Quotes from Vicki Robin

Marketing theory says that people are driven by fear, by the promise of exclusivity, by guilt and greed, and by the need for approval. Advertising technology, armed with market research and sophisticated psychology, aims to throw us off balance emotionally—and then promises to resolve our discomfort with a product.

The bottom line is that we think we work to pay the bills—but we spend more than we make on more than we need, which sends us back to work to get the money to spend to get more stuff—that sends us back to work again!

As civilized and advanced as we may have become, we still depend on breathable air, potable water, and fertile soil for our daily existence.

Values are the chosen limits that allow our lives to deepen rather than dissipate.

Instead of a dark box billionaire, you are probably hoping to become a lighthearted, productive, free person who just happens to never have to worry about money again.

Everything in the community of life gives back 100 percent - except the humans.

If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough. In an environment of more is better, "enough" is like the horizon—always receding. You lose the ability to identify that point of sufficiency at which you can choose to stop. This is a psychological cul-de-sac, an invisible catch-22 of the consumer myth of more. If more is better, then what I have is not enough.

DID WE WIN THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?

If you remember that there is no single act of greatness, just a series of small acts done with great passion or great love p125

Your dreams, values, memories, and stories make for endlessly interesting conversations. If you hear a dream or goal you like from someone else, steal it! p135

In fact, we now meet most of our needs, wants, and desires through money. We buy everything from hope to happiness. We no longer live life. We consume it.

CHECKLIST Statement of earnings from Social Security Income tax returns Checkbook records Old and current statements Gifts Winnings Loans Capital gains Illegal sources Contract labor not reported to the IRS (tips, babysitting, errands)

Post–Industrial Revolution, especially post–information and tech revolutions, we learn to spend most of our time selling one small slice of our talents to pay for everything else we need.

how much would it take to make you happy," almost everyone, in every income bracket, said: 50 percent more than I have now. When asked to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 5, there was no significant difference between the top and bottom earners. You could hear a pin drop as people realized that the person in the row ahead of them probably had the "more" they thought would make them happy—and it made no difference.

If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.

We no longer live life. We consume it.

Americans used to be 'citizens.' Now we are 'consumers.

Money is something you trade your life energy for. You sell your time for money. It doesn't matter that Ned over there sells his time for a hundred dollars and you sell yours for twenty dollars an hour. Ned's money is irrelevant to you. The only real asset you have is your time. The hours of your life.

He who knows he has enough is rich.

The key is remembering that anything you buy and don't use, anything you throw away, anything you consume and don't enjoy is money down the drain, wasting your life energy and wasting the finite resources of the planet. Any waste of your life energy means more hours lost to the rat race, making a dying. Frugality is the user-friendly and earth-friendly lifestyle.

How you spend your money is how you vote on what exists in the world

Frugality is enjoying the virtue of getting good value for every minute of your life energy and from everything you have the use of.

Money is something we choose to trade our life energy for.

put your life in service to your values rather than putting your time in service to money.