What’s the difference between greed and envy?
Posted on January 3rd, 2009 in Envy Distinction, Envy, Greed
the13thzen asked:
Envy seems like it’s just a specific form of greed. Wanting everything someone has and wanting everything in general seem like pretty much the same thing to me. How do you draw a distinction?
Published by admin
January 14th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
If greed is bad, envying someone that is greedy must be even worse.
January 17th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Greed= you got it: Envy= you wish you had it
January 18th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Greed means you wont share, you want it all for yourself. Its most often related to money.
Envy means you want something or want to be like someone else. You could be envious of someones generosity or compassionate nature.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:00 am
Greed is when you want something. Envy is when you’re jealous of someone.
I think it’ll be easier to explain with examples…
Greed:
You can want something at a store that no one else has. That’s not envy, is it? Because you’re not jealous of anyone really.
Envy:
You can envy someone’s appearance. =/ Oh wait.
I guess envy’s just a specific type of greed, like you said…
I’ll just shut up. D=
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Greed is (excessive?) consumption/possession. Envy is don’t have it but want it.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Greed is wanting things.
Envy is hating someone because he has them.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Greed stems from a word meaning hunger. You have an appetite and you feel compelled to have it filled. It is centered entirely around you. What you want. When most people think of greed, they usually associate it too with just the inanimate. If you are hungry for praise or knowledge, that isn’t usually filed under greed.
Envy actually comes from a source that means essentially ‘the evil eye’. You are seeing something and you don’t like what you see. It is centered almost entirely around someone else. If that target of your envy weren’t there, you wouldn’t feel it. Unlike greed, most people do consider the immaterial to be a valid cause envy… again perhaps because it has more to do with another person than the specific cause itself.
And though some people envy others because of things they want, sometimes they also are envious of things they DON’T want. Sometimes they just want to destroy what another person has instead of getting it for themselves. For example, a person believes in following the rules may envy those who don’t. Dante rather poetically described envy as “love of one’s own good ********* to a desire to deprive other men of theirs.”
Envy should not likewise be confused with jealousy. Jealousy is usually the other side of the equation - fearing to lose something that you perceive as yours to another.