Often people become our friend or follower with an undercurrent of resentment in our having more success than they have. They secretly desire the opportunity to take us down a notch; they have a nose for any misstep on our part they can exploit.
Pride thinks it's own happiness shines the brighter by comparing it with the misfortunes of others.
People love to see people fall.
Sympathy is one of the principles most widely rooted in our nature: we rejoice to see ourselves reflected in another; and, perversely enough, we sometimes have a secret pleasure in seeing the sin which dwells in ourselves existing under a deformed and monstrous aspect in another.
The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so
The world laughs at another man's pain.
The envious man grows lean at the success of his neighbor.
There was a difference between people looking at you because they wanted to be like you, and people looking at you because your misfortune brought them one rung higher.
The most insignificant people are the most apt to sneer at others. They are safe from reprisals. And have no hope of rising in their own self esteem but by lowering their neighbors.
Never find delight in another's misfortune.
Gawker thrived on embarrassment and shame, seeking to demolish not just celebrities or politicians but average random people whose sins it would expose for traffic and commenters who gloried in its actions.
There is a common emotion we all recognize and have not yet named -- the happy anticipation of being able to feel contempt.
People laugh to forget their troubles, and to forget their troubles they like to look at people who aren't doing better than they are.
A lot of people are jealous about Man United, so they just keep criticising, even when they win.
I don't know why we're not interested in seeing good people. I think we like seeing good people, but only if bad things happen to them. Which is weird, isn't it?
To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.
See me, how calm I am. Ay, people are generally calm at the misfortunes of others.
Sympathy for victims is always counter-balanced by an equal and opposite feeling of resentment towards them.
Most people seem to take pleasure in feeling superior to someone. I'm not like that, which pleases me because it makes me feel superior.
I think what's hysterically funny is a guy who sets himself up as the most confident, everything's-perfect, know-it-all, things-are-swell human being and then gets wiped out every time.
Envy honors the dead in order to insult the living.
Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.
Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation; not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive you are free of them yourself is pleasant.
For the poison of hatred seated near the heart doubles the burden for the one who suffers the disease; he is burdened with his own sorrow, and groans on seeing another's happiness.
COMFORT, n. A state of mind produced by contemplation of a neighbor's uneasiness.
