Helmut Schoeck Quotes & Sayings

We envy those whose possessions or achievements are a reflection on our own. They are our neighbors and equals. It is they, above all who make plain the nature of our failure. — Helmut Schoeck

To claim "humanitarian motives" when the motive is envy and its supposed appeasement, is a favorite rhetorical device of politicians today, and has been for at least a hundred and fifty years. — Helmut Schoeck

Christianity provided man for the first time with supernatural beings who, he knew, could neither envy nor ridicule him. — Helmut Schoeck

Man's envy is at its most intense where all are almost equal; his calls for redistribution are loudest when there is virtually nothing to redistribute. — Helmut Schoeck

The more kindness shown to an envious man, the worse he becomes. — Helmut Schoeck

Overwhelming and astounding inequality,especially when it has an element of the unattainable, arouses far less envy than minimal inequality, which inevitably causes the envious to think: I might have been in his place. — Helmut Schoeck

The envious man thinks that if his neighbor breaks a leg, he will be able to walk better himself — Helmut Schoeck