It has been said that gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. Without gratitude, life is emptied of joy and meaning. Yet in our very troubled age, it's often hard to feel grateful or thankful, and easy to fall into self-pity over the hardships of life. In this short work intended for the general reader, psychiatrist and ethicist Ronald W. Pies MD surveys six of the world's great spiritual traditions--Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Stoicism--and explores their understanding of gratitude. The reader comes away with both a deeper understanding of gratitude, and a path toward integrating this quality into his or her own life. Book review by Dr. Daniel Morehead, Tufts University School of Medicine: "The point of such a work is not to become an expert on the subject, or even knowledgeable. The point, if I may be so bold, is to become a better person. The point is to allow ourselves to be enriched by these traditions, by so much of the wisdom that surrounds us and came before us. The point is to feel our hearts warmed and dilated by our own experiences of gratitude, and our own spiritual cultivation of this virtue. Pies invites us to this undertaking not by lecturing or browbeating, but by acting as a sort of happy docent who wants to guide us through every piece of exquisite art in the gallery, and find joy and enlightenment along with us in the process. "--from Psychiatric Times