40 Envy Quotes for a Happier Life

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - We all feel envy sometimes. You see your friend get a new car, and you want one too. Your coworker gets a promotion, and you feel upset. Your neighbor buys a bigger house, and suddenly your home feels small. These feelings are completely normal. Envy quotes can help us understand why we feel bad when others succeed.

Envy makes us compare ourselves to others all the time. We look at what they have and feel we don't have enough. It can hurt our friendships and make us unhappy with our own lives. Reading envy quotes teaches us how to handle these difficult emotions better and find peace within ourselves.

In this article, we have gathered some of the best envy quotes from various sources, Friday (16/1/2026). These powerful words will remind you always to control your emotion, stop comparing yourself with others, and make your life happier.

1. "The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build." - Margaret Thatcher

2. "The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch." - Jim Rohn

3. "Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy." - Heraclitus

4. "Pride, envy, avarice - these are the sparks have set on fire the hearts of all men." - Dante Alighieri

5. "Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope." - Josh Billings

6. "Envy and jealousy are incurable diseases." - Robert Kraft

7. "Envy is an insult to oneself." - Yevgeny Yevtushenko

8. "Only fools live in the past or carry envy to the present." - Chi Chi Rodriguez

9. "When men are full of envy they disparage everything, whether it be good or bad." - Tacitus

10. "The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch." - Jim Rohn

11. "Our envy of others devours us most of all." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

12. "The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor." - Socrates

13. "The heavier crop is ever in others' fields." - Ovid

14. "Envy is the antagonist of the fortunate." - Epictetus

15. "Envy is blind, and she has no other quality than that of detracting from virtue" - Livy

1. "If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears." - Cesare Pavese

2. "Never underestimate the power of jealousy and the power of envy to destroy. Never underestimate that." - Oliver Stone

3. "Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace." - Petrarch

5. "Envy comes from people's ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts." - Jean Vanier

6. "Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority: envy our uneasiness under it." - William Shenstone

7. "A person is born with feelings of envy and hate. If he gives way to them, they will lead him to violence and crime, and any sense of loyalty and good faith will be abandoned." - Xun Kuang

8. "Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

9. "Blessed is he who has learned to admire but not envy, to follow but not imitate, to praise but not flatter, and to lead but not manipulate." - William Arthur Ward

10. "Envy and jealousy stem from the fundamental inability to rejoice at someone else's happiness or success" - Matthieu Ricard

11. "Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours." - Epictetus

12. "Cast out envy; you can have all that you want, and you need not envy any man what he has. Above all things, see to it that you do not hold malice or enmity toward any one; to do so cuts you off from the mind whose treasures you seek to make your own. Lay aside all narrow personal ambition and determine to seek the highest good." - Wallace D. Wattles

13. "Envy is the most stupid of vices, for there is no single advantage to be gained from it." - Honore de Balzac

14. "The truth is that we should live with less envy and more cordiality and empathy." - Leonardo Bonucci

15. "Envy not greatness: for thou mak'st thereby Thyself the worse, and so the distance greater." - George Herbert

1. "Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you." - Marilyn Monroe

2. "The wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring." - Victor Hugo

3. “A rose does not answer its enemies with words, but with beauty.” - Matshona Dhliwayo

4. “Some people hate you because of your success, and they will always hate you even if you give them everything you possess.” - Mouloud Benzadi

5. "Stars do not pull each other down to be more visible; they shine brighter.” - Matshona Dhliwayo

6. "To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing and be nothing." - Elbert Hubbard

7. "Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

8. “The world is already full of critics; to stand out, be an encourager.” - Matshona Dhliwayo

9. "The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves." - William Penn

10. "Haters only hate things they can't have and the people they can't be. It's just a little thing called jealousy." - Lil Wayne