Quotes About Materialism

Let's live with that small pittance that we have; Who covets more is evermore a slave.

Buy what thou hast no Need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy Necessaries.

Cocaine is God's way of saying you're making too much money.

It is not worth the while to live by rich cookery.

Humans have forgotten so much... It's so easy for us to live now that our lives have no meaning. So we start looking for something else, something more. Money. A bigger house. A hobby. Church.

We are monkeys with money and guns.

In a civilisation frankly materialistic and based upon property, not soul, it is inevitable that property shall be exalted over soul, that crimes against property shall be considered far more serious than crimes against the person.

He alone rated himself beyond diamonds and rubies. Diamonds and rubies are gone, spread out on the deck to be washed away by a bucket of sea-water, and he does not even know that the diamonds and rubies are gone. He does not lose anything, for with the loss of himself he loses the knowledge of loss. Don't you see? And what have you to say?

Biliyor musunuz,' diye ekledi. 'Bay Butler'a ac?yorum. DoÄŸru dürüst harcayamayaca?? otuz bin dolar kazanmak için hayat?n? boÅŸa harcam??. Niye mi, çünkü art?k otuz bin dolar verse bile çocukken on sente alabileceÄŸi ÅŸeyleri alamaz, mesela ÅŸeker, f?st?k veya tiyatroda en üst balkondan bir bilet.

One thing was certain: the Morses had not cared to have him for himself or for his work.  Therefore they could not want him now for himself or for his work, but for the fame that was his, because he was somebody amongst men, and—why not?—because he had a hundred thousand dollars or so.  That was the way bourgeois society valued a man, and who was he to expect it otherwise? 

Those who seek to be rich fall into temptation and the snares of the Devil.

Novelties became necessities, and each caravan of cargo stimulated a craving for more. The more he conquered, the more he had to conquer.

In keeping with his own sober manner and simple style of living, Genghis Khan warned them against the pursuit of a "colorful" life with material frivolities and wasteful pleasures. "It will be easy," he explained, "to forget your vision and purpose once you have fine clothes, fast horses, and beautiful women." In that case, "you will be no better than a slave, and you will surely lose everything.

The exercise of liberty requires moral and intellectual virtues that oppose those habits fostered by the reigning economic, social, and cultural elites. The virtue most essential to liberty is self-control, yet the ruling principle behind egalitarianism, Hollywood-style hedonism, and unbridled materialism is the notion that one's appetites for pleasure and possessions should brook no limits.

There are many things wealth cannot buy, and most of those are enumerated by philosophers who have never woken wondering if this day would be their last.

Had I become so rich that I could neglect some of my possessions?

From the time that money began to be regarded with honor, the real value of things was forgotten.

Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought.

Though a man without money is poor, a man with nothing but money is still poorer. Worldly gifts cannot bear up the spirits from fainting and sinking when trials and troubles come, any more than headache can be cured by a golden crown or toothache by a chain of pearls.

Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor.

I'm going to repeat this: I buy experiences and not things. I don't like to buy my kids' gifts. But I'll take them places and won't hold back. They will lose and forget the "things" in the long run. But they will never forget the experiences.

Spiritually we need to recognize the importance of wanting less in our lives, to the point that we want to disappear.

The people who run the mass media and those who consume it are really in the same boat. They must continue to produce things they do not really admire, still less love, in order to continue buying things they do not really want, still less need. If we were dealing only with fintails, two-tone cars, or programs like Gunsmoke, the situation would not be so grave. The trouble is that serious things are handled (and received) with the same essential lack of seriousness.

It will be a great day for America, incidentally, when we begin to eat bread again, instead of the blasphemous and tasteless foam rubber that we have substituted for it.