quotations about envy
Wherever I find envy I take a pleasure in provoking it: I always praise before an envious man those who make him grow pale.
MONTESQUIEU
attributed, Day's Collacon
An envious heart makes a treacherous ear.
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
Their Eyes Were Watching God
For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top
Or any point which sticks out from the ordinary level.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
Envy, like a false mirror, distorts the symmetry of the sweetest form.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Envy follows worth as a shadow follows a body.
SPANISH PROVERB
If envy is rankling in your bosom, declare war against it at once; a war of extermination; no truce, no treaty, no compromise. Like the pirate on the high seas, it is an outlaw, an enemy to all mankind, and should be hung up at the yard arm until it is dead.
LEVI CARROLL JUDSON
The Moral Probe
Every other sin hath some pleasure annexed to it, or will admit of some excuse; but envy wants both; we should strive against it, for if indulged in, it will be to us as a foretaste of hell upon earth.
ROBERT BURTON
The Anatomy of Melancholy
I am Envy. I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Doctor Faustus
Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own.
HAROLD COFFIN
attributed, Quotable Quotes
Envy crawls toward the wealthy.
SOPHOCLES
attributed, Day's Collacon
The only cure for envy is to look upon the prosperity of the envied person as belonging to one's self.
DIONYSIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
A weak mind is ambitious of envy, a strong one of respect.
E. WIGGLESWORTH
attributed, Day's Collacon
Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
He who envies me, makes my virtue his vice, and my happiness his torment.
H. HOOKER
attributed, Day's Collacon
The eradiction of envy: gratitude.
GIANNINA BRASCHI
United States of Banana
The player envies only the player, the poet envies only the poet.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
"On Envy", The Plain Speaker, 1826
This only grant me, that my means may lie
Too low for envy, for contempt too high.
ABRAHAM COWLEY
Of Myself
ENVY, n. Emulation adapted to the meanest capacity.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
Fools may our scorn, not envy raise,
For envy is a kind of praise.
JOHN GAY
Fables
Envy stalks on with sullen step; her face is pallid and her body emaciated; her eye never looks straight before her: her teeth are brown with rust; her breast overflows with gall, and from her tongue drips drops of poison; she never smiles except when the wretched weep; nor does she enjoy rest; ever kept moving by her sleepless cares, she sees with evil eye the success of men, and pines away as she beholds; she distresses others, and is herself distressed, and bears her own tormentor in her breast.
OVID
Metamorphoses