Envy implies the admiration of others.

Envy suggests that others might covet your possessions, looks, manner, etc., and want to be like you.

Envy has a dark side. There is a distinction made among envy, coveting, and jealousy.

You are jealous to protect something you already have. You covet what you want but do not have. Coveting and jealousy are minor sins.

Since medieval times, envy has been considered a major term for identifying the causes of human suffering. In many versions of the Seven Deadly Sins, envy took first or second place. Helmut Schoeck argues that envy is a universal drive that ranges from a spiteful Schadenfreude (malicious glee at another's misfortune) to horrible acts of mutilation and murder.

I covet when I want something I do not have; I can covet my neighbor's wife, car, house, talents, or achievements. Coveting, indeed, may be one of the virtuous vices of a competitive economy; but there is nothing virtuous about envy. Coveting says, "He has it; I want it." Envy, though, says: "If I can't have it, nobody can."

Envy is frustrated desire turned destructive. Envy is what leads a child to break another child's favorite toy, or a boss to frustrate a talented employee.

Impotent to attain the ideal, the envious person feels destructive toward it. Like despair, envy derives from the separation of the person from the object of desire, combined with a sense that one is powerless to attain what is desired (Schoeck). In envy, the urge to reach out becomes the urge to destroy.