Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Envy
With that malignant envy which turns pale,
And sickens, even if a friend prevail.
Churchill—The Rosciad. L. 127.
Rabiem livoris acerbi
Nulla potest placare quies.
Nothing can allay the rage of biting envy.
Claudianus—De Raptu Proserpinæ. III. 290.
Envy’s a sharper spur than pay:
No author ever spar’d a brother.
Gay—Fables. Pt. I. Fable 10.
Fools may our scorn, not envy, raise.
For envy is a kind of praise.
Gay—The Hound and the Huntsman.
But, oh! what mighty magician can assuage
A woman’s envy?
Geo. Granville (Lord Lansdowne)—Progress of Beauty.
Envy not greatness: for thou mak’st thereby
Thyself the worse, and so the distance greater.
Herbert—The Church. Church Porch. St. 44.
It is better to be envied than pitied.
Herodotus—Thalia.
The artist envies what the artist gains,
The bard the rival bard’s successful strains.
Hesiod—Works and Days. Bk. I. L. 43.
Invidus alterius marescit rebus opimis;
Invidia Siculi non invenere tyranni
Majus tormentum.
The envious pine at others’ success; no greater punishment than envy was devised by Sicilian tyrants.
Horace—Epistles. I. 2. 57.
Ego si risi quod ineptus
Pastillos Rufillus olet, Gargonius hircum, lividus et mordax videar?
If I smile at the strong perfumes of the silly Rufillus must I be regarded as envious and ill-natured?
Horace—Satires. I. 4. 91.
Envy! eldest-born of hell!
Charles Jennens of Gopsall. Also ascribed to Newburgh Hamilton. Chorus of Handel’s Oratorio, Saul.
Invidiam. tamquam ignem, summa petere.
Envy, like fire, soars upward.
Livy—Annales. VIII. 31.
A proximis quisque minime anteiri vult.
No man likes to be surpassed by those of his own level.
Livy—Annales. XXXVIII. 49.
Les envieux mourront, mais non jamais l’envie.
The envious will die, but envy never.
Molière—Tartuffe. V. 3.
Pascitur in vivis livor; post fata quiescit.
Envy feeds on the living. It ceases when they are dead.
Ovid—Amorum. I. 15. 39.
Ingenium magni detractat livor Homeri.
Envy depreciates the genius of the great Homer.
Ovid—Remedia Amoris. CCCLXV.
Summa petit livor: perflant altissima venti.
Envy assails the noblest: the winds howl around the highest peaks.
Ovid—Remedia Amoris. CCCLXIX.
Envy will merit as its shade pursue,
But like a shadow proves the substance true.
Pope—Essay on Criticism. Pt. II. L. 266.
Envy, to which th’ ignoble mind’s a slave,
Is emulation in the learn’d or brave.
Pope—Essay on Man. Ep. II. L. 191.
L’invidia, figliuol mio, se stessa macera,
E si dilegua come agnel per fascino.
Envy, my son, wears herself away, and droops like a lamb under the influence of the evil eye.
Sannazaro—Ecloga Sesta.
It is the practice of the multitude to bark at eminent men, as little dogs do at strangers.
Seneca—Of a Happy Life. Ch. XIX.
In seeking tales and informations
Against this man, whose honesty the devil
And his disciples only envy at,
Ye blew the fire that burns ye.
Henry VIII. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 110.
Such men as he be never at heart’s ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves:
And therefore are they very dangerous.
Julius Cæsar. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 208.
No metal can,
No, not the hangman’s axe, bear half the keenness
Of thy sharp envy.
Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 124.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious.
Romeo and Juliet. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 4.
We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves;
And spend our flatteries, to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again,
With poisonous spite and envy.
Timon of Athens. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 141.
The general’s disdain’d
By him one step below; he by the next;
That next by him beneath; so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation.
Troilus and Cressida. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 129.
Base Envy withers at another’s joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
Thomson—The Seasons. Spring. L. 28.