45 Quotes About Envy and Hate

Many people struggle with feelings of envy and jealousy. It can be easy to want what is perceived to be someone else’s perfect life. Finding a way to refrain from taking action in response to your feelings is important. Here are some great quotes about envy and hate that capture the negative environment created when you embrace these types of behaviors.

“A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.”

“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 withholds from us.”

“Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.”

“Envy among other ingredients has a mixture of the love of justice in it. We are more angry at undeserved than at deserved good-fortune.”

“Envy comes from people’s ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts.”

“Envy feeds on the living, after death it rests, then the honor of a man protects him.”

“Envy is a gun with a faulty breech-lock which flares back and burns the gunner.”

“Envy is a littleness of soul, which cannot see beyond a certain point, and if it does not occupy the whole space, feels itself excluded.”

“Envy is a symptom of lack of appreciation of our own uniqueness and self worth. Each of us has something to give that no one else has.”

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

“Envy is like a fly that passes all the body’s sounder parts, and dwells upon the sores”

“Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred.”

“Envy is the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own. ”

“Envy is the coward side of Hate, And all her ways are bleak and desolate.”

“Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.”

“Envy is thin because it bites but never eats.”

“Envy shoots at others and wounds itself.”

“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.”

“Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise. For envy is a kind of praise.”

“For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.”

“Great power which incites great envy, hurls some men to destruction; they are drowned in a long splendid stream of honors.”

“It is better to be envied than pitied.”

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

“It is never wise to seek or wish for another’s misfortune. If malice or envy were tangible and had a shape, it would be the shape of a boomerang.”

“Keep yourselves far from envy; it eateth up and taketh away good actions, like as fire eateth up and burneth wood.”

“Let age, not envy, draw wrinkles on thy cheeks.”

“Man will do many things to get himself loved; he will do all things to get himself envied.”

“Men are so constituted that every one undertakes what he sees another successful in, whether he has aptitude for it or not.”

“No man likes to be surpassed by those of this own level.”

“No one can have all he wants, but a man can refrain from wanting what he has not, and cheerfully make the best of a bird in the hand.”

“Nothing can allay the rage of biting envy.”

“Nothing sharpens sight like envy.”

“Oh, what a bitter thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes.”

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

“Our envy of others devours us most of all.”

“Rust consumes iron and envy consumes itself.”

“Take heed you harbour not that vice call’d Envy, lest another’s happiness be your torment, and God’s blessing become your curse.”

“The envious die not once, but as oft as the envied win applause.”

“The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.”

“The envious speak from the heart about morality; they are consumed by hunger and begrudging. They tolerate, when no one else listens; and with the spur of spite, they applaud another’s prosperity.”

“The laws would not prevent each man from living according to his inclination, unless individuals harmed each other; for envy creates the beginning of strife.”

“There is no sweeter sound than the crumbling of ones fellow man.”

“Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.”

“With that malignant envy which turns pale, And sickens, even if a friend prevail.”

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

If you are finding yourself a source of envy for others, find a way to gain some perspective and find a way to settle your differences.