Francois de La Rochefoucauld Quotes

People are often vain of their passions, even of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her.

Envy is everywhere. Who is without envy? And most people Are unaware or unashamed of being envious.

Of all hostile feelings, envy is perhaps the hardest to be subdued, because hardly any one owns it even to himself, but looks out for one pretext after another to justify his hostility.

Envy, like flame, blackens that which is above it, and which it cannot reach.

Envy bestrides praise.

Jealousy dislikes the world to know it.

Envy and fear are the only passions to which no pleasure is attached.

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

Envy, though not the greatest sin, is the only one that gives the sinner no pleasure at all, not even fake and temporary satisfaction.

What is envy? It is nothing but passive jealousy. Maybe jealousy is too strong a phenomenon; envy is a little passive. The difference may be of degrees, but it is not of quality, it is only of quantity. Envy can become jealousy at any moment; envy is just jealousy in progress. Mind has to drop all envies and jealousies.

Our envy of others devours us most of all.

Next to worry probably one of the most potent causes of unhappiness is envy.

Envy grieves. Jealousy rages.

In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly sins.

There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy.

Pride, envy, avarice—these sparks Have set on fire the hearts of all men.

Jealousy is the most dreadfully involuntary of all sins.

Jealousy is such an ugly emotion.

Envy, like the worm, is always attracted to the fairest apple

Envy is a horrible thing. It is unlike all other kinds of suffering in that there is no disguising it, no elevating it into tragedy. It is more than merely painful, it is disgusting.

Envy is the ulcer of the soul.

Envy is as evil a thing as arrogance.

Envy never comes to the ball dressed as envy; it comes dressed as high moral standards or distaste for materialism.

I am prone to envy. It is one of my three default emotions, the others being greed and rage. I have also experienced compassion and generosity, but only fleetingly and usually while drunk, so I have little memory.

Envy, the attendant of the empty mind.