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?
Now is the time to know that all that you do is sacred... Now is the time for you to deeply compute the impossibility that there is anything but grace.
I adore the struggle you carry in yourself. I adore your terrifying sincerity.
What did you do as a child that made that hours pass like minutes? [Herein lies the key to your earthy pursuits.]
With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.
My psychoanalysis has equipped you with the equivalent of a train ticket to recovery. It is now your decision whether or not you choose to make full use of it.
All you earnest young men out to save the world. . . please, have a laugh.
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