quotations about envy
Envy ... feeds on outcast entrails like a kite;
In which foul heap, if any ill lies hid,
She sticks her beak into it, shakes it up,
And hurls it all abroad, that all may view it.
Corruption is her nutriment; but touch her
With any precious ointment, and you kill her:
Where she finds any filth in men, she feasts,
And with her black throat bruits it through the world
Being sound and healthful; but if she but taste
The slenderest pittance of commended virtue,
She surfeits of it, and is like a fly
That passes all the body's soundest parts,
And dwells upon the sores; or if her squint eye
Have power to find none there, she forges some:
She makes that crooked ever which is straight;
Calls valour giddiness, justice tyranny;
A wise man may shun her, she not herself:
Whithersoever she flies from her harms,
She bears her foe still clasp'd in her own arms;
And therefore ... let us avoid her.
GEORGE CHAPMAN
Bussy D'Ambois
Envy, like a false mirror, distorts the symmetry of the sweetest form.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Envy follows worth as a shadow follows a body.
SPANISH PROVERB
If envy is rankling in your bosom, declare war against it at once; a war of extermination; no truce, no treaty, no compromise. Like the pirate on the high seas, it is an outlaw, an enemy to all mankind, and should be hung up at the yard arm until it is dead.
LEVI CARROLL JUDSON
The Moral Probe
Wherever I find envy I take a pleasure in provoking it: I always praise before an envious man those who make him grow pale.
MONTESQUIEU
attributed, Day's Collacon
The only cure for envy is to look upon the prosperity of the envied person as belonging to one's self.
DIONYSIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
The envious will die, but envy never.
MOLIERE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Hatred is active displeasure, envy passive. We need not wonder that envy turns to soon to hatred.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top
Or any point which sticks out from the ordinary level.
LUCRETIUS
De Rerum Natura
The only thing more certain than the hatred of enemies is the envy of friends.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Fools may our scorn, not envy raise,
For envy is a kind of praise.
JOHN GAY
Fables
I am Envy. I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Doctor Faustus
Envy crawls toward the wealthy.
SOPHOCLES
attributed, Day's Collacon
This only grant me, that my means may lie
Too low for envy, for contempt too high.
ABRAHAM COWLEY
Of Myself
Envy and jealousy, twin sisters, come with the cunning of the fox to steal away our peace and happiness.
NICIAS BALLARD COOKSEY
Helps to Happiness
Heart-stopping envy is the sincerest form of flattery.
ANNA GODBERSON
The Luxe
How can we explain the perpetuity of envy, a vice which yields no return?
BALZAC
attributed, Day's Collacon
The eradiction of envy: gratitude.
GIANNINA BRASCHI
United States of Banana
Envy stalks on with sullen step; her face is pallid and her body emaciated; her eye never looks straight before her: her teeth are brown with rust; her breast overflows with gall, and from her tongue drips drops of poison; she never smiles except when the wretched weep; nor does she enjoy rest; ever kept moving by her sleepless cares, she sees with evil eye the success of men, and pines away as she beholds; she distresses others, and is herself distressed, and bears her own tormentor in her breast.
OVID
Metamorphoses
A weak mind is ambitious of envy, a strong one of respect.
E. WIGGLESWORTH
attributed, Day's Collacon