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?
May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.
The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.
So many new ideas are at first strange and horrible though ultimately valuable that a very heavy responsibility rests upon those who would prevent their dissemination.
What I've come to know is that in life, it's not always the questions we ask, but rather our ability to hear the answers that truly enriches our understanding. Never, never stop learning.
My brother was my first guru who introduced me to spiritualism at a very young age. He later even enrolled me into Ramakrishna Mission.
He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody.
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