Envy famous quotes
Last updated: Sep 5, 2024
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Above all, you must fight conceit, envy, and every kind of ill-feeling in your heart.
-- Abraham Cahan -
This only grant me, that my means may lie, too low for envy, for contempt to high.
-- Abraham Cowley -
envy, as a rule, is of success rather than of merit. No one would have objected to his talent deserving recognition - only to his getting it.
-- Ada Leverson -
Wherever there is great property there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions.
-- Adam Smith -
There's only few people who have strength to honor someone's achievement without envy.
-- Aeschylus -
the most comfortable characteristic of the period [1775-1825], and the one which incites our deepest envy, is the universal willingness to accept a good purpose as a substitute for good work.
-- Agnes Repplier -
There is a natural limit to the success we wish our friends, even when we have spurred them on their way.
-- Agnes Repplier -
Need drives men to envy as fullness drives them to selfishness.
-- Agnes Repplier -
How do I think of you? As someone I want to be with. As someone as young as me, but "older," if that makes sense. As someone I like to look at, not just because you're good to look at, but because just looking at you makes me smile and feel happier. As someone who knows her mind and who I envy for that. As someone who is strong in herself without seeming to need anyone else to help her. As someone who makes me thinks and unsettles me in a way that makes me feel more alive.
-- Aidan Chambers -
No one is able to produce a great work of art without experience, nor achieve a worldly position immediately, nor be a great lover at the first attempt; and in the interval between initial failure and subsequent success, in the gap between who we wish one day to be and who we are at present, must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation. We suffer because we cannot spontaneously master the ingredients of fulfillment.
-- Alain de Botton -
The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy.
-- Alain de Botton -
We study biology, physics, movements of glaciers... Where are the classes on envy, feeling wronged, despair, bitterness...
-- Alain de Botton -
Envy: a confused, tangled guide to one's own ambitions.
-- Alain de Botton -
In Britain, because I live here, I can also run into problems of envy and competition. But all this is just in a day's work for a writer. You can't put stuff out there without someone calling you a complete fool. Oh, well.
-- Alain de Botton -
We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next.
-- Alain de Botton -
At times almost all of us envy the animals. They suffer and die, but do not seem to make a "problem" of it.
-- Alan Watts -
Envy will merit as its shade pursue, But like a shadow, proves the substance true.
-- Alexander Pope -
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, Is emulation in the learn'd or brave.
-- Alexander Pope -
Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.
-- Alexis de Tocqueville -
Jealousy is beautiful only on a young and ardent face. After the first wrinkles, trust must return.
-- Alfred Capus -
There is no rest for the person who has envy, and there is no love for the person who has bad manners.
-- Ali ibn Abi Talib -
I'm tired of liberals dividing this country up into little groups, setting them upon each other, breeding spite and envy, and then having the nerve to accuse conservatives of hatred.
-- Allen West -
RICH, adj. Holding in trust and subject to an accounting the property of the indolent, the incompetent, the unthrifty, the envious and the luckless.
-- Ambrose Bierce -
I probably have less revision than those who have that wonderful rush of story to tell - you know, I can't wait to tell you what happened the other day. It comes tumbling out and maybe then they go back and refine. I kind of envy that way of working, but I just have never done it.
-- Amy Hempel -
I envy all suffering, because suffering is necessary to become spiritually beautiful.
-- Andrew Davidson -
Envy has the ugliness of a trapped rat that has gnawed its own foot in its effort to escape.
-- Angus Wilson -
I envy your ignorance, I hear that it's bliss.
-- Ani DiFranco -
there is that wish, in the name of democracy, to level down, because high cultural standards are despised and rejected, and even feared, in our Western Democracies. Don't let anyone else have what I've not got, or can't enjoy! - is the secret theory. A very large number of writers in the British and American popular press profess to be preaching democracy when in fact they are only trying to make envy respectable!
-- Ann Bridge -
There was no pleasure like being envied on a mass scale.
-- Anna Godbersen -
Heart-stopping envy is the sincerest form of flattery.
-- Anna Godbersen -
If envy is red and doubt is black then happiness is brown. I looked from the little brown stone to the tiny brown freckle to her huge brown eyes.
-- Annabel Pitcher -
The modest man has everything to gain, and the arrogant man everything to lose; for modesty has always to deal with generosity, and arrogance with envy.
-- Antoine Rivarol -
These golden matters Of Gyges and his treasuries Are no concern of mine. Jealousy has no power over me, Nor do I envy a god his work, And I do not burn to rule. Such things have no Fascination for my eyes.
-- Archilochus -
Righteousness is a fuel that, when it has some pitch in it of ambitious rivalry and the damper's left open to envy's draught, makes a hot enough fire to cook somebody's goose in quite a hurry.
-- Ardyth Kennelly -
Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.
-- Aristotle -
Not every action or emotion however admits of the observance of a due mean. Indeed the very names of some directly imply evil, for instance malice, shamelessness, envy, and, of actions, adultery, theft, murder. All these and similar actions and feelings are blamed as being bad in themselves; it is not the excess or deficiency of them that we blame. It is impossible therefore ever to go right in regard to them - one must always be wrong;
-- Aristotle -
Every time you envy someone you use a muscle in your face to disadvantage. If you do it only once or twice, it can be erased. But over a period of years, those muscles will tighten your mouth, narrow your eyes, and help destroy your attractiveness.
-- Arlene Dahl -
Although our "gentle air" cannot improve the way hate and envy look, it does seem not to encourage firmness and decision. All is compromise; caution and refinement are everywhere. Everything has to "make a good impression" - whether or not it is any good: the impression is the main thing.
-- Arnold Schoenberg -
Yes, free markets tend to produce unequal incomes. We should not be ashamed of that. On the contrary, our system is the envy of the world and should be a source of pride.
-- Arthur C. Brooks -
They will have time enough, in those endless aeons, to attempt all things, and to gather all knowledge no Gods imagined by our minds have ever possessed the powers they will command But for all that, they may envy us, basking in the bright afterglow of Creation; for we knew the Universe when it was young.
-- Arthur C. Clarke -
Envy is like a fly that passes all the body's sounder parts, and dwells upon the sores.
-- Arthur Chapman -
"Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters.
-- Ayn Rand -
It is good to vary in order that you may frustrate the curious, especially those who envy you.
-- Baltasar Gracian -
The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.
-- Baltasar Gracian -
Wherever I find envy I take a pleasure in provoking it: I always praise before an envious man those who make him grow pale.
-- Baron de Montesquieu -
It is usually the case with most men that their nature is so constituted that they pity those who fare badly and envy those who fare well.
-- Baruch Spinoza -
I know that a man who shows me his wealth is like the beggar who shows me his poverty; they are both looking for alms from me, the rich man for the alms of my envy, the poor man for the alms of my guilt.
-- Ben Hecht -
That praises are without reason lavished on the dead, and that the honours due only to are paid to antiquity, is a complaint likely to be always continued by those who, being able to add nothing to truth, hope for eminence from the heresies of paradox; or those who, being forced by disappointment upon consolatory expedients, are willing to hope from posterity what the present age refuses, and flatter themselves that the regard which is yet denied by envy will be at last bestowed by time.
-- Ben Jonson -
Posterity will do justice to that unprincipled maniac Gladstone - extraordinary mixture of envy, vindictiveness, hypocrisy and superstition; and with one commanding characteristic - whether Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition, whether preaching, praying, speechifying or scribbling - never a gentleman.
-- Benjamin Disraeli -
Envy was one of the most potent causes of unhappiness.
-- Bertrand Russell -
Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed.
-- Bertrand Russell -
Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.
-- Bertrand Russell -
The suburban housewife - she was the dream image of the young American women and the envy, it was said, of women all over the world. The American housewife - freed by science and labor-saving appliances from the drudgery, the dangers of childbirth, and the illnesses of her grandmother had found true feminine fulfillment.
-- Betty Friedan -
Envy and greed starve on a steady diet of thanksgiving.
-- Billy Graham -
Don't envy the harvest of the rich. Envy their planting.
-- Bo Sanchez -
Let’s face it: There are people who won’t be happy when you get too blessed. There are people who feel threatened by your success. There are people who, out of envy, will just not like you anymore.
-- Bo Sanchez -
envy is one of the scorpions of the mind, often having little to do with the objective, external world ...
-- Bonnie Friedman -
The antidote to envy is one's own work. Always one's own work. Not the thinking about it. Not the assessing of it. But the doing of it. The answers you want can come only from the work itself.
-- Bonnie Friedman -
We are constantly telling ourselves what we most want to know, and at the same time are deaf to it. Why does envy have such a fierce bite? Why do we fall silent or get worried just as our story is about to spring out of our control and into its own life? Whose shadow falls across the page?
-- Bonnie Friedman -
A person worth envying is a person who doesn't envy
-- Boonaa Mohammed -
I stress – I don't believe that economic equality is possible; indeed some measure of inequality is essential for the spirit of envy and keeping up with the Joneses that is, like greed, a valuable spur to economic activity.
-- Boris Johnson -
The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
-- Brad Pitt -
The only thing I envy in young people is their livers.
-- Brendan Behan -
Whatever worldly thing we may covet-zealously striving to obtain and then retain-never seems to bring an end to our desires. Covetousness, envy, jealousy, and greed always escalate into a vicious spiral, as we seek greater and greater gratification but find less and less contentment. . . . Striving to acquire the things of the world not only does not bring lasting happiness and peace, but it drives us to seek more. When "all we've ever wanted" is grounded in the temporal trappings of this world, it is never enough!
-- Brent L. Top -
If you envy successful people, you create a negative force field of attraction that repels you from ever doing the things that you need to do to be successful. If you admire successful people, you create a positive force field of attraction that draws you toward becoming more and more like the kinds of people that you want to be like.
-- Brian Tracy -
... the introduction of the doctrine of polygamy was the first time in my life that I desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time. And when I saw a funeral, I felt to envy the corpse its situation.
-- Brigham Young -
Men know they are sexual exiles. They wander the earth seeking satisfaction, craving and despising, never content. There is nothing in that anguished motion for women to envy.
-- Camille Paglia -
Kindness, love, patience, understanding, and unity will increase as we serve, while intolerance, jealousy, envy, greed, and selfishness decrease or disappear. The more we give of ourselves, the more our capacity to serve, understand, and love will grow.
-- Carlos H. Amado -
Flirtation envies Love, and Love envies Flirtation.
-- Carolyn Wells -
I do not envy the headache you will have when you awake. In the meantime, dream of large women.
-- Cary Elwes -
It’s not really the love that I envy, it’s the trust. The feeling that no matter how bad you screw up, there is always someone who will accept you and love you for who you are; not because they have to, just because they can’t not love you.
-- Cassia Leo -
Taste of metal on my tongue. Poison the color of envy- I'm delirious, you're delicious, I'm deluded and delusional. I'm lost without you. I need you.
-- Cecily von Ziegesar -
Never envy a man his lady. Behind it all lays a living hell.
-- Charles Bukowski -
Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, they damn those authors whom they never read.
-- Charles Churchill -
With that malignant envy which turns pale, And sickens, even if a friend prevail.
-- Charles Churchill -
Those who raise envy will easily incur censure.
-- Charles Churchill -
I envy people who write easily. I enjoy the process, but it's not easeful for me.
-- Charles Krauthammer -
I defer to all these other American poets who, for some reason, I both envy and admire.
-- Charles Olson -
It is impossible not to envy the man who can dismiss reason, although we know how it must turn out at last.
-- Charles Sanders Peirce -
If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang.
-- Charley Reese -
No woman is envious of another's virtue who is conscious of her own.
-- Charlotte Lennox -
Only fools live in the past or carry envy to the present.
-- Chi Chi Rodriguez -
We need to get rid of hate, envy, jealousy, discord in ourselves, so we can reach a solution in terms of peace in order to feel that time has come for human happiness.
-- Chico Xavier -
In Britain, any degree of success is met with envy and resentment.
-- Christopher Lee -
I am Envy...I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.
-- Christopher Marlowe -
I am Envy, begotten of a chimney-sweeper and an oyster-wife. I cannot read, and therefore wish all books were burnt; I am lean with seeing others eat - O that there would come a famine through all the world, that all might die, and I live alone; then thou should'st see how fat I would be! But must thou sit and I stand? Come down, with a vengeance!
-- Christopher Marlowe -
Envy honors the dead in order to insult the living.
-- Claude Adrien Helvetius -
Nothing can allay the rage of biting envy.
-- Claudius Claudianus -
The destructive fixation of the envious English-Canadian mind requires that the highest, happiest most agile flyers be laid low. [It is] a sadistic desire corroded by soul-destroying envy, to intimidate all those who might aspire to anything the slightest exceptional.
-- Conrad Black -
Envy is when you resent God's goodness in other people's lives and ignore God's goodness in your own life.
-- Craig Groeschel -
If I were to envy any persons on this planet, it would be mountain hermits. You often hear old platitudes such as, 'Speak out. Be heard.' On the contrary, a breath of fresh air would be something like: 'Silence, think for at least 15 minutes, and then maybe speak out.
-- Criss Jami -
Envy is a sign of insecurity, yes; but so is longing to be envied.
-- Criss Jami -
Some fans keep booing and whistling at me because I'm handsome, rich and a great player. They envy me.
-- Cristiano Ronaldo -
To help us bring benefit to others through our words and actions, it is useful to cultivate an attitude of sympathetic joy in others’ achievements and good fortune. This attitude is a powerful antidote against envy, which is not only a source of unnecessary suffering on the individual level but also an obstacle to our ability to reach out and engage with others.
-- Dalai Lama
