Quotes About Materialism

Men's ideas are the most direct emanations of their material state.

The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theatre or to balls, or to the pub, and the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you will be able to save and the greater will become your treasure which neither moth nor rust will corrupt—your capital. The less you are, the less you express your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life and the greater is the saving of your alienated being.

The less you eat, drink and read books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save-the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor dust will devour-your capital. The less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your alienated life-the greater is the store of your estranged being.

It's interesting to see that people had so much clutter even thousands of years ago. The only way to get rid of it all was to bury it, and then some archaeologist went and dug it all up.

What might we aspire to instead, if not more possessions? 'Wherever and whenever we are excessive in our lives it is the sign of an as yet unknown deprivation,' argues the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. 'Our excesses are the best clue we have to our own poverty, and our best way of concealing it from ourselves.'72 When it comes to consumerism, perhaps the poverty that we aim to conceal lies in our neglected relationships

Wherever and whenever we are excessive in our lives it is the sign of an as yet unknown deprivation,' argues the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. 'Our excesses are the best clue we have to our own poverty, and our best way of concealing it from ourselves.

Lastly, how are we socially locked in, addicted to and stuck on GDP growth? Through the culture of consumerism and the tensions created by inequality, which in turn are rooted in the need for something to aspire to. Despite being far richer than kings of old, we are too easily trapped on a treadmill of consumerism, continually searching for identity, connection and self-transformation through the things that we buy.

As economist Tim Jackson deftly put it, we are 'persuaded to spend money we don't have on things we don't need to make impressions that won't last on people we don't care about'.

There is one thing alone to do in this world and that is to keep acquiring money and more money, power and more power," Napoleon said.15 He

Ignorance of what real learning is, and a consequent suspicion of it materialism, and a consequent intellectual laxity, both of these have done destructive work in the colleges.

The materialists, or some of them, would have us believe that the brain produces thoughts as an organ secretes fluids; this is to overlook What constitutes the very essence of thought, namely the materially unexplainable miracle of subjectivity: as if the cause of consciousness - immaterial and non-spatial by definition - could be a material object.

human needs are finite, but human greed is not …

Contentment consisteth not in heaping more fuel, but in taking away some fire.

You must remember to love people and use things, rather than to love things and use people.

The world says: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.

Men hold two views of what happiness consists in, viz, having, and doing. To possess much, or to do some great thing, constitutes the sum of human blessedness according to popular theory.

There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

Water drinkers perceive nothing but the crude and material appearance of things, while intoxication, on the contrary, dulls the eyes of the body and brightens those of the soul.

Men's opinions are based on the size of their bank balance. To have or not to have, as Shakespeare would say.' 'Before

loathe collectible books anyway. People getting all moony over particular paper carcasses. It's the ideas that matter, man.

No somos las cosas que acumulamos, adquirimos, leemos. Durante el tiempo que nos es dado vivir, somos solo amor. Las cosas que hemos amado. Las personas que hemos amado. Eso, es lo que realmente perdura.

I loathe collectible books anyway. People getting all moony over particular paper carcasses. It's the ideas that matter, man. The words

I loathe collectible books anyway. People getting all moony over particular paper carcasses. It's the ideas that matter, man. The words," Daniel Parish says.

When I was young, I used to think that wealth and power would bring me happiness... I was right.