Envy

(Captain) All we know about that guy right there is that he's independently wealthy, well educated, and completely insane.
(Somerset) Because he's John Doe by choice.

(John Doe) It's more comfortable for you to label me insane.
(Mills) It's very comfortable.
(John Doe) We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate. We tolerate it because it's common, it's trivial. But not any more.
(Mills) All I saw you do is kill innocent people.
(John Doe) Is that supposed to be funny? Only in a world this shitty can you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face.

A barren land of high tension towers. A crippled trailer sits among tumbleweeds. We are finally out of the city, to find the remaining two bodies. A delivery driver paid $500 to deliver a box to David Mills at 7 o'clock is now on foot, running away from what will happen, what had been planned to happen. Somerset starts walking back to where Mills is standing, gun poised.

(John Doe to Mills) You've made quite a life for yourself, Detective. You should be proud. I wish I could have lived like you. I visited your wife this morning, after you left. I tried to taste the life of a simple man. It didn't work out, so I took a souvenir. Her pretty head. You see, because I envied your normal life, it seems that envy is my sin.

Entire societies seem to be built upon envy. We guage fairness by comparing ourselves to others not like us. In some ways, nothing would ever be accomplished socially if we did not envy a better way of life. But envy on a personal level is deadly. It can kill us in its inability to be sated. Were it not envy, and this inherant to its nature, we would have no need to worry.

Go back to:
Avarice
Wrath
Pride
Lust
Gluttony
Sloth

En"vy (?), n.; pl. Envies (#). [F. envie, L. invidia envious; akin to invidere to look askance at, to look with enmity; in against + videre to see. See Vision.]

1.

Malice; ill will; spite.

If he evade us there, Enforce him with his envy to the people. Shak.

2.

Chagrin, mortification, discontent, or uneasiness at the sight of another's excellence or good fortune, accompanied with some degree of hatred and a desire to possess equal advantages; malicious grudging; -- usually followed by of; as, they did this in envy of Caesar.

Envy is a repining at the prosperity or good of another, or anger and displeasure at any good of another which we want, or any advantage another hath above us. Ray.

No bliss Enjoyed by us excites his envy more. Milton.

Envy, to which the ignoble mind's a slave, Is emulation in the learned or brave. Pope.

3.

Emulation; rivalry.

Such as cleanliness and decency Prompt to a virtuous envy. Ford.

4.

Public odium; ill repute.

To lay the envy of the war upon Cicero. B. Jonson.

5.

An object of envious notice or feeling.

This constitution in former days used to be the envy of the world. Macaulay.

© Webster 1913.

En"vy, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Envied (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Envying.] [F. envier.]

1.

To feel envy at or towards; to be envious of; to have a feeling of uneasiness or mortification in regard to (any one), arising from the sight of another's excellence or good fortune and a longing to possess it.

A woman does not envy a man for his fighting courage, nor a man a woman for her beauty. Collier.

Whoever envies another confesses his superiority. Rambler.

2.

To feel envy on account of; to have a feeling of grief or repining, with a longing to possess (some excellence or good fortune of another, or an equal good fortune, etc.); to look with grudging upon; to begrudge.

I have seen thee fight, When I have envied thy behavior. Shak.

Jeffrey . . . had actually envied his friends their cool mountain breezes. Froude.

3.

To long after; to desire strongly; to covet.

Or climb his knee the envied kiss to share. T. Gray.

4.

To do harm to; to injure; to disparage.

If I make a lie To gain your love and envy my best mistress, Put me against a wall. J. Fletcher.

5.

To hate.

Marlowe.

6.

To emulate.

Spenser.

© Webster 1913.

En"vy (?), v. i.

1.

To be filled with envious feelings; to regard anything with grudging and longing eyes; -- used especially with at.

Who would envy at the prosperity of the wicked? Jer. Taylor.

2.

To show malice or ill will; to rail.

Shak.

© Webster 1913.