{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry", "heading": "Quotes about rivalry", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry.md", "quotes_count": 14, "authors_count": 12, "parent": { "name": "relationships", "slug": "relationships", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships", "heading": "Quotes about relationships" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "31aa242e-d361-41a6-900f-53c2d02819f2", "slug": "while-terry-joined", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole/while-terry-joined", "text": "While Terry joined the others in the pool, I subjected myself to a dreadful thing called musical chairs, another cruel game. There's one chair short, and when the music stops you have to run for a seat. The life lessons never stop at a children's party. The music blares. You never know when it's going to stop. You're on edge the whole game; the tension is unbearable. Everyone dances in a circle around the ring of chairs, but it's no happy dance. Everyone has his eyes on the mother over by the radio, her hand poised on the volume control. Now and then a child wrongly anticipates her and dives for a chair. He's shouted at. He jumps off the seat again. He's a wreck. The music plays on. The children's faces are contorted in terror. No one wants to be excluded. The mother taunts the children by pretending to reach for the volume. The children wish they were dead. The game is an analogy for life: there are not enough chairs or good times to go around, not enough food, not enough joy, nor beds nor jobs nor laughs nor friends nor smiles nor money nor clean air to breathe...and yet the music goes on.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Steve Toltz", "slug": "steve-toltz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz" }, "book": { "title": "A Fraction Of The Whole", "slug": "a-fraction-of-the-whole", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/steve-toltz/a-fraction-of-the-whole" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steve_Toltz#The_Game", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:10" }, { "id": "2fcd0e62-00a8-454f-a73e-9be561a3c6be", "slug": "when-a-dozen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity/when-a-dozen", "text": "When a dozen men are harnessed to the same cart, one always pulls harder than the others, and when it's a question of promotion and seniority, it's easy to tread on the toes of the man ahead of you. At every word one utters one has to be on one's guard; one's never quite sure whether it isn't going to arouse the disapproval of the big bugs; there's always a storm in the offing.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stefan Zweig", "slug": "stefan-zweig", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig" }, "book": { "title": "Beware of Pity", "slug": "beware-of-pity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stefan-zweig/beware-of-pity" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "caution", "slug": "caution", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/caution" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig#Beware_of_Pity_(1939)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:29" }, { "id": "a20c087d-f710-40a1-8782-3ca467bf2c5f", "slug": "but-after-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-pittman/man-enough/but-after-the", "text": "But after the intimacy-inducing rituals of puberty, boys who would be men are told we must go it alone, we must achieve our heroism as the Lone Ranger, we must see the other men as threats to our masculine mastery, as objects of competition.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Frank Pittman", "slug": "frank-pittman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-pittman" }, "book": { "title": "Man Enough", "slug": "man-enough", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-pittman/man-enough" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "growing up", "slug": "growing-up", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up" }, { "name": "masculinity", "slug": "masculinity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/masculinity" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Pittman#Man_Enough_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:34" }, { "id": "676fc8af-7961-447c-b951-531d00b3f9ec", "slug": "he-finny-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles/a-separate-peace/he-finny-had", "text": "He [Finny] had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Knowles", "slug": "john-knowles", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles" }, "book": { "title": "A Separate Peace", "slug": "a-separate-peace", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-knowles/a-separate-peace" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 59, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "friendship", "slug": "friendship", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/friendship" }, { "name": "jealousy", "slug": "jealousy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/jealousy" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Knowles#A_Separate_Peace_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:29" }, { "id": "ae31c544-90ca-4fb3-8256-0dc3aaf9defd", "slug": "when-women-take", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan/the-feminine-mystique/when-women-take", "text": "When women take their education and their abilities seriously and put them to use, ultimately they have to compete with men. It is better for a woman to compete impersonally in society, as men do, than to compete for dominance in her own home with her husband, compete with her neighbors for empty status, and so smother her son that he cannot compete at all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Betty Friedan", "slug": "betty-friedan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan" }, "book": { "title": "The Feminine Mystique", "slug": "the-feminine-mystique", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/betty-friedan/the-feminine-mystique" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan#The_Feminine_Mystique_(1963)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:54" }, { "id": "7e731742-2a0a-4cf7-9fa5-4775411307fc", "slug": "remember-this-central", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-borchardt/the-dragon-queen/remember-this-central", "text": "Remember this central truth. Your enemy is there because he, too, has weighed the consequences of failure and accepts them. Play always to win, because nothing else matters", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alice Borchardt", "slug": "alice-borchardt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-borchardt" }, "book": { "title": "The Dragon Queen", "slug": "the-dragon-queen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-borchardt/the-dragon-queen" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice_Borchardt#The_Dragon_Queen", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:35" }, { "id": "912d6d0e-ccb4-4e8a-b2e7-f57ab6f50432", "slug": "every-morning-in-africa", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-l-friedman/the-world-is-flat/every-morning-in-africa", "text": "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Thomas L. Friedman", "slug": "thomas-l-friedman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-l-friedman" }, "book": { "title": "The World is Flat", "slug": "the-world-is-flat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-l-friedman/the-world-is-flat" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 137, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "survival", "slug": "survival", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:51" }, { "id": "1113b127-f134-4207-a9d7-85da39397572", "slug": "competition-is-important", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-e-stiglitz/whither-socialism/competition-is-important", "text": "Competition is important, not only because of its ability to promote economic efficiency but also because of the zest that it gives to life. Here we encounter one of the many ambivalences that characterizes our views about market economies: Competition is good, but we have our doubts about excessive competition. We encourage cooperation within teams but competition among them. We frown upon people who are excessively competitive. Yet the competitive market environment may encourage and bring out these aspects of individuals' personalities. If ruthlessly competitive people are successful, such behavior may be imitated. At the same time those who are (excessively) cooperative may be taken advantage of, derogated as pansies. Accordingly such behavior will be discouraged.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph E. Stiglitz", "slug": "joseph-e-stiglitz", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-e-stiglitz" }, "book": { "title": "Whither Socialism?", "slug": "whither-socialism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-e-stiglitz/whither-socialism" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Stiglitz#Whither_Socialism%3F_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:50" }, { "id": "ee079a41-d0f7-44f9-b132-64977c52de15", "slug": "a-competitive-athlete", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/a-competitive-athlete", "text": "A competitive athlete is painful to look at; trying hard to become an animal rather than a man, he will never be as fast as a cheetah or as strong as an ox.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Bed of Procrustes", "slug": "the-bed-of-procrustes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 41, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "sport", "slug": "sport", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sport" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Bed_of_Procrustes:_Philosophical_and_Practical_Aphorisms_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:32" }, { "id": "7d0c85a3-fbb7-4507-b845-ef3d99844c7d", "slug": "you-have-a-real", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/you-have-a-real", "text": "You have a real life if and only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Bed of Procrustes", "slug": "the-bed-of-procrustes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 39, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Bed_of_Procrustes:_Philosophical_and_Practical_Aphorisms_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:32" }, { "id": "23142901-d272-49f0-a9ab-5b1c0099741e", "slug": "the-healthiest-competition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell/my-american-journey/the-healthiest-competition", "text": "The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting in above-average effort.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Colin Powell", "slug": "colin-powell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell" }, "book": { "title": "My American Journey", "slug": "my-american-journey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/colin-powell/my-american-journey" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "work", "slug": "work", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Colin_Powell#My_American_Journey_(1996)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:01" }, { "id": "d13a0bf4-de6d-49d8-abf5-8cf719132cb1", "slug": "we-wish-to-inspire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/we-wish-to-inspire", "text": "We wish to inspire the preference we feel; love must be mutual. To be loved we must be worthy of love; to be preferred we must be more worthy than the rest, at least in the eyes of our beloved. Hence we begin to look around among our fellows; we begin to compare ourselves with them, there is emulation, rivalry, and jealousy.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "love", "slug": "love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love" }, { "name": "jealousy", "slug": "jealousy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/jealousy" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_IV", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:34" }, { "id": "281cabb1-8434-4c3c-bc31-c1c377b813fb", "slug": "never-show-a-child", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/never-show-a-child", "text": "Never show a child what he cannot see. Since mankind is almost unknown to him, and since you cannot make a man of him, bring the man down to the level of the child. While you are thinking what will be useful to him when he is older, talk to him of what he knows he can use now. Moreover, as soon as he begins to reason let there be no comparison with other children, no rivalry, no competition, not even in running races. I would far rather he did not learn anything than have him learn it through jealousy or self-conceit. Year by year I shall just note the progress he had made, I shall compare the results with those of the following year, I shall say, \"You have grown so much; that is the ditch you jumped, the weight you carried, the distance you flung a pebble, the race you ran without stopping to take breath, etc.; let us see what you can do now.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jean Jacques Rousseau", "slug": "jean-jacques-rousseau", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau" }, "book": { "title": "Emile; or On Education", "slug": "emile-or-on-education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emile,_or_On_Education#Book_III", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:33" }, { "id": "a5ac382f-3689-467f-8999-b0a4f3291ae9", "slug": "it-is-a-maxim", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-swift/a-tale-of-a-tub/it-is-a-maxim", "text": "It is a maxim, that those to whom everybody allows the second place have an undoubted title to the first.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Swift", "slug": "jonathan-swift", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-swift" }, "book": { "title": "A Tale of a Tub", "slug": "a-tale-of-a-tub", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-swift/a-tale-of-a-tub" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "success and failure", "slug": "success-and-failure", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/success-and-failure" }, { "name": "rivalry", "slug": "rivalry", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rivalry" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift#A_Tale_of_a_Tub_(1704)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:49" } ] }