James Thomson Quotes

Everybody always thinks the grass is always greener.

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

Luckier than one's neighbor, but still not happy.

We spend our time envying people whom we wouldn't wish to be.

Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own.

How unbearable at times are people who are happy, people for whom everything works out.

People often grudge others what they cannot enjoy themselves.

I grew up poor and used to look at people in big houses and thought they had everything. Then later on I looked at models in magazines and thought they had it all.

Nature, more of a stepmother than a mother in several ways, has sown a seed of evil in the hearts of mortals, especially in the more thoughtful men, which makes them dissatisfied with their own lot and envious of another's.

If there's one thing I know, it's this - everybody thinks somebody else is having a better life.

The game of discontent has its rules, and he who disregards them cheats. It is not permitted to you to wish to add another's advantages or possessions to your own; you are permitted only to wish to be another.

I grew up poor and used to look at people in big houses and thought they had everything. Then, later on, I looked at models in magazines and thought they had it all. When you have the ability to live that life, to some extent you find out that they don't have any magic cure for everything.

The grass is always greener around the fire hydrant.

There is something curiously boring about somebody else's happiness.

If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, and that is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.

Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.

Carrying envy makes life more difficult.

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

No one would deny that feeling envy is unpleasant, or that feeling envious sometimes leads us down a path we wish we hadn't taken. Envy is frequently corrosive and destructive.

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.'

The grass is always greener on the other side - until you get there and see it's AstroTurf. Symbols are never reality. Someone might have amassed material success and fame, but that doesn't mean they're happy. So, don't go judging a person's life by the cover.

And which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

When a man is pleased with the lot of others, he is dissatisfied with his own, as a matter of course.

The envious are more likely to be mollified by seeing others deprived of some advantage than by gaining it for themselves. It is not what they lack that chiefly troubles them, but what others have.

No one is content with his own lot.