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It is better to be envied than pitied.

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Variants

How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.

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Jealousy

More quotes by Herodotus

This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.

I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

Force has no place where there is need of skill.

Men trust their ears less than their eyes.

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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.

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

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