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However human, envy is certainly not one of the sources of discontent that a free society can eliminate. It is probably one of the essential conditions for the preservation of such a society that we do not countenance envy, not sanction its demands by camouflaging it as social justice, but treat it, in the words of John Stuart Mill, as "the most anti-social and evil of all passions".

— Friedrich Hayek

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Jealousy

More quotes by Friedrich Hayek

We must make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage.

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (1988)

What a free society offers to the individual is much more than what he would be able to do if only he were free.

The Constitution of Liberty (1960)

The more the state "plans" the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.

The Road to Serfdom (1944)

Justice, like liberty and coercion, is a concept which, for the sake of clarity, ought to be confined to the deliberate treatment of men by other men.

The Constitution of Liberty (1960)

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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: Friedrich Hayek (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.