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The grave I go to will not be my own.
But if I could step outside myself
and contemplate the person that I am,
I should know at last what envy is.

— Anna Akhmatova This Cruel Age has deflected me (1944)

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Jealousy

More quotes by Anna Akhmatova

A new epoch has begun. You and I will wait for it together.

Why is this century worse than those others?
Maybe, because, in sadness and alarm,
It only touched the blackest of the ulcers,
But couldn't heal it in its span of time.

Why is this century worse than those others? (1919)

I go forth to seek —
To seek and claim the lovely magic garden
Where grasses softly sigh and Muses speak.

He is no better and no worse,
but he is free of Lethe's curse:
his warm hand makes a human pledge.

Poem without a Hero (1963)

I don't know if you're alive or dead.
Can you on earth be sought,
Or only when the sunsets fade
Be mourned serenely in my thought?

I Don't Know If You're Alive Or Dead (1915)

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If a poor person envies a rich person, he is no better than the rich person.

Leo Tolstoy

In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.

Ivan Illich Tools for Conviviality (1973)

The laws would not prevent each man from living according to his inclination, unless individuals harmed each other; for envy creates the beginning of strife.

Democritus Freeman (1948)

It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.

Aeschylus Oresteia (-458)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Anna Akhmatova (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.