John Berger Quotes

My neighbor doesn't want to be loved as much as he wants to be envied.

Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.

I've been in things that have impressed people and they've come up to congratulate you but in a kind of, you-must-think-you're-really-special way.

Envy is the central fact of American life.

There is more jealousy between rival wits than rival beauties, for vanity has no sex. But in both cases there must be pretensions, or there will be no jealousy.

Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it.

The enemy was anyone who was someone he wanted to be or who had anything he wanted to have.

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

Fail, and your friends feel superior. Succeed, and they feel resentful.

Anybody that's got a problem with me is probably envious or wants to be me, and that's how I've always looked at it.

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

Some prideful people are not so concerned as to whether their wages meet their needs as they are that their wages are more than someone else's. Their reward is being a cut above the rest. This is the enmity of pride.

Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.

When are four women ever happy for another woman getting something they'd love to have? Tell me that.

The great thing with film is that it doesn't have an ego. It's just a film. Everybody that makes them has an ego, and the problem with awards and stuff like that is that it always affects the egos, and everyone gets stained by it in some way. And that can be fine and very innocent, but it can be horrible as well.

There's always going to be someone with a bigger toy than yours.

There is always going to be someone more successful, richer, better looking, or with a nicer car.

The more you win, the less people like you.

If a player has jewelry or a cool car, people in Germany are instantly jealous.

I'm sure that it's a universal experience, but I wonder if it gets exacerbated more in Los Angeles, where people are constantly looking over at the other people, going, 'Why don't I have that? I want that. Their table looks warmer.'

I don't understand why everyone fights for power, money, fame.

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

Nature made every fop to plague his brother, Just as one beauty mortifies another.

We had rather do anything than acknowledge the merit of another if we can help it. We cannot bear a superior or an equal. Hence ridicule is sure to prevail over truth, for the malice of mankind, thrown into the scale, gives the casting weight.

Jealousy is in a manner just and reasonable, as it tends to preserve a good which belongs, or which we believe belongs to us, on the other hand envy is a fury which cannot endure the happiness of others.