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.
I've never been one to look up the ladder. I've always looked down the ladder. As long as there's one guy down there, I'm fine.
There's always somebody older, richer, more desperate than you.
The level of real income is not what determines whether they are happy or not. It’s their relative place in the pecking order.
Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.
They are big fish in a small pond.
local vested interests in Galveston
When a man is pleased with the lot of others, he is dissatisfied with his own, as a matter of course.
No one wants to be excelled by his relatives.
When I go to China, people call me 'Uncle Mo' because they refer me as Yao Ming's uncle. I'm pleased to be his uncle as long as he listens to me!
The true meaning of the word ‘Equality’ is—“No one better off than I am."
In England, David and I are big fish in a small pond. But in L.A., we are tiny, tiny, tiny fish in a big pond.
Aristocracy is a relative thing. And there are plenty of out-of-the-way places where the son of an upholsterer is the arbiter of fashion and reigns over a court like any young Prince of Wales.
We understand the concept of equality, that we all want to be equal. But I think this is absolutely not true. I don't think anybody really wants to be equal. Everybody wants to be more equal.
There is no being so poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still poorer, and still more contemptible.
Having two older brothers is a healthy reminder that you're always closer to the bottom than you are to the top.
Among giants, try and be a dwarf; among dwarfs, try and be a giant; but among equals, try and be an equal
I was always taller than every other boy my age. So, whenever there was one boy who was taller than me I was like, 'Yes. He's the one.' Even if he definitely wasn't.
Happiness needs one-upmanship.
But nothing disturbs the feeling of specialness like the presence of other human beings feeling identically special.
Success: When you make more money than the rest of us, it hurts our feelings.
Since we're neither at the bottom nor at the top, we must be in the middle.
A substitute shines brightly as a king Until a king be by, and then his state Empties itself, as dot an inland brook Into the main of waters.
If A were not allowed his better position, B would be even worse off than he is.
From the very second that two people sat together around a fire in the forest, there was another human out there who felt better in the dark.
People aren't looking at how they're doing, but rather at how their neighbors are doing and at their own place in society.
