Envy Quotes

“A Donkey having heard some Grasshoppers chirping, was highly enchanted; and, desiring to possess the same charms of melody, demanded what sort of food they lived on to give them such beautiful voices. They replied, “The dew.” The Donkey resolved that he would live only upon dew, and in a short time died of hunger.”
― Aesop

“...but I'm intrigued by you now, Miss Antonius. Is that how you welcome all patrons or just the ones you find incredibly handsome?”
― Kerri Maniscalco, Throne of the Fallen

“To show you what you would not otherwise believe,' Locke said. 'Envy. Fear. Anger. Jealousy. They're all spices.' He laughed at my expression. 'What is bread without salt? Desire can grow just as plain.'

'I don't understan-'

He put a finger against my mouth. 'Not every lover can appreciate such spices. But I think you can.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“The successful are not tolerated.”
― Aeschylus, The Ancient Greek Drama Collection: The Plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

“Jealousy is being nervous about something that has never, and probably won’t ever, belong to you.”
― Alice Walker, In Love & Trouble - Stories Of Black Women

“It's not that I dislike you; it's only that in your presence I can't like myself.”
― Ramesh Sood

“He is jealous of the past and the present and the future. His love is like a medieval chastity belt: only when he is there with me, in me, does he feel safe. If I could make him feel secure, then we could love peacefully, happily, not savagely, inordinately, and the desert would recede out of sight. For a lifetime perhaps.”
― Graham Greene

“She didn't think it was healthy to be drawn to someone for whom she felt so much jealously”
― Ella Pyne, Counterpart

“He who is not enviable is not admirable.”
― Aeschylus, Aeschyli Prometheus Vinctus: Ad Fidem Manuscriptorum (1812)

“Pentalogue:
Disapprove, but without anger.
Desire, but without envy.
Gain, but without greed.
Love, but without oppression.
Rejoice, but without arrogance.”
― Giannis Delimitsos, NOVEL PHILOSOPHY: New ideas about Ethics, Epistemology, Science and the sweet Life

“He loved this woman more than he loved life, but no one should be able to exercise absolute power over another human being, regardless of how pure his intentions might be. Anger was less poisonous to the soul than was greed, greed less toxic than envy, and envy only a fraction as corrupting as power.”
― Dean Koontz Fred Van Lente

“Yes, despite his shortcomings she envied young Roger with his thick, clumping boots, his cropped hair and his Etons; envied his school and his masculine companions of whom he would speak grandly as: 'all the other fellows!'; envied his right to climb trees and play cricket and football—his right to be perfectly natural; above all she envied his splendid conviction that being a boy constituted a privilege in life; she could well understand that conviction, but this only increased her envy.”
― Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness

“Apologies for any insult this causes,' she said without peering out from around her easel, 'but I am not in the market for a husband, my lord. Please just go.'

A beat of silence passed. With any luck, Vexley would be insulted by the bite in her tone and would turn right back around and leave for some faraway city at the edge of the world.

'Well, that's quite a relief considering I'm in want of a painting, not a wife.”
― Kerri Maniscalco, Throne of the Fallen

“She's been wrong. He was no jaguar, he was a wolf.”
― Kerri Maniscalco, Throne of the Fallen

“A Sharing Shearing by Stewart Stafford

A sartorial accoutrement,
The hijacking blister overruns,
Morphs into a restless jockey
A green-eyed stallion mounted.

Sense deep neck bite wounds,
In the snarling invisible attacks,
The naysayers whisper to you:
"Burglars ransack the home."

A blade tip runs down the spine,
Walk a plank of splintered avarice,
Seize the weapon from the intruder,
Cut out the mouth ulcer in exorcism.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“He wore a smirk the Joker would be envious of.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“It is a curious habit when people look down at others, from below them.”
― Jack Freestone

“Jealousy is a creator of demons.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman

“Nothing to envy... So far, I have only got 1% of all I have fought for, even using my teeth.”
― Rodolfo Peon

“Without envy, there's no evil.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“I often convinced myself I had no envy of Hassan.”
― Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner: Graphic Novel

“The theories, whether critical race or intersectionality, are emotion-driven versions of the old Marxist ploy of hatred and envy toward arbitrarily chosen identity groups that ignore the image of God, individual worth, and loveliness of every creature God created.”
― Stephen K Moore, Superhero: Being Who God Says You Are

“If you don't make an enemy of envy, it will become your only friend”
― Dean Cavanagh

“Some people are not mad at you; they're mad it's you.”
― Itayi Garande, Paradigm Shift: Change Your Mindset and Live the Life of Your Dreams

“Inequality may hurt and envy it may stoke, But it's infinitely better than being equally broke!”
― JSB Morse, The Squirrels Go Nuts!

“[... You] will tend to deny that you ever experience any envy, at least strong enough to act on. you are simply not being honest with yourself.”
― Robert Greene, The Laws of Human Nature

“Where there is no envy, there is no evil.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Indeed, people never truly forgive those they've once been forced to admire.”
― Jose Marti, Fatal Friendship: Lucia Jerez

“[...The secret to a good life] is easy, because it’s so simple.

You don’t have a lot of envy, you don’t have a lot of resentment, you don’t overspend your income, you stay cheerful in spite of your troubles. You deal with reliable people and you do what you’re supposed to do. And all these simple rules work so well to make your life better. And they’re so trite.

And staying cheerful ... because it’s a wise thing to do. Is that so hard? And can you be cheerful when you’re absolutely mired in deep hatred and resentment? Of course you can’t. So why would you take it on?”
― Munger Charlie

“There is nothing more counterproductive than envy. Someone in the world will always be better than you. Of all the sins, envy is easily the worst, because you can't even haven any fun with it. It's a total net loss.”
― Charlie Munger