50 Complaining Quotes For More Gratitude

By Clifton Sankofa | Published December 16, 2022

If you are looking for complaining quotes, look no further.

Our collection of complaining sayings will help realign and refine your ability to feel gratitude.

Why do people complain?

People complain for a variety of reasons.

All of us have complained about something at one time or another.

Complaining is a natural part of human communication, and just like anything else, we can overindulge if we are not careful.

Check out these astonishing facts about the science of complaining:

Complaining can be detrimental to your health.
Complaining rarely makes you feel better.
Complaining often makes the listener feel worse.

It is essential to identify what complaining is and what it is not.

Complaining is the expression of our dissatisfaction or annoyance about something.

While expressing our distaste can be necessary sometimes, complaining is a passive act.

Whether we realize it or not, complaining keeps us wallowing in our misfortune.

Complaining comes from a place of powerlessness and fuels anger and frustration.

People who complain rarely believe conditions will change for the better.

It is unlikely that any of us could go through life without complaining about anything, but we can limit how much we complain by remaining mindful of how we respond to outside stimuli.

Minimizing how much we complain can positively impact our physical and mental health.

Complaining vs. venting

Venting is not the same as complaining.

Venting is a constructive form of releasing energy.

Unlike complaining, venting helps us let go of anger and frustration, clearing our minds to plan our next move and act.

Short complaining quotes

These quotes about complaining are concise.

1. “Never ever apologize for complaining!” — Helen Dewdney

2. “I was born into a family of complainers.” — Ronnie Martin

3. “Complaining — we all do it, but do we really need to?” — Catherine Pulsifer

4. “We can use customer complaints to improve our service.” — Jon Gordon

5. “Don’t complain because you don’t have. Enjoy what you’ve got.” — H. Stanley Judd

6. “I had no shoes and complained until I met a man who had no feet.” — Indian Proverb

7. “People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.” — Stephen Hawking

8. “Some people seem to go through life standing at the complaint counter.” — Fred Propp Jr.

9. ”Family life is a bit like a runny peach pie — not perfect, but who’s complaining?” — Robert Brault

10. “Do not listen to those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious.” — Og Mandino

Insightful complaining quotes

Here are some great quotes about complaining.

11. “No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any.” — Thomas Jefferson

12. “Every complaint represents an opportunity to turn something negative into a positive.” — Robert Brault

13. “The world is full of people who complain, who look for the negative in life, and who are constantly pulling each other down.” — Jessica Jones

14. “When there was nothing to talk about, and we were trying to avoid confrontation, complaining kept us from being too transparent and vulnerable..” — Ronnie Martin

15. “One day it occurred to me that the most successful people I knew never complained or even spoke about how busy they were.” — Rory Vaden

16. “So, before you complain about your coworkers giving you the blues, look at yourself.” — Kala Stevenson

17. “Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.” — Jim Rohn

18. “Now, ten years later, the person who talked and complained is still talking and complaining and still remains in the same position.” — Catherine Pulsifer

19. “If you have time to whine and complain about something, then you have the time to do something about it.” — Anthony J. D’Angelo

20. “When you consistently maintain a positive frame of mind, you’ll become known as a problem—solver rather than a complainer.” — Joseph Sommerville, PhD

Complaining quotes and sayings

Here are some clever quotes about complaining.

21. “People avoid complainers. They seek out problem—solvers.” — Joseph Sommerville, PhD

22. “When any fit of gloominess, or perversion of mind, lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints.” — Samuel Johnson

23. “It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.” — Edmund Burke

24. “When was the last time you ever heard a man complaining about the toilet seat being left down so he had to raise it to use the bathroom?” — Annie Keys

25. “The world already has enough complainers. Let’s spread light by practicing gratitude.” — Bridget A. Thomas

26. “Criticizing, complaining, and blaming; These are the three horsemen of failure.” — David DeNotaris

27. “It is a rare person who, when his cup frequently runs over, can thank God instead of complaining about the limited size of his mug!” — Bob Russell

28. “A complaint is usually not kept to oneself; instead, it is told to another person or to groups of people, which therefore can lead to other complainers.” — Meilena Hauslendale

29. “When a person finds themselves predisposed to complaining about how little they are regarded by others, let them reflect how little they have contributed to the happiness of others.” — Anonymous

30. “If your complaint is valid, then you are owed something, and the company should thank you for bringing it to their attention so that they can improve service for all customers.” — Helen Dewdney

Complaining quotes about work

These quotes address how complaining impacts the workplace.

31. “A complaint can actually ‘seed’ itself into the thoughts of others.” — Meilena Hauslendale

32. “There tends to be a lot of time wasted complaining in offices — time that could instead be devoted to productivity.” — Marlene Chism

33. “Few take time to complain to the organization that dissatisfied them. Some keep it to themselves and let the occurrence eat away at them, increasing their stress; and fewer of them complain effectively.” — Charles M. Dobbs

34. “During the day, your concerns, trials, and tribulations can be born without complaining or involving everyone else in your own persona. After all, it is only for a day.” — Byron Pulsifer

35. “Even though many of us, myself included, often complain that we can’t do anything about this — based on the nature of life today, technology, or our responsibilities, families, and jobs — most of us have more of a say over our schedules than we admit.” — Mike Robbins

36. “And whenever I’d complain or was upset about something in my own life, my mother had the same advice: “Darling, just change the channel. You are in control of the clicker. Don’t replay the bad, scary movie.” — Arianna Huffington

37. “Excuses are only for those people who are unwilling to find the solution, who find greater solace in the loudness of their complaints rather than in the action they are taking to implement the actions that carry them steadily forward to their achievement.” — Byron Pulsifer

38. “When we make mistakes in our lives, we have two options. We can choose to recover from the situation and make amends to the persons we have harmed, or we can simply complain and force blame onto other people for our own actions and choices.” — Meilena Hauslendale

39. “You can complain about the direction of your life all you want, but until you sit in the driver’s seat and begin to drive yourself, you aren’t going to get where you want to go!” — Les Brown

Complaining quotes about criticism

Constructive criticism can be helpful but criticizing to complain never helps.

40. “When someone around you complains about his or her life, his or her job, or about the things you do, pay attention even to the smallest detail. If changing something small about you will improve your relationship, and it will make them feel better, then you can say that you just became a better person” — Lucas Bailly

41. “We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, climb over them, or build with them.” — William Arthur Ward

42. “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain — and most fools do. But it takes character and self—control to be understanding and forgiving.” — Dale Carnegie

43. “Be strict with yourself but least reproachful of others, and complaint is kept afar.” — Confucius

44. “There are two attitudes you can have when it comes to your birthday:
1. be thankful you have lived another year. or,
2. complain about being a year older.” — Catherine Pulsifer

45. “In a larger sense, if done correctly, complaining helps an organization improve itself.” — Charles M. Dobbs

46. “I read somewhere that if you pray for rain, don’t complain about the mud!” — Hyacinth Mottley

47. “Negativity and complaining are like a virus. It only takes a little bit of exposure before you are completely overtaken.” — Jessica Jones

48. “If you complain, expect to be complained about.” — Anonymous

49. We who complain so often are the same ones that have more than can only be imagined by millions of others.” — Catherine Pulsifer

50. Complaining is the most effective way not to get anything done.” — Anonymous

Complaining can harm your health

Many of us have been encouraged to complain about things.

Have you ever been encouraged to “get it out” when frustrated about something?

We reason we will feel better if we get our emotions out.

However, science suggests this may not be true.

Expressing negativity makes the listener feel worse, and negativity does not make us feel better.

Venting anger can be constructive, but if we are harping on negativity without releasing it constructively, we are just amplifying the negative energy.

Repeated negative thoughts make it easier for brain synapses to respond quickly to negativity.

The more negative thoughts we express, the easier it becomes for our brain to wire itself to perceive our surroundings negatively.