Envy Quotes

"Envy is an insult to oneself."

“Beg of God the removal of envy, that God may deliver you from externals, and bestow upon you an inward occupation, which will absorb you so that your attention is not drawn away.”

“Anyone can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success.”

“Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.”

“The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”

“A man will speedily sit down and sympathize with a friend's griefs, but if he sees him honoured and esteemed, he is apt to regard him as a rival. This ought not to be; without effort, we ought to be happy in our brother's happiness.”

“Let him not despise what he has received, nor ever envy others.”

"Envy is pain at the good fortune of others."

"Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful."

Bertrand Russell

"Envy has no holidays."

Francis Bacon

"Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy."

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"Envy is the ulcer of the soul."

"Of all the characteristics of ordinary human nature envy is the most unfortunate; not only does the envious person wish to inflict misfortune and do so whenever he can with impunity, but he is also himself rendered unhappy by envy."

Bertrand Russell

"Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies."

Gore Vidal

"A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others."

Francis Bacon

"Envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self; and where there is no comparison, no envy."

Francis Bacon

"Envy is natural to man from the beginning."

Herodotus

"It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered."

Aeschylus

"Envy is the most stupid of vices, for there is no single advantage to be gained from it."

Honore de Balzac

"The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbour."

Horace

"Envy, the meanest of vices, creeps on the ground like a serpent."

Ovid

"Envy feeds on the living. It ceases when they are dead."

Ovid

"Envy is sorrow at another's good."

Thomas Aquinas

"Envy is almost the only vice which is practicable at all times, and in every place."

Samuel Johnson

"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

Jonathan Swift