Honore de Balzac Quotes

Worth begets in base minds, envy; in great souls, emulation.

Ambition, if it feeds at all, does so on the ambition of others.

At one time I was one of those guys looking at the guys on the top saying 'I want to be like that.'

Nothing arouses ambition so much in the heart as the trumpet-clang of another's fame.

With the attention I got on my wealth, I thought I would have become a source of resentment, but it is just the other way around - it just generates that much more ambition in many people.

I think envy motivates a lot of people.

If I didn't have competition and I didn't have people trying to take my spot, then it can make someone lazy. So it does the exact opposite. It motivates me.

I don't feel competition at all. I just feel like I want to be the best. In everything that Michael (Jackson) did, he was the best. When he was dancing, when he was singing, he always wanted to be the best, and that's me... He's the guideline.

In the race for wealth, a neighbor tries to outdo his neighbor, but this strife is good for men. For the potter envies potter, and the carpenter the carpenter, and the beggar rivals the beggar, and the singer the singer.

Worse, I have to admit to feeling the jealousy of one crab for another that has managed to climb out of the barrel.

Rather than just becoming embittered by your friends' success, I think it can motivate you.

Envy's a sharper spur than pay.

Envy aims very high.

I would like to be like Britney, but maybe better, but I don't wanna outshine her.

I think a lot of the time having someone who you, not base yourself on, but can see yourself being after a few years, you can get quite blinded by that, in the same way love can be.

My role models are people who can do things; I say to myself, 'I wish I could do that.'

I feel like everyone has this competitive instinct.

I would see people on TV, or I'd see bands I really liked, and I thought, 'I want that.'

When you do well, everybody's after you, and sometimes the motives are legitimate, and sometimes it's envy and jealousy.

People try to do better than other people. It's an incentive.

Drake and Kanye make me want to get better.

I want the films of every person I am compared to and am reportedly in competition with to do better than me.

My whole life I saw everybody else get shine, I saw everybody else get money, everybody else wanted to rap. I saw them getting record deals and stuff like that. And everytime I saw that it was damn, I can't wait until my time.

I believe in healthy competition not jealousy.

I've never really considered myself a wrestler. I always considered myself an entertainer, but I always wanted to be better than the guy next to me.