Envy Quote by Stephen R.C. Hicks
![“As Nietzsche noted in Daybreak: When some men fail to accomplish what they desire to do they exclaim angrily, “May the whole world perish!” This repulsive emotion is the pinnacle of envy, whose implication is “If I cannot have something, no one can have anything, no one is to be anything!”[312]” quote by Stephen R.C. Hicks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/6cf/stephen-r-c-hicks-12692_envy_as-nietzsche-noted-in-daybreak-when-some_2333556.jpg)
““As Nietzsche noted in Daybreak: When some men fail to accomplish what they desire to do they exclaim angrily, “May the whole world perish!” This repulsive emotion is the pinnacle of envy, whose implication is “If I cannot have something, no one can have anything, no one is to be anything!”[312]””
About This Quote
Source Book: Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy, Stephen R.C. Hicks, 2009
When people cannot achieve their goals, they may react with destructive envy, wishing harm on everyone else as a way to cope with their own failure.
In simple terms: Failure can trigger hateful envy toward others.
Key Takeaway
Recognize envy, redirect energy to personal growth.
Themes
envy
failure
resentment
Mood
frustrated
reflective
Type
moral
psychological
When to use this quote
- personal setbacks
- workplace competition
- academic pressure
- political rhetoric
Key Concepts
psychology
oral philosophy
Questions to Reflect On
- What triggers your envy?
- How can you transform resentment into constructive action?
A Different Perspective
Envy can be mitigated by empathy and self‑compassion.
![“[Friedrich] Nietzsche said something marvellous, he said "Madness is not a consequence of uncertainty but of certainty", and this is fanaticism.” quote by Elie Wiesel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/c8e/elie-wiesel-341_certainty_friedrich-nietzsche-said-something-marve_89498.jpg)
![“We believe, as Nietzsche put it, that 'higher is not allowed to grow out of the lower, is not allowed to have grown at all .. everything first-rate must be causa sui [the cause of itself].” quote by Alain de Botton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e46/alain-de-botton-221_nietzsche_we-believe-as-nietzsche-put-it-that-high_56367.jpg)
![“Yet mere membership as a matter of duty is not enough for Hegel, given the grandeur of the state’s divine historical purpose: “One must worship the state as a terrestrial divinity.”[211]” quote by Stephen R.C. Hicks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/371/stephen-r-c-hicks-12692_hegel_yet-mere-membership-as-a-matter-of-duty_229759.jpg)
![“Given the pervasiveness of capitalism’s domination, the revolutionary vanguard can come only from those outcast intellectuals—especially among the younger students[282]—those who are able to “link liberation with the dissolution of ordinary and orderly perception”[283] and who thereby can see…” quote by Stephen R.C. Hicks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b31/stephen-r-c-hicks-12692_freedom_given-the-pervasiveness-of-capitalism-s_775059.jpg)
