Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own.

Coffin frames envy as a misdirected kind of “accounting”: instead of recognizing one’s own good fortune, the envious person fixates on tallying what someone else has. The line suggests envy is not merely a feeling but a practiced habit—an “art”—that can be cultivated or, by implication, unlearned. By casting blessings as countable items, the quote also critiques the comparative mindset that turns life into a ledger of advantages. Its moral force lies in redirecting attention from rivalry to gratitude, implying that contentment depends less on what one possesses than on where one chooses to place attention.