This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Molière, pen name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin NULL
The envious will die, but envy never.
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
Other passions have objects to flatter the, and seem to content and satisfy them for a while; there is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury, and pelf in covetousness; but envy can gain nothing but vexation.
Ambition | Character | Envy | Luxury | Nothing | Pleasure | Power |
Michel de Montaigne, fully Lord Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
We can never be despised as much as we deserve. Pity and commiseration are mingled with some esteem for the thing we pity; the things we laugh at we consider worthless. I do not think there is as much unhappiness in us as vanity, nor as much malice as stupidity. We are not so full of evil as of inanity; we are not as wretched as we are worthless.
Character | Esteem | Evil | Malice | Pity | Stupidity | Unhappiness | Think |
May those who represent advanced views bear in mind that true wisdom is always joined with mildness, that malice never converts the erring but strengthens him in his attitude, and that it is very unfitting to combat error (so long as this does not assume the aspect of injustice) with the weapons of hatred.
Jealousy is the fear or apprehension of superiority; envy our uneasiness under it.
Character | Envy | Fear | Jealousy | Superiority |
If you feel envious of others, you will never enjoy life. You will always find someone else to envy regardless of what you yourself have. There will invariably be another person who is greater than you in either wisdom, wealth, or power. Unless you stop comparing yourself with others, your entire life will be full of needless pain and suffering.
Character | Envy | Life | Life | Pain | Power | Suffering | Wealth | Will | Wisdom |
W. H. Auden, fully Wystan Hugh Auden
Certain sins manifests themselves as their mirror opposites which the sinner is able to persuade himself are virtues. Thus Gluttony can manifest itself as Daintiness, Lust as Prudery, Sloth and Senseless Industry, Envy as Hero Worship.
Envy | Gluttony | Hero | Industry | Lust | Sloth | Wisdom | Worship |
Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Oxford
Envy deserves pity more than anger for it hurts nobody so much as itself. It is a distemper rather than a vice: for nobody would feel envy if he could help it. Whoever envies another, secretly allows that person's superiority.
Anger | Character | Envy | Pity | Superiority |
Richard Francis Burton, fully Sir Richard Francis Burton
Every other sin hath some pleasures annexed to it, or will admit of some excuse, but envy wants both. We should strive against it, for if indulged in it will be to us as a foretaste of hell upon earth.
Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate.
Gossip is always a personal confession of malice or imbecility; it is a low, frivolous, and too often a dirty business. There are neighborhoods where it rages like a pest; churches are split in pieces by it, and neighbor made enemies for life. Let the young avoid or cure it while they may.
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morely of Blackburn, Lord Morley
A sudden lie may be sometimes only manslaughter upon truth; but by a carefully constructed equivocation, truth always is with malice a forethought deliberately murdered.
Equivocation | Forethought | Malice | Truth | Wisdom |