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Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.

Envy

Base envy withers at another’s joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
Thomson.—Spring.

Which merit and success pursues with hate,
And damns the worth it cannot imitate.
Churchill.—The Rosciad, Line 129.

That incessant envy wherewith the common rate of mankind pursues all superior natures to their own.
Swift.—To Bolingbroke, 19th Decr. 1719.

How vain is worth! how short is glory’s date!
Churchill.—Epi. to Hogarth, Line 48.

Thy danger chiefly lies in acting well;
No crime’s so great as daring to excel.
Churchill.—Epi. to Hogarth, Line 51.

One common fate we both must prove;
You die with envy, I with love.
Gay.—Fable XLV. Line 29.

Envy will merit, as its shade pursue,
But, like a shadow, proves the substance true.
Pope.—On Criticism, Line 266, Part II.

In beauty faults conspicuous grow;
The smallest speck is seen on snow.
Gay.—Fable XI. Line 1.

To all apparent beauties blind,
Each blemish strikes an envious mind.
Gay.—Fable XI. Line 37.

Envy, eldest born of hell, embru’d
Her hands in blood, and taught the sons of men
To make a death which nature never made,
And God abhorr’d.
Dr. Porteus.—Poem on Death.

There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy!
Sheridan.—The Critic, Act I. Scene 1.

Though every friend be fled;
Lo! envy waits, that lover of the dead.
Tickell.—On the death of Cadogan.

And when with envy Time transported,
Shall think to rob us of our joys;
You’ll in your girls again be courted;
And I’ll go wooing in my boys.
J. G. Cooper.—Winifreda.(“Away! Let nought to love displeasing.”)