Envy Quotes - Page 23

• If our credit be so well built, so firm, that it is not easy to be shaken by calumny or insinuation, envy then commends us, and extols us beyond reason to those upon whom we depend, till they grow jealous, and so blow us up when they cannot throw us down.

  Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

  Jealous, Blow, Credit

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• Fancy has an extensive influence in morals. Some of the most powerful and dangerous feelings in nature, as those of ambition and envy, derive their principal nourishment from a cause apparently so trivial. Its effect on the common affairs of life is greater than might be supposed. Naked reality would scarcely keep the world in motion.

  William Benton Clulow

  Powerful, Ambition, Reality

  William Benton Clulow (1843). “Aphorisms and Reflections: A Miscellany of Thought and Opinion”, p.253

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• The free electoral process is one of the things that outsiders envy most about this country. The distinctly American two-party system is perpetuated through that process.

  Robert A. Agresta

  Country, Party, Two

  Inauguration Speech at the Mayor & Council Meeting, January 2009.

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• Probably nothing in the experience of the rank and file of workers causes more bitterness and envy than the realization which comes sooner or later to many of them that they are "stuck" and can go no further.

  Mary Barnett Gilson

  Work, Advancement, Realization

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• There is nothing so difficult to describe as happiness. Whether some feeling of envy enters into the mind upon hearing of it, or whether it is so calm, so unassuming, so little ostentatious in itself, that words give an imperfect idea of it, I know not. It is easier to enjoy it, than define it. ... and is oftener found at home, when home has not been embittered by dissensions, suspicions and guilt, than any where else upon earth. Yes, it is in home and in those who watch there for us.

  Lady Caroline Lamb

  Happiness, Home, Ideas

  Lady Caroline Lamb (2009). “The Works of Lady Caroline Lamb: Glenarvon (1816)”

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• A man comes to measure his greatness by the regrets, envies and hatreds of his competitors.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Regret, Greatness, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850). “Representative Men: Seven Lectures”, p.16

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• If you're in a subordinate position of some sort and pretty much all of us are at some point in our lives, your general tendency is to try and impress the people above you or person above you so well that they will like you, keep you or maybe promote you. In the process of doing that you are not aware that that person above has insecurities and if you try so hard they may see that you are after their job or that you are better than they are or they might envy the fact you are younger.

  Robert Greene

  Jobs, People, Insecurity

  Source: www.josephbushnell.com

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• We see how much a man has, and therefore we envy him; did we see how little he enjoys, we should rather pity him.

  Jeremiah Seed

  Men, Littles, Riches

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• every one of us possesses a gene predisposing us toward rivalry, competition, and fits of envy with any past, present, or future siblings.

  Linda Sunshine

  Sibling, Past, Competition

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• I've noticed that, while I can't help but respect and sort of envy the moral nerve of people who truly do not care what others think of them, people like this also make me nervous, and I tend to do my admiring from a safe distance.

  David Foster

  Distance, Thinking, People

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• The ox longs for the gaudy trappings of the horse; the lazy pack-horse would fain plough. [We envy the position of others, dissatisfied with our own.]

  Horace

  Horse, Lazy, Packs

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• If sensuality be our only happiness we ought to envy the brutes, for instinct is a surer, shorter, safer guide to such happiness than reason.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Reason, Instinct, Guides

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.428

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• I'm always nervous doing auditions - to be honest, I hate it. I always envy the actors who are so cool and cold-blooded when they go in for an audition, especially if it's for a part that you would really love to play.

  Daniel Bruhl

  Hate, Play, Actors

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• The least glimmering or shade of acting, in man or woman, is a sure motive of envy in the rest; and, if their malice can't persuade the town's-people into a dislike of their performance, they'll cruelly endeavor to taint their characters.

  Charlotte Charke

  Character, Men, People

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• 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

  Fire, Ambitious, Hot

  Ardyth Kennelly (1956). “Marry Me, Carry Me”

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• the most censorious are generally the least judicious; who, having nothing to recommend themselves, will be finding fault with others. No man envies the merit of another, that has any of his own.

  Ellin Devis

  Men, Criticism, Merit

  Ellin Devis (1801). “The Accidence: Or First Rudiments of English Grammar. Designed for the Use of Young Ladies”, p.131

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• Yet the people, and even the clergy, incapable of forming any rational judgment of the business of peace and war, presumed to arraign the policy of Stilicho, who so often vanquished, so often surrounded, and so often dismissed the implacable enemy of the republic. The first moment of the public safety is devoted to gratitude and joy; but the second is diligently occupied by envy and calumny.

  Edward Gibbon

  Gratitude, War, People

  Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.552, Modern Library

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• Also our fellow competitors, who are indeed the people just mentioned - we do not compete with men who lived a hundred centuries ago, or those yet not born, or the dead, or those who dwell near the Pillars of Hercules, or those whom, in our opinion or that of others, we take to be far below us or far above us. So too we compete with those who follow the same ends as ourselves; we compete with our rivals in sport or in love, and generally with those who are after the same things; and it is therefore these whom we are bound to envy beyond all others. Hence the saying.

  Aristotle

  Sports, Men, People

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• Economists suffer from a deep psychological disorder that I call 'physics envy'. We wish that 99 percent of economic behavior could be captured by three simple laws of nature. In fact, economists have 99 laws that capture 3 percent of behavior. Economics is a uniquely human endeavor.

  Andrew Lo

  Simple, Psychological Disorders, Law

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• 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

  Mean, Names, Evil

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• If women envy men, we can now see that it's because of the privileges their anatomy confers and not the anatomy itself.

  Martha Roth

  Men, Privilege, Anatomy

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• Don't get the green disease of envy. Don't be fooled by success and money. Don't let anything come between you and your work.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Disease, Green, Success And Money

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• Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Sorrow, Siege, Repentance

  Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.814, Delphi Classics

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• Where is your heart? Is your heart with God? Is it with your own ego or your lust? Is it with your greed, your pride, envy, or your resentment? This is a time where you can go into yourself and ask: Where is my heart? Ramadan is a time to give the heart back to the One who possesses the hearts.

  Hamza Yusuf

  Heart, Pride, Giving

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• There is almost a touch of condescension in the act of hiring friends that secretly afflicts them. The injury will come out slowly: A little more honesty, flashes of resentment and envy here and there, and before you know it your friendship fades. The more favors and gifts you supply to revive the friendship, the less gratitude you receive.

  Robert Greene

  Gratitude, Honesty, Favors

  Robert Greene (2010). “The 48 Laws Of Power”, p.12, Profile Books

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