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Counting Your Blessings
Even if you have countless blessings, it's good to count them anyway.
I am too little to contain my joy,
It flows above the narrow banks, Aurelia:
What shall I say? let me bathe here eternally,
And study new arithmetic, to count
Our blessings.
~James Shirley, Changes, or Love in a Maze, 1631
The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. ~Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition, 1973
The person who is busy counting his blessings has no time to take inventory of his injuries. ~William Arthur Ward, Thoughts of a Christian Optimist, 1968
...man is fond of reckoning up his troubles, but does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it. ~Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground, 1864, translated by Constance Garnett, 1918
If you count all your assets, you always show a profit. ~Robert Quillen (1887–1948)
Grief counts the seconds: happiness forgets the hours. ~J. De Finod, 1880
Count up all the blessings of time; survey all the glories of eternity... ~Charles Simeon, Helps to Composition, or, Five Hundred Skeletons of Sermons, several being the substance of sermons preached before the University, King's College, Cambridge, 1802
When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep...
~Irving Berlin, "Count Your Blessings (Instead Of Sheep)," 1954
If you're worried and you can't sleep
Just count your blessings instead of sheep...
~Irving Berlin, "Count Your Blessings (Instead Of Sheep)," 1954
...this particular song is based on what really happened... sometime ago, after the worst kind of a sleepless night, my doctor came to see me and after a lot of self-pity, belly-aching and complaining about my insomnia, he looked at me and said "speaking of doing something about insomnia, did you ever try counting your blessings?" ~Irving Berlin, 1952 [the song: "Count Your Blessings (Instead Of Sheep)"
You have given me a very long list of your trials... and some of them, no doubt, weigh upon you very heavily. But now, my good friend... suppose you and I try to make another list, and count up your blessings. ~Anonymous, The Mischief Maker and the Peace Maker, 1864
The earth is fair and beautiful,
And there's enough of light
To chase the shadows all away
And leave our faces bright;
We'll count our blessings every day,
And rich in sweet content
We'll scatter sunshine everywhere
That sunbeams may be spent...
No use to corner sunshine up
When there's enough for all;
We'll share the blessings of content
Wherever shadows fall...
~Margaret Scott Hall, "Rich in Content," 1907
The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles. ~Author unknown, c.1964
Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own. ~Author unknown, c.1974
How many troubles have they witnessed! Troubles, — ah, but how many mercies too! Think of THESE. Troubles and mercies, — which were most in number in the ten years passed? You can count your troubles, can you count your blessings? Are you willing, in the next ten years, to make this exchange: to let the troubles of the past ten years be the measure of your mercies in the next ten years; and to let the mercies of the past ten years be the measure of your troubles in coming ten? ~George Allen, 1861
You can't count the bad things that happen. They don't count against life. They are life. Only count the good things. Let every blessing strengthen you. ~Terri Guillemets
There are many people who would be happy if they knew how. They are surrounded with plenty... They seem to have all things necessary to make them happy, except the art of being happy. They are unhappy and yet they could scarcely give a substantial reason why. To all such we would say... Count up your blessings. Enumerate your friends and compare them with the number of your enemies, compare your condition with thousands who have no comforts, friends or prospects. See whether your troubles are not borrowed; or whether they do not come from false opinions or feelings, vanity, pride or selfishness. People can generally be happy if they try. Keep a sunny-heart and life will be sunny. ~"The Art of Being Happy," Valley Farmer, October 1858, Norman J. Colman and H. P. Byram, editors
Count your blessings — not your troubles! ~Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, 1944
The more we count the blessings we have, the less we crave the luxuries we haven't. ~William Arthur Ward, Thoughts of a Christian Optimist, 1968
Be on the lookout for mercies. The more we look for them the more of them will we see. Blessings brighten when we count them. Out of the determination of the heart the eyes see. If you want to be gloomy, there's gloom enough to keep you glum; if you want to be glad, there's gleam enough to keep you glad... Better lose count in enumerating your blessings than lose your blessings in telling over your troubles. ~Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1858–1901)
Work as long as there is work and you have strength to do it; and count it a blessing, every day, that God gives you something to do. ~Henry Ward Beecher, "The Privilege of Working," 1870
What the light of the sun is to the life of plants and flowers, mental sunshine is to the life and health of the body; therefore, sift your thoughts — call in the bright ones — drive out the dark ones. Set apart one cozy corner of your brain as a mental sunshine room, upon the walls of which hang the beautiful pictures of the pleasant recollections of the past. Make that your living room. Bid your soul sing sweet melodies of joy and peace, of gratitude and praise... "Count your blessings," past and present... Send to the burial ground of forgetfulness all your old troubles, whether they be real or imaginary. If you keep these old carcasses about you, they will poison and destroy your life. "Go bury your sorrows," and do not dig them up again. ~J. W. Blosser, M.D., Health Secrets, 1907
Run along and count your blessings and your bouquets. ~F. E. Baily, Dolf, 1921 [In the story this is literal, as he's speaking to a stage performer, but I thought it was cute used figuratively too.
My heart within me was like molten snow,
Wavering and deadly chill. The present seemed
Dark, and the future with grim spectres teemed,
And I had many a weary mile to go...
While thus I mused, heart-broken, in the air
I heard a voice cry, "Count thy blessings, count."
And I, ingrate, alarmed, began to bless,
And rise superior to all abject prayer.
Nor has my hymn of praise since then grown less,
For oh how high those mounts of blessing mount!
~John Charles Earle, "Count Your Blessings," The Master's Field, 1878
You are a very good accountant, are you not? You can count up your miseries with the most painstaking accuracy. Not the smallest of them will escape you. With the extended power of vision which long practice has given you, you will see the tiniest one, pounce upon it and drag it forth to appear in the sum total at the bottom of the list...
Are you as eager and ready to count up your blessings and joys? You have none to count? Oh! stop and think a minute. No one is without some, if ever so few. You have dwelt so long on your miseries that it is hard for you to turn your eyes in another direction, but you will find something else to count up if you persist...
The rule of addition is a good one to apply to your experiences; only try to apply it to the good as well as the evil, and be as zealous in the application, too. Persistent dwelling upon miseries enlarges, emphasizes, and multiples those miseries. The addition leads to multiplication. The rule will work both ways. Persistent attention to joys will multiply those joys. ~Ursula N. Gestefeld, "The Mastery of Fate," 1899
When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done...
~Johnson Oatman, "Count Your Blessings," 1897
O, ask not what tomorrow will bring, but count as a blessing every day that fate may give you.
Three score and ten, four score, or more...
A time to count one's blessings o'er...
Age is but a shallow blind —
A mortal camouflage of Youth.
~Anna E. Satterlee, "Birthdays," 1921
Do you count your birthdays thankfully?
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published 2001 Jun 9
revised 2021 Sep 7
last saved 2024 Sep 7
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