Quotes About Covetousness

Rdx enim omnium malrum est cupidits. (I Timothy 6.10: rdx, rdcis, f., root; source, origin; "radical," "radish.")

I am persuaded our discontents, and murmurings with out unpleasing condition, and our covetous desires after more, are not so provoking to God, nor so destructive to the sinner, as our too sweet enjoying, and rest of spirit in a pleasing state. . . . Our rest is our heaven, and where we take our rest, there we make our heaven(457).

The most valued pleasure of the people I knew was a car, the most cherished experience a bottle of whisky, the most sought-after prize somebody else's wife.

Envy asks, "Why them? Why do they get what I don't have?" Gratitude asks, "Why me? Why do I get all that I have?" David

I know," the Devil says. He whines. "But I still want it. I want things. That's my job. I even want the things that I already have. I want everything you have. I want the things that don't exist. That's why I'm the Devil.

Which is worse? Lust for the purchasing power of money, or the kind of lust that covets power over others? Let the history of 20th Century socialist revolutions answer that question.

Desire of having is the sin of covetousness.

"Haters only hate things they can't have and the people they can't be. It's just a little thing called jealousy."

Jealousy is such an ugly emotion.

Jealousy is an ugly emotion, but it tells the truth. You mostly envy those who have what you desire.

Jealousy is a disease, it's like a poison.

Envy yearns to find flaws.

In matters of money there's no such thing as enough.

That greed of yours has got to be a skeeter in more than just my drawers.

We've got an acquisitive gene. We want and want, and there's no way around it.

Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness.

You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war" (James 4:1, 2).

Constantly the Bible deals decisively with the inner spirit of slavery that an idolatrous attachment to wealth brings. "If riches increase, set not your heart on them," counsels the psalmist (Ps. 62:10). The tenth commandment is against covetousness, the inner lust to have, which leads to stealing and oppression. The wise sage understood that "He who trusts in his riches will wither" (Prov. 11:28).

To envy was to lack.

I surveyed the weapon inquisitively. A hideous notion struck me: how powerful I should be possessing such an instrument! I took it from his hand, and touched the blade. He looked astonished at the expression my face assumed during a brief second: it was not horror, it was covetousness. He snatched the pistol back, jealously; shut the knife, and returned it to its concealment.

Some people suffer from the green-eyed monster called envy.

There are four Powers: memory and intellect, desire and covetousness. The two first are mental and the others sensual. The three senses: sight, hearing and smell cannot well be prevented; touch and taste not at all.

Test for Envy

But we're all greedy to some extent.