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ENVy quotes
A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth virtue in others; for men's minds will either feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand by depressing another's fortune.
Men of noble birth are noted to be envious toward new men when they rise; for the distance is altered; it is like a deceit of the eye, that when others come on they think themselves go back.
There is no surer mark of the absence of the highest moral and intellectual qualities than a cold reception of excellence.
Envy, like the worm, never runs but to the fairest fruit; like a cunning bloodhound, it singles out the fattest deer in the flock.—Abraham's riches were the Philistines' envy, and Jacob's blessings had Esau's hatred.
Envy is but the smoke of low estate, ascending still against the fortunate.
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.
Envy is like a fly that passes all a body's sounder parts, and dwells upon the sores.
As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a man.
No crime is so great to envy as daring to excel.
If envy, like anger, did not burn itself in its own fire, and consume and destroy those persons it possesses before it can destroy those it wishes worst to, it would set the whole world on fire, and leave the most excellent persons the most miserable.
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.
Emulation looks out for merits, that she may exalt herself by a victory; envy spies out blemishes, that she may lower another by a defeat.
Envy ought to have no place allowed it in the heart of man; for the goods of this present world are so vile and low that they are beneath it; and those of the future world are so vast and exalted that they are above it.
The envious praise only that which they can surpass; that which surpasses them they censure.
Envy, if surrounded on all sides by the brightness of another's prosperity, like the scorpion confined within a circle of fire, will sting itself to death.
The benevolent have the advantage of the envious, even in this present life; for the envious man is tormented not only by all the ill that befalls himself, but by all the good that happens to another; whereas the benevolent man is the better prepared to bear his own calamities unruffled, from the complacency and serenity he has secured from contemplating the prosperity of all around him.
Base rivals, who true wit and merit hate, maliciously aspire to gain renown, by standing up, and pulling others down.
Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor, will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level with themselves.
Fools may our scorn, not envy raise, for envy is a kind of praise.
The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.
All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withhol from us; and therefore whatever depresses immoderate wishes, will, at the same time, set the heart free from the corrosion of envy, and exempt us from that vice which is, above most others, tormenting to ourselves, hateful to the world, and productive of mean artifices and sordid projects.
Envy feels not its own happiness but when it may be compared with the misery of others.
Envy sets the stronger seal on desert; if he have no enemies, I should esteem his fortune most wretched.
Envy has no other quality but that of detracting from virtue.
Other passions have objects to flatter them, and which seem to content and satisfy them for a while.—There is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury, and pelf in covetousness; but envy can gain nothing but vexation.
Envy always implies conscious inferiority wherever it resides.
Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue but, like a shadow, proves the substance true.
The truest mark of being born with great qualities, is being born without envy.
We are often vain of even the most criminal of our passions; but envy is so shameful a passion that we never dare to acknowledge it.
Envy is a passion so full of cowardice and shame, that nobody ever had the confidence to own it.
Many men profess to hate another, but no man owns envy, as being an enmity or displeasure for no cause but another's goodness or felicity.
Base envy withers at another's joy, and hates the excellence it cannot reach.
Envy makes us see what will serve to accuse others, and not perceive what may justify them.
If we did but know how little some enjoy of the great things that they possess, there would not be much envy in the world.
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