Envy is the most universal passion. We only pride ourselves on the qualities we possess, or think we possess; but we envy the pretensions we have, and those which we have not, and do not even wish for. We envy the greatest qualities and every trifling advantage. We envy the most ridiculous appearance or affectation of superiority. We envy folly and conceit; nay, we go so far as to envy whatever confers distinction of notoriety, even vice and infamy.

We do not like our friends the worse because they sometimes give us an opportunity to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile us to their virtues.

Our friends are generally ready to do everything for us, except the very thing we wish them to do.

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.

True modesty and true pride are much the same thing: both consist in setting a just value on ourselves - neither more nor less.

Popularity disarms envy in well-disposed minds. Those are ever the most ready to do justice to others who feel that the world has done them justice. When success has not this effect in opening the mind, it is a sign that it has been ill deserved.

The truly proud man knows neither superiors or inferiors. The first he does not admit of - the last he does not concern himself about.