Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.
Interpretation
Envy is a natural consequence of being distinguished or outstanding in some way.
This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests that achieving distinction, whether through talent, intelligence, or success, inevitably attracts envy from others. Envy can be seen as a 'tax' that those who stand out must pay, indicating that recognition and achievement often come with negative feelings from others who feel inferior or lesser.
In practice
In a motivational speech about handling success, you might quote this to highlight the challenges that come with achievement.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
The noblest revenge is to forgive
I believe you are your work. Don't trade the stuff of your life, time, for nothing more than dollars. That's a rotten bargain.
In today's rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
The longing of my heart is a fairy portrait of myself: I want to be pretty; I want to eliminate facts and fill up the gap with charms.
In dreams begin responsibilitiy.
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