In his own words
Munger on Envy
6 sourced quotes. All themes
“It is not greed that drives the world, but envy.”
Genuinely associated with Munger, but he often credited the observation to Warren Buffett.
“Envy is a really stupid sin because it's the only one you could never possibly have any fun at. There's a lot of pain and no fun. Why would you want to get on that trolley?”
“The world is not driven by greed. It's driven by envy.”
A shorter variant of the 'envy, not greed' idea; Munger frequently credited Buffett. Treat wording as approximate.
“They were having trouble with envy a long time ago. And it's a perfectly terrible thing to do, and how much fun can you have being envious?”
On 'thou shalt not covet'; he added envy is 'the one sin there's no fun in.'
“I have conquered envy in my own life. I don't envy anybody. I don't give a damn what somebody else has.”
“If you're comfortably rich and someone else is getting richer faster than you by, for example, investing in risky stocks, so what?! Someone will always be getting richer faster than you. This is not a tragedy.”
From Tilson's notes.