"433. — The most certain sign of being born with great qualities is to be born without envy. ["Nemo alienae virtuti invidet qui satis confidet suae." — Cicero In Marc Ant.]"

I may mention one or two characteristic traits as having no virtue whatever, because they are mine by birth, not by acquisition. I have always been singularly free of envy, jealousy, covetousness; I but vaguely understand them. Having no ambition, I have always preferred the success of others to my own, and had more pleasure in it. I never had the least desire for place or prominence, least of all for power; and this was fortunate for me because the true individualist must regard power over others as preeminently something to be loathed and shunned.

There is a kind of excellence in me and you — born in us — and it cannot live in shame.

The best sign of a man's goodness is neither to fear nor to owe anything, and the clearest sign of his badness is neither to fear nor to pay.

The most certain sign of wisdom is cheerfulness.

Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.

I was born wise. Street-wise, people-wise, self-wise. This wisdom was my birthright. I was also born old. And illegitimate. But the two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty.

If only you could see the greatness in yourself, you wouldn't envy the greatness in others.

How true it is that some have greatness thrust upon them! - and you may be quite sure that it was none of my seeking.

To Never Have been born may be the greatest boon of all

Be undeniably good.

It is good to not feel envy; but better to neither envy nor be envied.

What a great advantage to be of noble birth, since it gives a man of eighteen the standing, recognition and respect that another man might not earn before he was fifty. That means winning thirty years’ start with no effort.

Honest unaffected distrust of human abilities under all circumstances is the surest sign of strength of mind.