Quotes About Materialism

And I can get my own phone, said Leslie, with unlimited text messaging! And I can get my car fixed, I said. Or maybe even a new car. Or a new house that already has a swimming pool, said Leslie. And a hot tub, I said. And a game room, and a pool table, said Leslie. And a giant TV with surround sound, and every kind of video game. And, and, and... That's the trouble with money.

What right have I to more gay gowns, when some poor babies have none; or to spend time making myself fine, while there is so much bitter want in the world?

Well, I am happy, and I won't fret, but it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants, doesn't it?

I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all, added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. 'It's so dreadful to be poor!' sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

it does seem as if the more one gets the more one wants, doesn't it?

Meg caught frequent glimpses of dainty ball-dresses and bouquets, heard lively gossip about theaters, concerts, sleighing parties, and merry-makings of all kinds, and saw money lavished on trifles which would have been so precious to her. Poor Meg seldom complained, but a sense of injustice made her feel bitter toward every one sometimes, for she had not yet learned to know how rich she was in the blessings which alone can make life happy.

Money is the means and the ends of my mercenary existence.

It's so dreadful to be poor! sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress. I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all

Mine first—mine last— mine even in the grave!

I do think we are and shall be great consumers.

I never met a man who had such a love of money.

Having known many rich people, Gates was impressed that Rockefeller had no private yachts or railroad cars.

Money doesn't make you happy, Mom insists, whipping carrots and lettuce out of the cart. Money doesn't make you laugh when you're lonely, or make you full of contentment on Christmas morning.

My nation, as all nations, is becoming a land without peace, without thought, without mind, Madam Abbess. We are suffocating our spirits in commercial and material things. This is not envy, said Mr. Konishi earnestly. I am a rich man, with much business, so I have succeeded in all these things, but I know that they are empty.

Father argued that society as a whole must come to be organized on a different basis than greed, for while material interests gained somewhat by the institutionalized deification of pure selfishness, ordinary men and women lost everything by it.

Ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in him; it is he who lives in them.

Because that's not what the B-man is, either. You think he's this crazy old hobo, but he's not. He's a poet. And a philosopher. And a teacher. And it's not him that's crazy, Benny Oh. It's the fucking world we live in. It's capitalism that's crazy. It's neoliberalism, and materialism, and our fucked-up consumer culture that's crazy.

For most humans throughout history, "more" wasn't even an option. "Enough" was the goal and was, by definition, enough.

Greed and envy took from a man's heart everything but—well, greed and envy.

Lady #1, Maki, had never once given any thought to what was really right for her in her life, simply believing that if she surrounded herself with super-exclusive things, she'd become a super-exclusive person.

What we call worldliness simply consists of such people who, if one may so express it, pawn themselves to the world.

The philistine tranquillises himself with the trivial.

The rich are obscure to us, finding ways to be unhappy when all the normal causes of unhappiness are removed.