William Shakespeare Quotes About Envy

• I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness, glad of other men's good, content with my harm.

  William Shakespeare

  Happiness, Hate, Men

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 3, sc. 2, l. [78]

• This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands,--This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Wall, War

  'Richard II' (1595) act 2, sc. 1, l. 40

• But O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes.

  William Shakespeare

  Happiness, Eye, Men

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 5, sc. 2, l. [48]

• Tis much when sceptres are in children's hands,
  But more when envy breeds unkind division:
  There comes the ruin, there begins confusion.

  William Shakespeare

  Children, Hands, Envy

  William Shakespeare, Joseph Dennie, Isaac Reed, Samuel Johnson, William Richardson (1807). “King Henry VI, part 1. King Henry VI, part 2. King Henry VI, part 3”, p.84

• O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock The meat it feeds on.

  William Shakespeare

  Jealousy, Envy, Tragedy

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 165

• Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ.

  William Shakespeare

  Jealousy, Strong, Light

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 3, sc. 3, l. 323

• Such men as he be never at heart's ease Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous.

  William Shakespeare

  Heart, Men, Envy

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 1, sc. 2, l. 197

• And oft, my jealousy shapes faults that are not.

  William Shakespeare

  Jealousy, Envy, Shapes

  William Shakespeare, James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, George Steevens (1821). “The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare”, p.357

• We make ourselves fools to disport ourselves And spend our flatteries to drink those men Upon whose age we void it up again With poisonous spite and envy.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Envy, Age

  William Shakespeare (1812). “The Works of William Shakespeare”, p.22

• Men that make Envy and crooked malice nourishment, Dare bite the best.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Envy, Dare

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Ayscough, Fenton John Anthony Hort, Nicholas Rowe (1790). “Shakspeare's Dramatic Works: With Explanatory Notes”, p.358

• My heart laments that virtue cannot live
  Out of the teeth of emulation.

  William Shakespeare

  Heart, Envy, Teeth

  William Shakespeare, Ad Brown (1850). “Julius Caesar ... With explanatory French notes, by Ad. Brown. Improved with a copious selection of notes from Johnson, Steevens, Malone, Theobald, Warburton, etc”, p.101

• 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, Envy, World

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

• No metal can--no, not the hangman's axe--bear half the keenness of thy sharp envy.

  William Shakespeare

  Envy, Half, Bears

  William Shakespeare (2016). “The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works”, p.1257, Oxford University Press

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