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Virtue and Vice
280. Conversation; Envy
"Sir, there is nothing by which a man exasperates most people
more, than by displaying a superiour ability or brilliancy in
conversation. They seem pleased at the time; but their envy
makes them curse him in their hearts."
Boswell: Life
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364. Envy
"Such seems to be the disposition of man, that whatever makes a
distinction produces rivalry."
Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
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437. Envy; Pride
"Pride ... is seldom delicate, it will please itself with very
mean advantages; and envy feels not its own happiness, but when
it may be compared with the misery of others."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
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447. Envy; Happiness; Hope
"Envy is commonly reciprocal. We are long before we are
convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes
it possessed by others to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for
himself."
Johnson: Rasselas
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
449. Control; Envy; Fortune
"Very few ... live by choice. Every man is placed in his present
condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with
which he did not always willingly co-operate; and therefore you
will rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbor
better than his own."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
549. Envy
"All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the
attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness
would be advanced by the addition of that which he withholds from
us; and therefore whatever depresses immoderate wishes will, at
the same time, set the heart free from the corrosion of envy, and
exempt us from that vice which is, above most others, tormenting
to ourselves, hateful to the world, and productive of mean
artifices and sordid projects."
Johnson: Rambler #17 (May 15, 1750)
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550. Envy
"He that considers how soon he must close his life will find
nothing of so much importance as to close it well; and will,
therefore, look with indifference upon whatever is useless to
that purpose. Whoever reflects frequently upon the uncertainty
of his own duration will find out, that the state of others is
not more permanent, and that what can confer nothing on himself
very desirable, cannot so much improve the condition of a rival,
as to make him much superior to those from whom he has carried
the prize, a prize too mean to deserve a very obstinate
opposition."
Johnson: Rambler #17 (May 15, 1750)
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710. Envy; Humanity; Misery;
Vanity
"It is natural for every man uninstructed to murmur at his
condition, because, in the general infelicity of life, he feels
his own miseries without knowing that they are common to all the
rest of the species; and, therefore, though he will not be less
sensible of pain by being told that others are equally tormented,
he will at least be freed from the temptation of seeking, by
perpetual changes, that ease which is no where to be found, and
though his diseases still continue, he escapes the hazard of
exasperating it by remedies."
Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750)
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711. Envy; Humanity; Moral Instruction;
Vanity
"The gratification which affluence of wealth, extent of power,
and eminence of reputation confer, must be always, by their own
nature, confined to a very small number; and the life of the
greater part of mankind must be lost in empty wishes and painful
comparisons, were not the balm of philosophy shed upon us, and
our discontent at the appearances of unequal distribution soothed
and appeased."
Johnson: Rambler #66 (November 3, 1750)
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1,130. Envy; Humanity
"All envy would be extinguished, if it were universally known
that there are none to be envied."
Johnson: Idler #32 (November 25, 1752)
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1,175. Envy; The Grass Is Always
Greener; Humanity
"Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition:
all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and
whoever, therefore, finds himself inclined to envy another,
should remember that he knows not the real condition which he
desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious
passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already
too sparingly bestowed."
Johnson: Rambler #128 (June 8, 1751)
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1,229. Envy; Fame
"It is impossible to mingle in conversation without observing the
difficulty with which a new name makes its way into the world.
The first appearance of excellence unites multitudes against it;
unexpected opposition rises up on every side; the celebrated and
the obscure join in the confederacy; subtlety furnishes arms to
impudence, and invention leads on credulity."
Johnson: Rambler #144 (August 3, 1751)
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1,230. Envy; Fame
"Such is the state of the world, that no sooner can any man
emerge from the crowd, and fix the eyes of the public upon him,
than he stands as a mark to the arrows of lurking calumny, and
receives, in the tumult of hostility, from distant and nameless
hands, wounds not always easy to be cured."
Johnson: Rambler #144 (August 3, 1751)
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1,231. Envy
"As there are to be found in the service of envy men of every
diversity of temper, and degree of understanding, calumny is
diffused by all arts and methods of propagation. Nothing is too
gross or too refined, too cruel or too trifling to be practised;
very little regard is had to the rules of honourable hostility,
but every weapon is accounted lawful, and those that cannot make
a thrust at life are content to keep themselves in play with
petty malevolence, to tease with feeble blows and impotent
disturbance."
Johnson: Rambler #144 (August 3, 1751)
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1,363. Envy
"I am willing to believe that the depravation of the mind by
external advantages, though certainly not uncommon, yet
approached not so nearly to universality as some have asserted
in the bitterness of resentment or that of declamation."
Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751)
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1,364. Envy
"Whoever rises above those who have once pleased themselves with
equality will have many malevolent gazers at his eminence. To
gain sooner than others that which all pursue with the same
ardour, and to which all imagine themselves entitled, will for
ever be a crime."
Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751)
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1,365. Envy
"When those who started with us in the race of life leave us so
far behind that we have little hope to overtake them, we revenge
our disappointment by remarks on the arts of supplantation by
which they gained the advantage, or on the folly and arrogance
with which they possess it. Of them, whose rise we could not
hinder, we solace ourselves by prognosticating the fall."
Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751)
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1,366. Envy
"Riches ... do not so often produce crimes as incite
accusers."
Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751)
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1,368. Envy; Value
"Every possession is endeared by novelty; every gratification is
exaggerated by desire. It is difficult not to estimate what is
lately gained above its real value; it is impossible not to annex
greater happiness to that condition from which we are unwillingly
excluded than nature has qualified us to obtain."
Johnson: Rambler #172 (November 9, 1751)
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1,406. Admiration; Envy;
Self-Confidence
"Envy, curiosity, and a sense of the imperfection of our present
state, incline us to estimate the advantages which are in the
possession of others above their real value."
Johnson: Rambler #180 (December 7, 1751)
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1,413. Envy
"I am inclined to believe that the great law of mutual
benevolence is oftener violated by envy than by interest, and
that most of the misery which the defamation of blameless
actions, or the obstruction of honest endeavours, brings upon the
world, is inflicted by men that propose no advantage to
themselves but the satisfaction of poisoning the banquet which
they cannot taste, and blasting the harvest which they have
no right to reap."
Johnson: Rambler #183 (December 17, 1751)
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1,415. Envy
"Envy is almost the only vice which is practicable at all times
and in every place; the only passion which can never lie
quiet for want of irritation: its effects therefore are every
where discoverable, and its attempts always to be dreaded."
Johnson: Rambler #183 (December 17, 1751)
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1,416. Envy
"Envy is, indeed, a stubborn weed of the mind."
Johnson: Rambler #183 (December 17, 1751)
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1,417. Envy
"It is no slight aggravation of the injuries which envy incites,
that they are committed against those who have given no
intentional provocation; and that the sufferer is often marked
out for ruin, not because he has failed in any duty, but
because he has dared to do more than is required."
Johnson: Rambler #183 (December 17, 1751)
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1,418. Envy
"Envy is mere unmixed and genuine evil; it pursues a hateful end
by despicable means, and desires not so much its own happiness
as another's misery."
Johnson: Rambler #183 (December 17, 1751)
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1,433. Conviviality; Envy; Wit
"Few are more frequently envied than those who have the power of
forcing attention wherever they come, whose entrance is
considered as a promise of felicity, and whose departure is
lamented like the recess of the sun from northern climates, as
a privation of all that enlivens fancy or inspirits gaiety."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
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1,627. Envy; Oliver Goldsmith
Talking of Goldsmith, Johnson said, he was very envious. I
defended him, by observing that he owned it frankly upon all
occasions. JOHNSON. 'Sir, you are enforcing the charge. He had so
much envy, that he could not conceal it. He was so full of it
that he overflowed. He talked of it to be sure often enough. Now,
Sir, what a man avows, he is not ashamed to think; though many a
man thinks, what he is ashamed to avow. We are all envious
naturally; but by checking envy, we get the better of it. So we
are all thieves naturally; a child always tries to get at what it
wants, the nearest way; by good instruction and good habits this
is cured, till a man has not even an inclination to seize what is
another's; has no struggle with himself about it."
Boswell: Life of Johnson
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