There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better or worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but though his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
There is no surer mark of the absence of the highest moral and intellectual qualities than a cold reception of excellence.
—Gamaliel Bailey (1807–59) American Journalist
Jealousy would be far less torturous if we understood that love is a passion entirely unrelated to our merits.
—Paul Eldridge (1888–1982) American Poet, Educator
I envy people who drink – at least they know what to blame everything on.
—Oscar Levant (1906–72) American Musician, Composer, Author, Comedian, Actor
Rust consumes iron and envy consumes itself.
—Danish Proverb
They that envy others are their inferiors.
—Common Proverb
The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Envy, like flame, blackens that which is above it, and which it cannot reach.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) French-Swiss Lyric Poet
Jealousy is not a barometer by which the depth of love can be read. It merely records the degree of the lover’s insecurity.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.
—Erica Jong (b.1942) American Novelist, Feminist
Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Envy ought to have no place allowed it in the heart of man; for the goods of this present world are so vile and low that they are beneath it, and those of the future world are so vast and exalted that they are above it.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Envy eats nothing but its own heart.
—German Proverb
The truest mark of being born with great qualities, is being born without envy.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withhold from us; and therefore whatever depresses immoderate wishes, will, at the same time, set the heart free from the corrosion of envy, and exempt us from that vice which is, above most others, tormenting to ourselves, hateful to the world, and productive of mean artifices and sordid projects.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
To cure jealousy is to see it for what it is, a dissatisfaction with self.
—Joan Didion (1934–2021) American Essayist, Novelist, Memoirist
Envy is the most stupid of vices, for there is no single advantage to be gained from it.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
The heaven of the envied is hell for the envious.
—Baltasar Gracian (1601–58) Spanish Scholar, Prose Writer
The envious praise only that which they can surpass; that which surpasses them they censure.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Emulation looks out for merits, that she may exalt herself by a victory; envy spies out blemishes, that she may lower another by a defeat.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
It was well said that envy keeps no holidays.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The idea of caring that someone is making money faster [than you] is one of the deadly sins. Envy is a really stupid sin because it’s the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There’s a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?
—Charlie Munger (1924–2023) American Investor, Philanthropist
Envy among other ingredients has a mixture of the love of justice in it. We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good-fortune.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Mediocrity doesn’t mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
It is not greed that drives the world, but envy.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
All the world is competent to judge my pictures except those who are of my profession.
—William Hogarth (1697–1764) English Painter, Engraver
Envy wounds with false accusations, that is with detraction, a thing which scares virtue.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Architect
Envy assails the noblest: the winds howl around the highest peaks.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
None of the affections have been noted to fascinate and bewitch but envy.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. For men’s minds, will either feed upon their own good, or upon others’ evil; and who wanteth the one, will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope, to attain to another’s virtue, will seek to come at even hand, by depressing another’s fortune.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
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