Gratitude is the Least Deeply Felt of All Human Emotions
(Copied for fair use from SWIM WITH THE SHARKS WITHOUT BEING EATEN ALIVE by HARVEY MACKAY.)

You’ve heard it expressed before, both in the vernacular (‘What have you done for me lately?’) and in the classical modes (‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is it to have a thankless child’), but it still bears repeating: Don’t expect gratitude to last any longer than it takes for the recipients to say they’re eternally grateful.

We arrived where we are today because a number of people gave us a leg up along the way, but ask for a show of hands and 99.9 percent of us consider ourselves self-made men and women.

Hatred and even love endure, but there is in the human makeup that which is unwilling to bear the burden of being grateful, and therefore morally beholden, to anyone for very long. So whatever you do for your kids, your spouse, your sub-ordinates, your boss, or your friends, just remember: You’ll be a lot happier if you think of it as doing it for yourself. And then try like hell to forget you did it, because the beneficiary has.