Don't Be Shy, Gratitude Is Good for You

Practical advice from one Charles Dickens in “Sketches by Boz”: “Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” G.K. Chesterton took a different tack—gratitude is “the highest form of thought.”

- Peggy Noonan

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Tolstoy took it a step further: You can infer from his work that he thought the moments in which we feel the greatest thankfulness are those in which we are most noble.