Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Dickens isn't merely recommending gratitude over wallowing—he's making a mathematical claim that cuts deeper: present blessings, being current and renewable, actually outnumber past sorrows, which are fixed and finite. The trick lies in the word *upon*: reflection itself becomes a choice of direction, not an escape from difficulty. When you find yourself rehearsing an old failure during a difficult workday, Dickens would suggest that the act of noticing your colleague's kindness, or the coffee that still steams, isn't denial but rather accurate accounting—you have more of these moments than you have stored grievances.
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason...”
Marcus Aurelius“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. I...”
Viktor Frankl“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Seneca