog

The world is so full of a number of things

Happy Thought
By Rober Louis Stevenson
Read More of Happy Thought

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree...

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
By William Butler Yeats
Read More of The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

The Summer Day
By Mary Oliver
Read More of The Summer Day

How do you like to go up in a swing,    Up in the air so blue?

The Swing
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Read More of The Swing

Great Nature has another thing to do To you and me; so take the lively air,

The Waking
By Theodore Roethke
Read More of The Waking

How frugal is the Chariot...

There is no Frigate like a Book
By Emily Dickinson
Read More of There is no Frigate like a Book

Lives of Virtue

Sarah Josepha Buell HaleSarah Josepha Hale exemplified gratitude and perseverance by tirelessly advocating for Thanksgiving as a national holiday and advancing women's education through her influential editorship of "Godey's Lady's Book," despite personal and financial hardships.