El termómetro del éxito es simplemente la envidia de los descontentos.

Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed.

Envy is akin to admiration, and it is the admiration which the rich and powerful excite which secures the perpetuation of aristocracies. Where ten-penny Jack looks with contempt upon nine-penny Joe, the social injustice which makes the masses of the people hewers of wood and drawers of water for a privileged few, has the strongest bulwarks.

"Gustavo Solivellas dice: "Nuestra envidia siempre dura más que la felicidad de quien envidiamos" (Heráclito)"

Mediocrity is self-inflicted and genius is self-bestowed.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.

There are always men who take their own measure against greatness, and hate it not for what it is, but for what they are. They can envy even the dead. So much Alexander saw. He did not understand, since it was not in him, the power such men have to rouse in others the sleeping envy they once had a decent shame of; to turn respect for excellence into hate. Nor did Kallisthenes understand it in himself. Vanity begets it, vanity covers it up.

95. — The test of extraordinary merit is to see those who envy it the most yet obliged to praise it.

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

— La envidia — gustaba repetir — la mantienen los que se empeñan en creerse envidiados, y las más de las persecuciones son efecto más de la manía persecutoria que no de la perseguidora.

Having your work hated by certain people is a badge of honor.

I resented the idea of being talented. I couldn’t respect it — in my experience, no one else did. Being called talented at school had only made me a target for resentment. I wanted to work. Work, I could honor.

Men who are famous for their talent, great poets, eminent historians, are always, or almost always, envied by those whose particular pleasure and entertainment is judging other people’s writings without ever having brought anything of their own into the light of day.

The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.