A Quote by Diogenes

Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust. Envy of others comes from comparing what they have with what the envious person has, rather than the envious person realising they have more than what they could have and certainly more than some others and being grateful. It is really just an inability to get a correct perspective on their lives.

Diogenes

Quote Topics

Being Certainly Comparing Correct Could Disposition Envious Envy Get Grateful Inability Iron Just Lives More Others Own People Person Perspective Rather Realising Really Rust Say Some Than Used Were

Quote Author

Diogenes
Greek - Philosopher
412 BC - 323 BC

Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.

Diogenes Laertius

The heaven of the envied is hell for the envious. [...because they focus on what they don't have rather than being grateful for what they have, which is always better than some others.]

Baltasar Gracian

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.

Henry Hazlitt

Positively inclined people see everything in their right proportions. They put right things into perspective and are not envious of others. They attach importance to those things that give meaning to daily life, but they tend to focus more on others than themselves

Herman Van Rompuy

The envious pine at others' success; no greater punishment than envy was devised by Sicilian tyrants.

Horace

As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion.

Antisthenes

The one-legged creature is envious of the millipede; the millipede is envious of the snake; the snake is envious of the wind; the wind is envious of the eye; the eye is envious of the heart.

Zhuangzi

That's what is was to be young - to be enthusiastic rather than envious about the good work other people could do.

Kurt Vonnegut

Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another.[or you will create disappointment and envy, as every other person has something, small or large, better than you. Remember at these times what you have rather than what you don't and be grateful]

Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet

That some are poorer than others, ever was and ever will be: And that many are naturally querulous and envious, is an Evil as old as the World.

William Petty

Comparing [our] blessings [with others] is almost certain to drive out joy. We cannot be grateful and envious at the same time. If we truly want to have the Spirit of the Lord and experience joy and happiness, we should rejoice in our blessings and be grateful.

Quentin L. Cook

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made this life more sweet Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court?

William Shakespeare

In France, I guess there's something like a tyranny in mentalities - we accept success badly, beauty, money. People are certainly envious, and this creates negative energy. This is annoying. I suffered a great deal at one time. I had to fight harder than others. Add to that my marriage to Polanski.