Envy Quotes - Page 28

• Christianity provided man for the first time with supernatural beings who, he knew, could neither envy nor ridicule him.

  Helmut Schoeck

  Men, Supernatural Beings, Atheism

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• ... 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

  Long, Funeral, Doctrine

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• Envy is not to be conquered but by death.

  Horace

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• Had the crow only fed without cawing she would have had more to eat, and much less of strife and envy to contend with. [To noise abroad our success is to invite envy and competition.]

  Horace

  Competition, Crow, Noise

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• I've given parties that have made Indian rajahs green with envy. I've had prima donnas break $10,000 engagements to come to my smallest dinners. When you were still playing button back in Ohio, I entertained on a cruising trip that was so much fun that I had to sink my yacht to make my guests go home.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Fun, Party, Home

  F. Scott Fitzgerald (2009). “The Crack-Up”, p.171, New Directions Publishing

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• That incessant envy wherewith the common rate of mankind pursues all superior natures to their own.

  Jonathan Swift

  Common, Incessant, Mankind

  Jonathan Swift (1861). “The Works of Jonathan Swift ...: With Copious Notes and Additions, and a Memoir of the Author”, p.327

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• Infants, I note with envy, are receptive to enjoyment in a degree not attained by adults this side of the new Jerusalem.

  Margaret Halsey

  Adults, Degrees, Jerusalem

  Margaret Halsey (1944). “...Some of My Best Friends are Soldiers: A Kind of Novel”

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• A competitive society is a society of envy.

  Dorothee Solle

  Competition

  Dorothee Sölle (1983). “The arms race kills even without war”, Augsburg Fortress Publishers

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• Emulation embalms the dead; envy, the vampire, blasts the living.

  Henry Fuseli

  Vampire, Emulation, Blast

  Henry Fuseli (1831). “Lectures. Aphorisms. A history of art in the schools of Italy”, p.140

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• 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

  Lasting Happiness, Greed, Contentment

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• Believe all the good you can of everyone. Do not measure others by yourself. If they have advantages which you have not, let your liberality keep pace with their good fortune. Envy no one, and you need envy no one.

  William Hazlitt

  Believe, Needs, Pace

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• For all the unkind things said about envy, it would only be fair to acknowledge that not all envy is destructive. If envy leads us to work hard and to improve our skills, it becomes a stimulant to self-improvement. God has given us no quality that cannot be used for good.

  Sidney Greenberg

  Hard Work, Self, Skills

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• It would be an error to try to build the Kingdom of Heaven upon envy. For nothing that is founded on envy can thrive; it must have another root.

  Paracelsus

  Errors, Roots, Heaven

  Paracelsus, Jolande Jacobi (1951). “Selected Writings”, p.170, Princeton University Press

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• The surest proof of being endowed with noble qualities is to be free from envy.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Quality, Noble, Proof

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• Our knowledge of what the richer than ourselves possess, and the poor do not, has never been more widespread. Therefore, envy, which is wanting what others have, and jealousy, which is not wanting others to have what one has, have never been more widespread.

  John Fowles

  Poor

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• Envy is destroyed by true friendship, as coquetry by true love.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  True Friend, Coquetry, Destroyed

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• The same old caveman feeling-greed, envy, violence, and mutual hate, which along the way assumed respectable pseudonyms like class struggle, racial struggle, mass struggle, labor-union struggle-are tearing our world to pieces.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Hate, Struggle, Our World

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• Hell is in the here and now. So is Heaven. Quit worrying about hell or dreaming about heaven, as they are both present inside us this very moment. Every time we fall in love, we ascend to heaven. Every time we hate, envy, or fight someone, we tumble straight into the fires of hell.

  Elif Safak

  Dream, Falling In Love, Hate

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• We often pride ourselves on even the most criminal passions, but envy is a timid and shamefaced passion we never dare to acknowledge.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Passion, Pride, Criminals

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• The desire to create continually is vulgar and betrays jealousy, envy, ambition. If one is something one really does not need to make anything --and one nonetheless does very much. There exists above the ''productive'' man a yet higher species.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Jealousy, Betrayal, Creativity

  Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale (1996). “Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits”, p.97, Cambridge University Press

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• This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators, save only he,Did that they did in envy of Caesar;He only, in a general honest thoughtAnd common good to all, made one of them. His life was gentle, and the elementsSo mixd in him that Nature might stand upAnd say to all the world, This was a man!

  William Shakespeare

  Men, World, Might

  William Shakespeare (1790). “The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: King Henry VIII. Coriolanus. Julius Caesar. Antony and Cleopatra”, p.416

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• Envy is littleness of soul.

  William Hazlitt

  Soul

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• 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

  Men, Human Nature, Pity

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• Each home has been reduced to the bare essentials -- to barer essentials than most primitive people would consider possible. Only one woman's hands to feed the baby, answer the telephone, turn off the gas under the pot that is boiling over, soothe the older child who has broken a toy, and open both doors at once. She is a nutritionist, a child psychologist, an engineer, a production manager, an expert buyer, all in one. Her husband sees her as free to plan her own time, and envies her; she sees him as having regular hours and envies him.

  Margaret Mead

  Baby, Husband, Children

  Margaret Mead (1975). “Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world”, William Morrow & Co

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• Our nature holds so much envy and malice that our pleasure in our own advantages is not so great as our distress at others'.

  Plutarch

  Pleasure, Advantage, Malice

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