[theclansman]

It's hard to not be cynical when you read stuff like "Envy is like drinking poison expecting the other person to die." which is like 2 different inspirational quotes taped together, I heard this one about hatred rather than envy.

[petargyurov]

I've heard it as "Holding a grudge" instead of envy/hatred, which makes more sense to me.

[Lendal]

Envy has its uses. It reveals what you want. It's a good thing to know yourself and what you want out of life.

[Jensson]

The positive side of wanting what others have is called inspiration or something like that, "you inspire me to work hard so I can be like you" etc, nobody calls that envy.

Envy is purely negative in a social sense, it makes you fight people just because they have stuff you want. It is beneficial to your own genes but not beneficial to humanity.