Envy, after all, comes from wanting something that isn't yours. But grief comes from losing something you've already had.

The line draws a sharp psychological distinction between two emotions that can look similar from the outside. Envy is framed as desire oriented toward what belongs to someone else—an ache of comparison and imagined lack. Grief, by contrast, is rooted in attachment and history: it arises when something once possessed (a person, a relationship, a life, a sense of self) is taken away. The contrast implies different moral and emotional textures: envy can be fueled by fantasy and resentment, while grief testifies to prior love or investment. The quote also suggests that healing requires naming the feeling correctly—treating grief as loss rather than mislabeling it as jealousy.