Boss Appreciation Quotes for Boss's Day: 10 Sourced Lines and How to Write the Card

Boss's Day began with one employee. In 1958 Patricia Bays Haroski, a secretary at State Farm Insurance in Deerfield, Illinois, registered "National Boss' Day" with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She picked October 16 because it was her father's birthday, and he was also her boss. In 1962 Illinois Governor Otto Kerner backed the idea with a proclamation, according to the holiday's documented history. The day was meant to help younger staff see the work their supervisors did, which is still the best reason to write anything in a Boss's Day card.

The ten lines below are for that card, or for any note that thanks a manager. Each one is traced to the book, letter or speech it comes from, and they are grouped by what you are actually thanking your boss for. After the quotes there is a three-sentence method for writing the card, a picker table, and three card favorites that carry the wrong name.

For the boss who taught you the job

Most thanks to a manager come down to this one: you know how to do something now that you could not do before. These three lines say so without sounding like a performance review.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

— Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, ch. XX, 1907

Adams wrote this in the chapter he called "Failure", about his seven years teaching history at Harvard in the 1870s. He printed the book privately in 1907; it was published for the public in 1918 and won a Pulitzer Prize the following year. The line is not about bosses, but it describes what a good manager does better than most management books: the effect shows up years later, in other people's work. Use it for a boss who trained you and has since moved on, or one you are now leaving.

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

— Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, 5 February 1676

Newton wrote it in a letter to his rival Hooke, dated 5 February 1675/6 in the old calendar; the original reads "ye sholders" and is held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The image is much older: John of Salisbury credited it to Bernard of Chartres in 1159. Some historians read Newton's version as polite, others as a dig at Hooke, who was a short man. In a card, only the polite reading survives. It suits a boss whose groundwork you built on, such as a founder or a long-serving lead who set up the systems you now run.

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Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

— Jack Welch, Winning, 2005

Welch wrote this with Suzy Welch four years after he left General Electric, as advice to new managers. In a thank-you card, turn it around: you are telling your boss that they did the second half. It works best for a first manager, the one who took a chance on a junior hire. Some colleagues remember Welch mainly for GE's forced-ranking system, so pick another line if your team would wince at the name.

For the boss who shared the credit

Some managers make themselves hard to see. The project ships, the team gets the applause, and the boss is somewhere at the back of the room. These lines thank them for that.

But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will all say, 'We did this ourselves.'

— Laozi, in Witter Bynner's The Way of Life According to Laotzu, ch. 17, 1944

This is chapter 17 of the Tao Te Ching in the American poet Witter Bynner's free 1944 version. Literal translations speak of "rulers", not "leaders", so name Bynner if anyone asks. It is the right line after a launch or a good quarter, from a team that knows the boss cleared the road. It reads as a compliment only if the work went well, so do not use it after a rough year.

So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise.

— Charles M. Schwab, quoted by Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People, Part One, ch. 2, 1936

Schwab ran Bethlehem Steel and had been the first president of U.S. Steel. Carnegie built the chapter "The Big Secret of Dealing with People" around this statement, which Schwab gave as his reason for being paid a million dollars a year. If your boss praises people in public and corrects them in private, this line names the habit exactly. "Approbation" is old-fashioned, so the second sentence alone is enough for a card.

Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free — and worth a fortune.

— Sam Walton, Sam Walton: Made in America, 1992

This is the fifth of the ten rules for running a business that close Walton's memoir, written with John Huey and published the year he died. Walmart still prints the list on its corporate site. Quoting it back to a manager is a gentle joke with a point: here are the free words, returned. It suits retail, operations and frontline teams where the boss walks the floor.

For the boss who said thank you first

The easiest card to write is for the manager who already does it: the one who remembered your work in a meeting, or sent the note after a long week. These two lines are about thanks itself.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.

— Max De Pree, Leadership Is an Art, 1987

De Pree was chief executive of the furniture maker Herman Miller when he wrote this short book, first published by Michigan State University Press in 1987. The sentence is the most quoted in the book because it puts "thank you" in the job description instead of treating it as a courtesy. For a card, the first two sentences are enough. It suits a boss who is honest about bad news and generous with credit, which are the two halves of the line.

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I now perceive one immense omission in my Psychology,—the deepest principle of Human Nature is the craving to be appreciated, and I left it out altogether from the book, because I had never had it gratified till now.

— William James, letter to his class at Radcliffe College, 6 April 1896

His Philosophy 2A students had sent the Harvard psychologist a potted azalea at Easter. James thanked them in this letter, printed in The Letters of William James, vol. 2 (1920), and joked that they had "let loose a demon" in him. The usual quotation stops after "appreciated". The full sentence is better: a famous professor admits a small gift from his students meant more than his textbook allowed for. It is the line to put with a team gift, even a small one.

Two thank-you notes worth copying

The best models for a Boss's Day card are not quotes at all but real thank-you notes. One was written by an emperor about the man he had served under. The other was written by a president to his general.

In my father I observed mildness of temper, and unchangeable resolution in the things which he had determined after due deliberation; and no vain-glory in those things which men call honors; and a love of labor and perseverance; and a readiness to listen to those who had anything to propose for the common weal.

— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, I.16, tr. George Long, 1862

Book One of the Meditations is a list of people Marcus wanted to thank, and the longest entry is for Antoninus Pius, his adoptive father and the emperor he worked under for more than twenty years. Every clause names a specific habit: listening to proposals, keeping a decision once it was made, refusing flattery. That is the lesson for a card. Name the habit, not the virtue. More on the book is in our guide to Marcus Aurelius's leadership passages.

I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country.

— Abraham Lincoln, letter to Ulysses S. Grant, 13 July 1863

Lincoln wrote nine days after Vicksburg surrendered, to a general he had never met. The letter is short. It opens with the thanks, then walks through the campaign decision by decision, and ends: "I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong." Here the thanks runs from boss to report rather than the other way. Its structure still works in a card: thanks, then the specific moment, then what it changed.

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Writing the card in three sentences

A quote on its own reads like a poster. What makes a Boss's Day card land is one specific sentence from you. The Lincoln and Marcus notes above both follow the same order, and it fits on a small card:

1. The thanks, plainly. "Thank you for this year" is fine. Keep the quote out of the first sentence.
2. One moment. Name a day, a decision or a habit: the review you were given time to redo, the client call they took for you, the Friday they sent everyone home early. One is stronger than a list.
3. What it changed, then the line. Say what you can do now, or what the team did because of it, and put the quote last, with the name of the person who said it.

Example messages built that way (fill in your own details):

• From one person: "Thank you for this year. When the [project] slipped in March, you took the call with the client so I could fix the data. I learned more from watching that call than from any training. 'A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.' (Henry Adams)"
• From a team, after a launch: "Happy Boss's Day. Every one of us knows who cleared the road for [launch]. You will hear us say 'we did this ourselves,' and we know exactly what that line from the Tao Te Ching means."
• For a boss who praises a lot: "You notice the small stuff, and you say so. Sam Walton called a few sincere words of praise 'absolutely free — and worth a fortune.' Here are a few back. Thank you."
• For a boss who is leaving: "Most of what I do well at work I learned on your team. 'If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.' Thank you, and good luck with what comes next."

What to leave out: anything about pay or promotions, jokes about the boss's age or habits unless the whole team is in on it, and gifts that only one person gives. A card signed by the team is the safer choice. If you are new and the boss is too, a short note is better than a long one. For quotes to use the other way round, from a manager to the team, see our quotes for managers.

Which line for which boss

Three card favorites with the wrong name on them

Boss's Day card sites repeat a small set of lines, and several come with someone else's name. Each of these has a better-documented origin. Two dozen more misattributed lines from the office wall are traced in leadership quotes leaders never said.

• "People will forget what you said… but people will never forget how you made them feel." This is usually credited to Maya Angelou. Quote Investigator's earliest record is 1971, in Richard Evans' Quote Book, credited to Carl W. Buehner, and it calls the Angelou credit unsupported (QI, 2014).
• "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." This is usually credited to Harry Truman. Quote Investigator found nothing from Truman's lifetime. The earliest Truman credit is a 1988 Time column, and the idea goes back to an 1863 diary entry quoting a Jesuit priest, Father Strickland (QI, 2010).
• "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." This is credited to Theodore Roosevelt on almost every quote site, always without a speech, letter or date. No primary source was located for this page, so treat it as "commonly attributed to Theodore Roosevelt (no primary source found)".

For a card, a line with a clear source is safer. A boss who looks it up will find the same name you wrote down. If you want one more line in the spirit of the day, the lead by example quotes work well for a manager who never asked the team to do what they would not do themselves.

William James received a potted azalea, and it is the reason his line about appreciation exists. A small card with one true sentence in it still does the same job.