Quotes About Materialism

waste is the highest virtue one can achieve in an advanced capitalist society

He wore Armani suits and drove a Jaguar, but finally he was just another ant, working and working until he died without meaning. The very fact that he existed in this world would eventually be forgotten. 'Such a shame, he was so young,' people might say. Or they might not.

Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed 'em to the fire, they're all just paper.

He had read many books over the years, but he owned few. He tended to dislike filling his home with a lot of possessions. When he finished a book, unless it was something quite special, he would take it to a used-book store. He bought only books he knew he was going to read right away, and he would read the ones he cared about very closely, until they were ingrained in his mind. When he needed other books he would borrow them from the neighborhood library.

There are people who drive luxury cars, but have only second- or third-rate sofas in their homes. I put little trust in such people.

I don't like CDs," he replies. "Why not?" "They're too shiny." Kaoru

If we own things, we're terrified we'll lose them; if we've got nothing we worry it'll be that way forever

Surely there can be no more superficial people than the Japanese. They were not able to transcend the demon of economic development and as a result, we have the corruption of the world, the loss of ideals, and the worship of material things.

And in garbage we find material proof that there is no plan for stewarding the earth, that resources are not being conserved, that waste and destruction are the necessary analogues of consumer society. This

Age of rationing ended some time ago and is now space rather than possessions which is in short supply.

She was moved to a profound but pleasurable melancholy by the evidence that human life is brief and long survived by the material things it had believed itself to possess.

I'm no Buddhist monk, and I can't say I'm in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I've written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn't want or need, not all I did.

It's good to be happy and tell us how cool your life is and how awesome you are on social media. That's great because it inspires other people to be happy, too. But a lot of times, people are trying to be happy in the wrong ways - with money or with different things that are not true happiness.

We are often attracted to the wrong things, whether it be money, fame, or approval.

I try to remember, as I hear about friends getting engaged, that it's not about the ring and it's not about the wedding. It's a grave thing, getting married. And it's easy to get swept up in the wrong things.

I wrote about people who liked fake fireplaces in their parlor, who thought a brass horse with a clock embedded in its flank was wonderful.

One thing I didn't understand in life was that I had $100,000,000 in the bank and I couldn't buy happiness. I had everything: mansions, yachts, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, but I was depressed. I didn't know where I fitted in. But then I found family and friends and I learned the value of life.

For me, as I suspect for most people, there comes a point where you have enough. If you've got £20 million, why keep going until you've got £100 million or £1,000 million? Does anyone need another vast yacht or private jet or a house full of gold?

Another car is not going to help me out, a nicer car, I've already got it. A bigger house ain't gonna do anything for me, and you know, a yacht, it's not going to do anything for me anymore. So how can I find happiness?

I had it all - money, women, fame, cars, yachts, everything a man could want - but it didn't give my life meaning.

There's nothing - I've bought everything I want. I don't like yachts or anything; you know, I'm not a yacht person, and I've got pretty much the nicest plane I'd want to have.

I don't have a chateau in France. There's no private airplane or yacht.

Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window; Why, why, says the junk in the yard.

I want to feel happy doing a good film and don't want to look at cinema with a materialistic yardstick.