33 Quotes About Overcoming Envy

Envy is an emotion that can gnaw away at our contentment and cloud our appreciation for what we have. It's that little green-eyed monster that often sneaks in when we compare ourselves to others or feel that something is lacking in our own lives. However, it is entirely possible to rise above these feelings and channel them into personal growth and gratitude. In this post, we'll explore an inspiring collection of 33 quotes about overcoming envy. These words of wisdom serve as reminders that true fulfillment comes from within and that we can transform envy into a powerful motivator for positive change. Whether you're seeking solace or encouragement, these quotes offer valuable insights into understanding and conquering envy.

1. “Nothing is as obnoxious as other people's luck.” - Francis Scott Fitzgerald

2. “Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion.” - Toni Morrison

3. “Greed, envy, sloth, pride and gluttony: these are not vices anymore. No, these are marketing tools. Lust is our way of life. Envy is just a nudge towards another sale. Even in our relationships we consume each other, each of us looking for what we can get out of the other. Our appetites are often satisfied at the expense of those around us. In a dog-eat-dog world we lose part of our humanity.” - Jon Foreman

4. “I wanted what women always want: permission. But he'd had that before this book was even written; it was, after all, the first thing I'd envied about him. It was arguably what enabled him to write the book in the first place. ("Envy")” - Kathryn Chetkovich

5. “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” - Theodore Roosevelt

6. “She was wearing her fuzzy pink hat and she was happy, which was so obnoxious. She'd become one of those people who waltzed through life without so much as a split end, and I was still one of those people who changed diapers for free but still got treated like a rented mule.” - Lorraine Zago Rosenthal

7. “He was a mystery to her, and every time she tried to solve him it caused her a little more pain. But when she tired to give him up he pursued her in her thoughts, stronger each time.” - Anna Godbersen

8. “I envy people that know love. That have someone who takes them as they are.” - Jess C. Scott

9. “Heart-stopping envy is the sincerest form of flattery.” - Anna Godbersen

10. “As a moth gnaws a garment, so doth envy consume a [person].” - John Chrysostom

11. “Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.” - Henry Fielding

12. “Love begets wisdom, thus it is, as often misconceived, more than vain layers of tenderness; it is inherently rational and comprehensive of the problem within the problem: for instance, envy is one of the most excused sins in the media of political correctness. Those you find most attractive, or seem to have it all, are often some of the most insecure at heart, and that is because people assume that they do not need anything but defamation.” - Criss Jami

13. “When you have wit of your own, it's a pleasure to credit other people for theirs.” - Criss Jami

14. “There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy.” - Richard Brinsley Sheridan

15. “Envy nobody. It is the true secret of happiness, or at least the only one I know. (By Moonlight)” - Peter S. Beagle

16. “You thought you had the choice to stay still or move forward, but your didn't. As long as your heart kept pumping an your blood kept blowing and your lungs kept filling, you didn't. The pang she felt for Tibby carried something like envy. You couldn't stand still for anything short of death, and God knew she had tried.” - Ann Brashares

17. “[M]en, though they know full well how much women are worth and how great the benefits we bring them, nonetheless seek to destroy us out of envy for our merits. It's just like the crow, when it produces white nestlings: it is so stricken by envy, knowing how black it is itself, that it kills its own offspring out of pique.” - Moderata Fonte

18. “Never hold resentments for the person who tells you what you need to hear; count them among your truest, most caring, and valuable friends.” - Mike Norton

19. “When I realize that God makes his gifts fit each person, there's no way I can covet what you got because it just wouldn't fit me.” - William P. Smith

20. “To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind.” - Benjamin Franklin

21. “Mankind are tolerant of the praises of others as long as each hearer thinks that he can do as well or nearly as well himself, but, when the speaker rises above him, jealousy is aroused and he begins to be incredulous.” - Thucydides

22. “If you are stealing people's thunder just by being around and standing there; you really can't expect people to like you. People want their own thunder to be heard loud and wide, not yours! Swans should never despair over ducks not liking them.” - C. JoyBell C.

23. “Insecure people put others down to raise themselves up.” - Habeeb Akande

24. “I'm not equipped to handle what she has, both good and bad and what she has is always a package deal of both. In other words, I've been assigned a load I can handle.” - Lysa Terheurst

25. “The way you think about yourself determines your reality. You are not being hurt by the way people think about you. Many of those people are a reflection of how you think about yourself.” - Shannon L. Alder

26. “Antonia was very conscious of the corrosive power of envy and felt that it was this emotion, more than any other, which lay behind human unhappiness. People did not realise how widespread envy was.” - Alexander McCall Smith

27. “And so when you see a man often wearing the robe of office, when you see one whose name is famous in the Forum, do not envy him; those things are bought at the price of life. They will waste all their years, in order that they may have one year reckoned by their name.” - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

28. “The ultimate goal of the arriviste’s aspirations is not to acquire a thing of value, but to be more highly esteemed than others. He merely uses the “thing” as an indifferent occasion for overcoming the oppressive feeling of inferiority which results from his constant comparisons.” - Max Scheler

29. “When you beat up someone physically, you get excercise and stress relief; when you assault him verbally on the Internet, you just harm yourself.” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

30. “Use your hater to make you greater!” - Habeeb Akande

31. “The challenge of abating one with a genuine ego problem is to not try to put him down. Any and all antagonization, in his mind, is merely compensated for by his own descriptions: his feelings of persecution by the envious and his ideals of worth. Arguably, the genuine ego is more of a circumstantial defense mechanism rather than a steady arrogance in need of starvation.” - Criss Jami

32. “Envy suggests inferiority.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

33. “It does wonders for my own psyche to turn envy into inspiration. No matter how successful we become, we're never above that.” - Hillman Curtis