To see helpless infancy stretching out her hands, and pouring out her cries in testimony of dependence, without any powers to alarm jealousy, or any guilt to alienate affection, must surely awaken tenderness in every human mind; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity, by the repercussion of communicated pleasure, by the consciousness of dignity of benefaction.
-Samuel Johnson, Rambler #148, August 17, 1751
Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.
-Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric, sect. 6, ch. 2.11.
For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge. He will accept no compensation, and refuses a bribe no matter how great.
-Bible, Proverbs 6:34-35
Jealousy is inconsolable because it cannot know the beloved’s innermost thoughts.
-Mason Cooley, City Aphorisms, Fourteenth Selection, New York (1994)
To cure jealousy is to see it for what it is, a dissatisfaction with self, an impossible claim that one should be at once Rose Bowl princess, medieval scholar, Saint Joan, Milly Theale, Temple Drake, Eleanor of Aquitaine, one’s sister and a stranger in a pink hat seen once and admired on the corner of 55th and Madison—as well as oneself, mysteriously improved.
-Joan Didion, “Jealousy: Is It a Curable Illness?”, "Vogue", June, 1961
Jealousy, that dragon which slays love under the pretence of keeping it alive.
-Havelock Ellis, On Life and Sex: Essays of Love and Virtue, ch. 1, 1937
Jealousy is indeed a poor medium to secure love, but it is a secure medium to destroy one’s self-respect. For jealous people, like dope-fiends, stoop to the lowest level and in the end inspire only disgust and loathing.
-Emma Goldman, Lecture, “Jealousy: Causes and a Possible Cure,” pt. 2, Red Emma Speaks, ed. Alix Kates Shulman (1972), 1912
Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.
-Erica Jong
A man’s jealousy is a social institution; a woman’s prostitution is an instinct.
-Karl Kraus, originally published in Beim Wort genommen (1955). Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half Truths, University of Chicago Press (1990) [Trans. by Harry Zohn]
"Jealousy is not a barometer by which the depth of love can be read, it merely records the degree of the lover's insecurity."
-Margaret Mead
Jealousy is the theory that some other fellow has just as little taste.
-H. L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy, ch. 30, p. 619, Knopf (1949)
Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.
-François de La Rochefoucauld, Moral Maxims and Reflections, no. 33 (1665-1678), trans. London (1706)
The word “jealousy” is often used as if it were synonymous with envy; but I think the distinction worth preserving. Jealousy is predominantly concerned with the fear of loss of something one possesses, envy with the wish to own something another possesses. Othello suffers from the fear that he has lost Desdemona’s love. Iago suffers from envy of the position held by Cassio, to which he feels entitled.
-Anthony Storr, Churchill’s Black Dog, Kafka’s Mice, & Other Phenomena of the Human Mind, ch. 5, Grove Press (1988)
Friendships are different from all other relationships. Unlike acquaintanceship, friendship is based on love. Unlike lovers and married couples, it is free of jealousy. Unlike children and parents, it knows neither criticism nor resentment. Friendship has no status in law. Business partnerships are based on a contract. So is marriage. Parents are bound by the law. But friendships are freely entered into, freely given, freely exercised.
-Stephen Ambrose
The ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain, by fear, nor to exact obedience, but contrariwise, to free every man from fear, that he may live in all possible security; in other words, to strengthen his natural right to exist and work without injury to himself or others.
No, the object of government is not to change men from rational beings into beasts or puppets, but to enable them to develop their minds and bodies in security, and to employ their reason unshackled; neither showing hatred, anger, or deceit, nor watched with the eyes of jealousy and injustice. In fact, the true aim of government is liberty.
-Baruch (Benedict de) Spinoza, “Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,” Writings on Political Philosophy, ed. A. G. A. Balz, trans. R. H. M. Elwes, p. 65 (1937).
The supreme prayer of my heart is not to be learned, rich, famous, powerful, or "good", but simply to be radiant. I desire to radiate health, cheerfulness, calm courage, and good will. I wish to live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy, fear. I wish to be simple, honest, frank, natural, clean in mind and clean in body, unaffected - as ready to say "I do not know", if it be so, and to meet all men on an absolute equality - to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unabashed and unafraid.
I wish others to live their lives, too - up to their highest, fullest, and best. To that end I pray that I may never meddle, interfere, dictate, give advice that is not wanted, or assist when my services are not needed. If I can help people, I'll do it by giving them a chance to help themselves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, inference, and suggestion, rather than by injunction and dictation. That is to say, I desire to be radiant - to radiate life.
-Elbert Hubbard, Love, Life & Work; Roycroft Press, 1906
The "great" commitment is so much easier than the ordinary, everyday one -- and can all too easily shut our hearts to the latter. A willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice can be associated with, and even produce, a great hardness of heart. You thought you were indifferent to praise for achievements which you would not yourself have counted to your credit, or that, if you should be tempted to feel flattered, you would always remember that the praise far exceeded what the events justified. You thought yourself indifferent -- until you felt your jealousy flare up at his naive attempts to "make himself important," and your self-conceit stood exposed. Concerning the hardness of the heart -- and its littleness -- let me read with open eyes the book my days are writing, and learn.
-Dag Hammarskjold, Markings
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules, and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.
-George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant, "The Sporting Spirit", 1950
