Quotes About Materialism

What the philosophers once knew as life has become the sphere of private existence and now of mere consumption, dragged along as an appendage of the process of material production, without autonomy or substance of its own.

Life has become the ideology of its own absence.

Intellect's true concern is a negation of reification.

Der Verfall des Schenkens spiegelt sich in der peinlichen Erfindung der Geschenkartikel, die bereits darauf angelegt sind, daß man nicht weiß, was man schenken soll, weil man es eigentlich gar nicht will. Diese Waren sind beziehungslos wie ihre Käufer.

Relativism is vulgar materialism, thought disturbs the business.

Reduzidas a pura homenagem, as obras de arte pervertidas e corruptas são secretamente empurradas pelos beneficiados para o meio dos trastes, com os quais são assimiladas. Os consumidores podem se alegrar que haja tanta coisa para ver e ouvir. Praticamente pode-se ter tudo.

Der Zauber geht aufs bloße Tun, aufs Mittel über, kurz, auf die Industrie. Die Formalisierung der Vernunft ist bloß der intellektuelle Ausdruck der maschinellen Produktionsweise. Das Mittel wird fetischisiert: es absorbiert die Lust.

True, its people were much better off in material terms at the end of the century than at its outset, but man's sense of well-being depends upon comparison with others as well as upon his absolute condition.

what matter it if a man gaineth the whole world and loseth his own soul?

Everything gives way to money, and money gives way to nothing, neither to man nor to God.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

The curse of every ancient civilization was that its men in the end became unable to fight. Materialism, luxury, safety, even sometimes an almost modern sentimentality, weakened the fibre of each civilized race in turn; each became in the end a nation of pacifists, and then each was trodden under foot by some ruder people that had kept that virile fighting power the lack of which makes all other virtues useless and sometimes even harmful.

We have come to a political deification of Mammon.

The more people have time to experience the joys of creativity, the less they will be consumers, especially of mass-produced culture. I see that as a kind of new wealth that counts for more than owning material things. I also see art as something people will do rather than consume, and do it as a natural part of their lives; creative endeavors are a form of profound spiritual satisfaction.

No man takes with him to Hades all his exceeding wealth.

And so we see people who are spiritually disconnected, living in boxes and driving in boxes, perhaps once a year going "out to nature" to get a small touch of what was once the daily experience of humans. These people seek escape. They sit in urban and suburban homes and feel miserable, not knowing why, experiencing anxiety and fear and pain that cannot be softened by drugs or TV or therapy because they are afflicted with a sickness of the soul, not of the mind.

5. Be ofttimes mindful of the saying,(3) The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. Strive, therefore, to turn away thy heart from the love of the things that are seen, and to set it upon the things that are not seen. For they who follow after their own fleshly lusts, defile the conscience, and destroy the grace of God.

Let temporal things be in the use, eternal things in the desire. Thou canst not be satisfied with any temporal good, for thou wast not created for the enjoyment of these.

Be ofttimes mindful of the saying,(3) The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. Strive, therefore, to turn away thy heart from the love of the things that are seen, and to set it upon the things that are not seen. For they who follow after their own fleshly lusts, defile the conscience, and destroy the grace of God.

Be ofttimes mindful of the saying, The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. Strive, therefore, to turn away thy heart from the love of the things that are seen, and to set it upon the things that are not seen. For they who follow after their own fleshly lusts, defile the conscience, and destroy the grace of God. (1) John viii. 12. (2) Revelations ii. 17. (3) Ecclesiastes i. 8.

news of all this reached [John], but he said that he did not care about the child, since he still had the anvils and the hammers to forge even finer ones'.

If we grabbed a materialist by the throat and squeezed very hard so he could not breathe, would it prove to his lungs that there is no such thing as air without a throat?

We can do without any article of luxury we have never had; but when once obtained, it is not in human natur' to surrender it voluntarily.

I don't care about having a fancy car. I don't have a lot of the wants and needs that a lot of people have where I would need to make a $1 million a fight.