Quotes About Materialism

To buy women things, some men entertain. To entertain women, some men buy things.

When you're in this business, you're chasing false identities, chasing money and stardom, which is nothing you can hold onto.

I think we have to act like stars because it is expected of us. So we drive our big cars and live in our smart houses.

I don't think people look at how pop stars live and feel anything aspirational at all.

Who wants a world in which the guarantee that we shall not die of starvation entails the risk of dying of boredom?

At some point, extra incomes don't go to sate desires but to attempt to buy status through 'positional goods' - like the hottest car on the block. The problem is that there can only be one hottest car on the block.

I think the people who end up being extraordinarily successful - it's been my observation - tend to care enormously about status, particularly business people, right? Because the only point of money, you know, the only reason to have a 300-foot-long boat is because they're bigger than 200-foot-long boats.

Money has stepped to the forefront of everything.

It is much better to have your gold in the hand than in the heart.

Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness except greed.

What does he do, Clarice? What is the first and principal thing he does, what need does he serve by killing? He covets. How do we begin to covet? We begin by coveting what we see every day.

Many people who live in expensive homes and drive luxury cars do not actually have much wealth. Then, we discovered something even odder: Many people who have a great deal of wealth do not even live in upscale neighborhoods.

our youth are told that buying expensive items is normal behavior for affluent people. They are led to believe that the wealthy have a high-consumption lifestyle. They learn that hyperspending is the main reward for becoming affluent in America. Why

The company that employed me strived only to serve up the cheapest fare that the customer would tolerate, churn it out as fast as possible, and charge as much as they could get away with. If it were possible to do so, the company would sell what all businesses of its kind dream about selling, creating that which all of our efforts were tacitly supposed to achieve: the ultimate product -- Nothing. And for this product they would command the ultimate price -- Everything.

Without this, your life is incomplete." Automobile commercials are particularly amusing in their overemphasis on these messages. They present ownership of their particular car as some sort of euphoric experience. In reality, we all know that cars are terrible investments that depreciate faster than anything else, and that when we purchase a new one, we spend most of our mental energy worrying that it will be stolen or damaged in the local mall parking lot.

Solitude is a way to defend the spirit against the murderous din of our materialism.

Money! Ho, ho! 'T'as been my want so long, 'tis now my scoff. I've e'en forgot what colour silver's of.

I do not find theism any more credible than materialism as a comprehensive world view. My interest is in the territory between them.

All the arguments urged by Berkeley and Hume against the existence of a material world, are grounded on this principle, That we do not perceive external objects themselves, but certain images or ideas in our own minds

If you set your love on worldly things, they will not satisfy.

Fulgens hoc aurum praestringit oculos [This gold with its glitter blinds the eyes]. Varius.

A carnal person can no more value spiritual blessings than a baby can value a diamond necklace.

In my experience, it is rarer to find a really happy person in a circle of millionaires than among vagabonds.

Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.